We've been playing like El Salvador for the past two years - calling up players who lack game time (namely Brad Smith and Robbie Kruse), starting players outside their normal positions and settling for draws - which has been frustrating as hell. We struggled against Thailand twice and a 10-man Syria, so no doubt we'll struggle against Honduras who have fallen off since 2014. Unfortunately we still don't have anyone that can replace Cahill when he retires. He's 37 and we still rely on him to do the job that others struggle to do, which is score. Juric, Rogic, Troisi, Mooy, Leckie and Kruse are just not consistent. Are you attending the home game against Honduras? I'm contemplating making the trip to Sydney for it...
Brad Smith shouldn’t be anywhere near the national team, he’s played more games for Australia than he has for his club team. Good thing he came off injured early & forced Ange’s hand to put Mooy in. Of course I’ll be there, even though it’s gonna be frustrating. Good chance tickets might be easy to get depending on how the game in Honduras goes.
I'd pick Gersbach or Behich over Smith anyday. I'm glad that the media has been calling out Ange for backing out of his "call up only players that are getting game time" mantra. I'm happy that Kruse getting game time after moving to Germany's 2nd division. Giannou, Spiranovic, McGowan, Sainsbury and Rogic all need to move somewhere else IMO. Mooy is fantastic at club level, but he seems to disappear when he wears the green and gold (much like Rogic and Leckie). I reckon there'd be a number of Salvadorans and other Latinos at the Sydney game so that might be interesting. I don't like that Sydney gets to host both the Syria and Honduras games, but what can you do?
I hope you guys make it and that's not because of the animosity with Honduras... I liked watching Australia when Aloisi played for them and they got robbed vs Italy. Also it's a country where that sport is relatively new and they call it soccer, even embracing it with the socceroos.
Oh wow, it feels like forever since Aloisi scored the winning penalty against Uruguay and helped us go to the World Cup for the first time since '74. That was also my first ever Socceroos match; I didn't like soccer or knew Australia had a soccer team until I was 12 (my main sports then were tennis, taekwondo and AFL). Football in Australia is divided by two very different eras; 'old soccer' (pre-2005 and NSL) and 'new soccer' (post-2005 and A-League), and I am one of those who started supporting Socceroos after the '05 home game against Uruguay. PS. these days, the Aloisi brothers coach Brisbane Roar; John being the head coach, and Ross as assistant coach.
That's a lot of people here too, and still other sports are way more popular. Obviously ES was my team but also the U.S mainly because my first memory of a world cup was in 94 when it was here and I remember all the noise it brought.
I support Australia because I'm Australian. Simple as that. I never understood why Hispanic Americans in this forum seem to be actively against USMNT and celebrate them not being in the World Cup. These days I don't seem to follow Salvadoran football as actively or religiously as I used to, and so now I focus all that extra attention on Australian football. I even attend semi-pro state league games when I can. I guess I've finally had enough of being constantly disappointed by ES going back to square one again and again and again, while Australian football actually seems to show improvement and progress.
For me it’s more about hating on some pretty arrogant fans then the USA. I have been to USA vs El Salvador games and what is said about El Salvador is very off putting there is no way I am going to cheer along with them.
Yeah see this is stupid to me, especially since Selecta fans aren't exactly angels either. You've seen Selecta fans throwing food and rubbish at opposing players and acting like sore losers when they score. Am I going to stop supporting the old country just because some people I don't care for act like dickheads? No, of course not. Is @Willsant87 going to stop supporting his hometown's team Western Sydney Wanderers just because some members of their support group are notoriously violent and unruly? No, he isn't. When I go to games, it's to support my team, not care about other fans are doing. Some people want to misbehave and get thrown out? Not my problem.
While I agree the selecta fans have their own set of problems that isn’t a factor for me because I was born El Salvador. It was the first team my dad introduced me to the bond you feel for your first team is different than for an adopted team later. If someone is bad mouthing my team it is impossible for me to then join their side. You may feel differently but I wouldn’t call it stupid just because we disagree on that You were born in Australia so your perspective is very different than mine for a variety of reasons not the least of which is Australia rarely plays El Salvador so there isn’t the mixed allegiance thing popping up as often. I mean you barely started following our league and now it sounds like you don’t anymore. We may be expats from El Salvador but things are different to different expats we don’t all share the same experiences. You might be the type of fan that switches allegiances just based on where you live in any given moment however I don’t and I know a lot of other fans don’t either
Eh, fair enough. I still feel that you're just listening to a loud minority. You must know there are thousands of Hispanic USMNT fans (a number of them being Salvadoran-Americans) who would accept you with open arms and aren't so ignorant towards ES or the other minnows. I don't see it as a mixed allegiance where it's either one team or the other. I'm perfectly comfortable with supporting both Australia and ES equally, as I have done for as long as I've been a supporter of both. While the quality was a factor, my disinterest for the Salvadoran league mainly came due to the different time zone and not having the time to watch it. My study load has been so big that I couldn't even watch all of our recent Gold Cup matches like I used to. I'll always support Santa Tecla, but passively. I agree that we expats are different based on which country we live. No argument there. Hell, I'm certain that the Salvadorans over in Sydney are different to us Melbournians; what with their love for rugby league and not AFL. This isn't true. I've lived in 3 different cities, and I've not switch teams once, so I'm not sure how you've come up with this assumption.
It’s not a minority. In fact it even happens in the hex with teams that are better than El Slavador. There is an arrogance of the USA just being far beyond other concacaf nations when as we just saw that isn’t the case. It would be different if the USA had a history of international success but the MLS teams are mediocre at best Internationally and while I would say there are moments were the USA is a top 20 team internationally they could just as easily fall into the 40 to 50th in the world. Yet the attitude doesn’t reflect that and that arrogance is off putting beyond just the bashing of El Salvador which is really off putting. I have had lots of conversations with USMNT fans and while some are easygoing their are just way to many that that think every non Mexican team is a minnow to be disregarded. It is visible in almost all soccer media in the USA. There are very few soccer writers in the USA that will discuss other concacaf teams with any kind of professionalism. It just things like this is a minnow we should beat and if we can’t beat them we don’t deserve a World Cup spot. I can almost count in one hand the reporters that will mention which players are on the other teams and which clubs they play for. A lot of fans though obviously not all are just an extension of that attitude. I came up with the assumption because you almost seem to put down Salvadorian expats that don’t automatically support their adopted land. However what you feel for your cities club team is what some expats feel on the national team level and aren’t adopting a new team just because they live somewhere else.
I mean, you can't deny that USA does have some bragging rights, what with being one of the strongest CONCACAF sides along with Mexico. Australia is guilty of this chest-pumping too. Again, to me it's just a matter of not caring what other fans are saying or doing, I watch Socceroos because I want to cheer on my country, not critically observe what the media is saying. Of course I'm aware there are fans who are saying Australia shouldn't qualify next year because we struggle against AFC minnows. I can either choose to debate them or just keep it moving. Come on. You know there's a difference between moving to another country temporarily for work or study, and moving to another country permanently. I assume you're an American citizen who plans to live in the US for the rest of your life and put down roots, yes? You're not planning on moving back to ES when you get the chance, so of course I find it weird that there are Americans (I never just singled out Salvadoran-Americans) who actively dislike USMNT despite being Americans. And of course no one expects others to support, say, Japan or China because their jobs have sent them there for a little while, or they went to university there. That doesn't apply here.
There’s a difference against bragging rights and straight up putting teams down. A good example is this belief that they are better than Costa Rica and how they should always beat them forgetting that historically CR has owned them when they come by for a visit and have played them extremely tough when CR pays the return visit to the states in each WCQ. The problem is fans will crap talk but from what I’ve seen from some chunks of US fans is they love to take it outside of football with racism and the such but will say oh it’s just “fun and games”
As much as I like to say Australia was robbed ive accepted that they didn’t play a hour with a extra man & still couldn’t score & that if Neill doesn’t go ground then Grosso doesn’t take the advantage. I’m abit in between, I’ve always followed/watched Australia play as far as I remember, my earliest memory is staying up to watch the away qualifier in Iran in 97 but around this time I also remember following La Selecta in the Hexagonal & in those times ESPN Australia did show a lot more Concacaf. I never had a NSL team though but did watch the games but lost interest towards the end as it wasn’t shown much on tv in the last years. I think I understand what you mean, similar with Australia, a lot of fans who jumped on after 2005 think Australia should be smashing Asian minnows, & even now after struggling in these qualifiers they still think Honduras will be a walk in the park. That’s how I got into following El Salvador & Australia, my dad always drilled into me that El Salvador is where we from & Australia is the new country where our lives are now. Over the years I’ve noticed I feel it more when La Selecta plays, even when they played in the u20s World Cup I wanted El Salvador to win more. With club football though only the Wanderers are the team that can make me get all the emotions, I’ve never been a full on Visca Barca or Hala Madrid cos I’m not from there I don’t get people who fight over them like as if they are from there lol. Growing up I did like Arsenal because of Bergkamp & Henry. I don’t get how you can people of immigrant backgrounds can like AFL, the code is one big old boys club for racist cheles. It’s so racist that when a player with a foreign sounding name they parade it like as if they’ve discovered something new. Also they try to kill football at every chance & lay the boot in through the media.
Killing off the NSL and starting afresh was exactly what Australian football needed in order to progress. It was disorganised, nepotistic and not very inclusive. Not to mention the political and racial violence that occurred. In spite of this, I'm very for Wollongong Wolves and either Brisbane City or Strikers (whichever has the strongest and better bid) to join the A-League. AFL has its issues with racism and misogyny, which does get called out, but can you give me an example of where someone has had their name paraded around like that? I haven't seen anyone's surname paraded in the way that you're describing it. It's not the NSL days anymore. AFL and A-League play during different periods of the year so they don't clash, and if you haven't noticed, Channel 9 have been broadcasting the Socceroos WCQ matches which they've done a good job of covering IMO. Furthermore, Channel 10 secured a deal this season to show Saturday night A-League matches. On top of that, the Matildas get nothing but praise by the media these days, especially since they're selling out games and defeating powerhouse opponents. The media does attack AFL when they need to, and they do give soccer the props they deserve. After all, soccer isn't the most popular sport here therefore it was never going to get as much news coverage as AFL, cricket, Australian Open or NRL.
In my opinion the USA has very little to brag about until they achieve something significant internationally. Winning the gold cup at home every once in a while isn’t that special. If they would rotate it and the USA won it in Costa Rica then it would be an achievement. They almost won a confederations cup but I wouldn’t be banging my chest if our greatest achievement was almost winning something. Not a single mls team has ever won the ccl yet they are chest thumping? I mean they look down on Costa Rica despite what Grimm said. Navas has achieved more club success than any American player ever has. That chest thumping is unearned. Are you one of the Australian chest thumpers? I don’t view the cheering for the country to cheering your local city as different from a sporting perspective. I know people that grew up in Boston have no plans of moving back but still cheer their Bostonian teams that makes perfect sense to me and I don’t judge them for it. Same is true for me and International football. Sports is about entertainment and emotional ties which everyone decides on their own how to form so who someone supports from a sporting perspective is a personal choice that naturally differs from person to person.
If you beat a team often enough and in the case of the U.S vs teams other than Mexico and CR, you'll get that sense of superiority from fans. ES fans feel the same way if they play Belize or Nicaragua. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, it's just the way sports are. I get the same thing from Mexico fans toward El Salvador, usually it's worse, in fact they've been more condescending. I even used to get this from a friend from Honduras, and they're not exactly world beaters. I've been watching the sport long enough to know any team can lose to any "smaller" team on any given day, I think that this failure to qualify humbled a lot of fans and media here. As for the racial insults, I've never dealt with that, and I'm not counting things said online because those people are usually the loudest not the majority. People argue about Barca or Madrid without any connection whatsoever. At the end of the day who really cares, it's just sports.
I 110% agree that it's well and truly time to rotate the Gold Cup around, and not give USMNT the home-field advantage every time. I actually hope the USMNT higher-ups start thinking about this as a way to move forward. As for whether I'm one of those Australian chest-pampers. Trust me, I'm supporter of both La Selecta and Essendon Bombers; I'd be the last person to pump my chest I'd be lying if said I didn't have the expectation that we'd beat the AFC minnows right after winning the 2015 Asian Cup, and after two successful WCQ cycles. It quickly became evident now that most of our golden generation have retired or are past their prime, we're struggling with our new batch of players. I'm not having any expectations for the Honduras games. Right. I just feel like you and many others could have a bit more pride in the country you call home. Americans seem to act like it's either USMNT or the old country and that you can't pick both; over here most people do exactly that. I guess there's just more national unity in Australia than in USA.
I think the feeling towards USA has more to do than just sports. I don't want to get into it, because at the end of the day that's a big topic that probably isn't really discussed able in these forums, but there is that.
I was just watching the Atlanta United vs Colombus Crew game, and was blown away by the sheer quality of the game; high quality football, a full and high-quality stadium (67,000+ attendance). It really puts A-League to shame; especially when a city of 400k can achieve attendance records far beyond what the Oz cities with over 1 million+ population could achieve. Not to mention the league is actively expanding; something we Aussie fans have been screaming for, as well as a second division. Atlanta United, Portland Timbers, Orlando City and Seattle Sounders have all been very successful expansion sides, and I can only expect LAFC to be a success too. Be interesting to see how the Miami side would perform. I can only hope A-League would be as good as MLS in terms of quality, stability and attendance.
I think it's unfair for U.S fans to blame the league for how bad they played in T&T. The problem is pampered players like Bradyley, Jozy, Howard and so on who came back for a better check should not be playing in the NT anymore; there was no heart. There are plenty of MLS players playing for C.R. Honduras. some from Panama and it did not cost them a trip. There's even a guy that started for Belgium today that plays fro Montreal. BTW It's crazy how many chances AUS misses. I like the Aussies and kinda root for my Catracho brothers so this one is a hard one for me.