That's true. Favorites like Germans and Brazilians had always ref help during worldcup games. And I think FIFA loves that way.
On the bright side at least the $15 I got on Germany looks a very good price now. On the minus side, its hard to see now how anything less than two wins will get us to the second round.
Well I thought most of the crosses only made it to the first German defender and the corners were not as threatening. Pim absolutely gets a failing grade in his tactics. Utterly shocking.
Tonight's performance of Australia was the exact reason why so many of us Koreans wanted Pim replaced. He focuses too much on off-side traps and changes the positions too often. He keeps testing the entire 11 positions and never settle with anything. That being said, I agree with someone that the ref completely ruined it. There were a few offsides early in the game that he didn't call and that had psychological effect on the aussies. Once you're in that psychological mode, you can't play your best and make you doubt. This is really bad especially in the first game of wc. (like KSA in '02 and Korea in '98) Good luck in the rest of the games. You still have a chance.
This wasn't quite like that though. Everyone thought we had a first eleven because he'd picked it so many times it looked set in stone. Then he goes and ********ing springs this on us.
The offside calls were pretty much all fine, I have no problem with those calls at all. The consistency throughout the match on fouls/cards was atrocious but we played a very dirty game. Cahill's tackle wasn't a red in the context of the game, but if the referee had called the match tighter it would have been completely justifiable. The bottom line is that we played a terrible game in a completely unfamiliar formation, using less than ideal players. We were always going to lose, it was just a question of by how much. I had predicted 3-1, but it was a lot worse.
The Kiwi game should have told us most of this stuff but all the guys who didn't have their shit together that night got starts.
Wow just wow. I don't even know where to begin with this one. So bloody disappointing. I think first of all Pim mucked up tactically. I'm not referring to the new front line he put in because I think that actually worked ok in a way and was probably better than most of the alternatives given Kewells injury. But playing for the offside trap was always asking for trouble against an expansive, quick and excellent passing team like Germany. All it achieved was to spread our slow defence out and isolate them one on one. It was blatantly obvious from the start, on the first offside call (which went our way just!!) that it was going to cause issues. This lost us the game, we were opened up like a jam tin, and as far as i'm concerned Pim totally lost the plot. My next issue is with the players. Moore and Neill showed zero leadership. I was appalled at their treatment of the officials early in the game especially when they had nothing to complain about. I expect better sportsmanship from our boys and especially from senior players. I thought Wilkshire and Chippers were defensively very poor > Wilkshire leaving Podolski so open for the first was just really ordinary. Schwarzer made his obligatory ******** up from a long ball. Our defensive midfielders (all three of them) really failed to put any pressure on their midfield at all. I thought the officiating was alright for the most part > but this was totally undone by two massive ******** ups. First was our missed penalty. It could not have been a more obvious handball to Mertesacher and had we scored from that penalty it may have galvanised us and changed the complexion of the game. Then the red on Timmy. FFS that was a bad call and what hurts is that it really affects our chances in our next game. The positives were I thought Emerton was great value. Wilkshire worked into the game well later and was one of our best. I thought Garcia showed great endeavour, he worked hard and made dangerous runs and could have had a goal early. I guess his inclusion was dissapointing as it didn't help Cahill out but I think it was still a good move. Kennedy would have been owned by the Germs and with Kewell out we had few options. I'd have preferred Vidosic in up front. But failing that I think having Garcia up front allowed us to keep possession better (sort of), he worked hard making clever runs and tracking back and was dangerous. Holman showed alot of fight, my opinion of him rose immensely in this game. He was one of our few players that didn't lower thier heads and really tried to keep at the task even though it was impossible. It's what I expect from an Australian player and something I really appreciated given the rest of the team put in such an uncharacteristic and un Australian performance. I think the team will really show what they are made of in the next two games. It will take a lot to come back from this defeat but I just hope they find the strength and character we all know that they have.
See, I'm afraid that this is what they're made of. Yes, the bewildering formation and tactics didn't help. But I was predicting a 3-1 loss before I even saw the lineup. Our defence is too, too, too ********ing slow, and try as we might we really lack any creative power up front without Kewell. We rely wholly on crosses being banged in to Kennedy and Cahill. We really need to focus on getting out of this tournament with a point or two. After that loss, we're serious contenders for absolute bottom of the combined league table. Thank Christ it's a public holiday because I am way too pissed to work right now.
Too right. Germany played through and around our defence, whereas we only tried to play over their defence, not even over, more like on top of. EDIT: Just found this article: http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jErtJRPcnh0ncctOp5AdguZRHp5g
Chipperfield and Moore should be home, taking care of their grandkids, not in a World Cup Final. I count Algeria and Greece as teams that are already 'out.' Not so Australia. You guys got more to offer, I've seen this team in the quals. Good luck for the next two. You do have a chance.
This article gives a pretty comprehensive break down of how we fudged it up tactically. It's a big indictment on Pims tactics.
oh dear what agame to forget.... Was anyone else suprised at the efforts the germans went to to milk fouls, even when 4-0 up? ozil and cacau were given yellows for simulation and rightly so... dissapointed they felt the need to do that when the result was never in doubt...
I watched the game with about 100 Germans in a pub in Stuttgart, and every single one of them thought that straight red to Cahill was total bulls#!t. An audible cry of "Fur Was!?" ("For what!?") echoed through the entire place as the ref showed the card. Clearly a foul, probably yellow, straight red? No way. You don't have to complain to an American fan about CONCACAF refs...we know....we know....
I love Zonal Marking. It's the football geeks' wet dream. They're only missing digital video with computerized calculations of distances and speed.
If you look at the replay, you can see that the ref inteded to give yellow. He pulled out card from his pocket without looking and when he saw Cahill's reaction he took a peek at the card. I could see that he was surprised but tried to not show it.
Able to put things in perspective after a long sleep. As always, nothing seems as bad as Iran in 97. Still in the hunt for making it through the group stage. Ghana's pacey attack have the same potential to tear us apart as did USA and Germany. Ghana are a lot less sophisticated that Germany, so it will be more raw pace and power. Pym needs to get our formation setup properly so we can deal with that. Without Essien, their CM seems a bit under powered, although Appiah might add a bit more class if he starts. Defensively I thought Ghana looked ok, but the Serb attack seemed quite toothless to me. I think we can score against them. If we get three points in the next game then anything can happen. Time to see how both Pym and the boys respond. I think we can play better than we did last night. Although this squad and coach are not going to play to the level that we did in 2006.
FIFA never overturns referee decisions unless they are incorrect in law. The best we can hope for is he gets the minimum suspension possible (1 match) and is eligible for the final group game.
is Australia gonna be able to beat Serbia and Ghana? Ghana is going to be their challenge for the second spot.