England vs. Australia Match Thread

[babytiger2001]

Halftime, 2-0 to the Socceroos.

England 0-2 Australia (Popovic 16, Kewell 42)

[WatfordFC Fan]

This is pathetic. I wonder what Sven is going to do at half time.

[Motterman]

Originally posted by WatfordFC Fan
This is pathetic. I wonder what Sven is going to do at half time.

He's going to replace every player on the England side. Just like he said he was gonna do. I hope Rooney really steps it up...

[babytiger2001]

Will be interesting to see if Sven sticks to his plan of wholesale changes after the interval...

But I think that's the least of England's problems. Right now, I think Australia are playing perfectly, defensively-- limiting Beckham to very few quality touches and forcing him to receive the ball in his own half oftentimes-- while counter-attacking well.

Lazaridis, in particular, is doing a great job on Beckham, and if it weren't for David James tipping over a Viduka shot from a Chipperfield cross, the Socceroos would be up three right now.

And oh, by the way, Harry Kewell is fit.

[WatfordFC Fan]

Does anyone know where I can get commentary on the match? Five Live had it for the first half but seem to have cut the feed.

[Motterman]

www.soccernet.com

www.skysports.com

They have things that resemble a matchtracker of sorts...

[Native Aztexan]

Originally posted by Motterman
He's going to replace every player on the England side. Just like he said he was gonna do. I hope Rooney really steps it up...

Substitutions
D Murphy for F Lampard (45)
O Hargreaves for D Beckham (45)
J Jenas for P Scholes (45)
D Vassell for K Dyer (45)
W Brown for R Ferdinand (45)
D Mills for G Neville (45)
P Robinson for D James (45)
L King for S Campbell (45)
P Konchesky for A Cole (45)
W Rooney for M Owen (45)
F Jeffers for J Beattie (45)

Good grief. :eek:

[Native Aztexan]

BTW, you should put an [R] to this thread.

[Motterman]

Originally posted by cj90red
BTW, you should put an [R] to this thread.

I would, but I'm not a Mod.

[rrobz]

Full scale echanges at the half for England:
Robinson, Mills, Konchesky, Brown, King, Murphy, Jenas, Hargreaves, Vassell, Rooney, Jeffers.

46th minute (?) Rooney sets up Vassel, but Schwarzer makes a good save.

54th minute - Kewell with a diving header saved by Robinson

55th minute Kewell off

[Clan]

********ing joke of a first half.No fire from them at all.Deserve to be down.
Whole team to be changed at the half..WTF?

SGE has lost it.Really.
He needs to go...who's available that can take a squad of pretty decent players and do something with them?????????????

[babytiger2001]

Originally posted by cj90red
Substitutions
D Murphy for F Lampard (45)
O Hargreaves for D Beckham (45)
J Jenas for P Scholes (45)
D Vassell for K Dyer (45)
W Brown for R Ferdinand (45)
D Mills for G Neville (45)
P Robinson for D James (45)
L King for S Campbell (45)
P Konchesky for A Cole (45)
W Rooney for M Owen (45)
F Jeffers for J Beattie (45)

Good grief. :eek:

That's eleven subs, all right. That's not a substitution pattern-- that's a mass exodus! :eek:

Speaking of subs, John Aloisi on for Kewell, 56 minutes.

And Australia, in stark contrast to England, only made one sub at the break, with Marco Bresciano on for Josep Skoko.

[Motterman]

Originally posted by Clanblue
********ing joke of a first half.No fire from them at all.Deserve to be down.
Whole team to be changed at the half..WTF?

SGE has lost it.Really.
He needs to go...who's available that can take a squad of pretty decent players and do something with them?????????????

SGE promised not to play any player longer than 45 minutes since it is only a friendly.... This was planned, it's not a tactical change in the classic sense, although I'm quite sure he wasn't planning on being down 2-0 at HT.

[babytiger2001]

Jeffers just cut the arrears to 2-1, with a glancing header that beat Schwartzer in the 69th minute.

England have a chance, suddenly...

[Native Aztexan]

Jeffers scored 70'
England 1-2 Australia

[babytiger2001]

Aussie sub (71 minutes): Tony Vidmar on for Popovic.

Just a piece of trivia: Vidmar played in the last Australia-England clash, back in 1991 at the Sydney Football Stadium.

[babytiger2001]

Another Aussie sub: Vince Grella on for Chipperfield.

Good solid performance by Chipperfield-- and watch for Grella, long-term. A star in the making...

[babytiger2001]

3-1, Australia...

Six minutes from time, and Brett Emerton wraps it up, great through-ball from Aloisi on the counter.

Viduka just subbed off, immediately after the goal.

[babytiger2001]

Full time, 3-1 to Australia.

[Native Aztexan]

FT
England 1-3 Australia

This is embarrassing for England. I can see now that the English media will be licking it's chops on SGE and his team's performance.