I'm listening to Craig Foster on SBS and I can't believe how negative he is. Is he disappointed he didn't get the job ahead of Verbeek? Coming from behind to get a 2-1 win against Japan with a reasonable amount of reserve players is a good performance as well as a good result. What on earth does he expect?
yeahhh i agree with you. Craig Foster was a bit negative when i heard him speak on fox sports news but i think he was trying to put though is that austrila is a much better team and could peforme better then they did. thats why i rekon his was so angry and they kind of let a rubbish goal in... but yeah we should of been happy with the result they came away with.
I kind of agree with the gist of what he's saying. I don't think the kind of dour grind-out-the-win performances we've given in qualifying are going to be good enough for us in South Africa, as successful as they've been in the AFC. Remember, plenty of AFC teams cruise through qualifying every time yet struggle on the world stage. It's a different game. Average White Male summed it up well in the postgame thread. That said, I think Fozzie gets obsessed with a particular idea he's trying to drive home, to the extent that he tries to twist everything to fit his point of view (even when it doesn't). There wasn't that much to complain about from the Japan game, and he does come off a bit silly by trying to make it sound like the sky is falling. Fozzie is undoubtably not the most impartial commentator. He doesn't assess each match on its own merits, and sum up accordingly. He has a specific argument to make, and he looks for evidence to support that. I think it's beneficial for football for people like him to be around, because somebody needs to play devil's advocate.
He is a passionate realist. His football knowledge is great and he has been there and done that. Passionate people evoke emotion and not everyone has to agree with it. His heart is in the right place.
yeahhh i agree with u. australia just dont have the skill to go far in south afica soory to say but yeahh. just think who else is in it spain,brazil,italy but there a brach of divers Lol and yeahh i dont know how they will come up agiasnt the sort of teams like them.......
Classic, skipper. As M Lo said above, his heart is in the right place and he, along with many others, would be frustrated by how poor our performance against Japan actually was. He's also probably annoyed by Pim's current tactics of lobbing the ball up to Kennedy for Cahill to receive 2nd balls from him. Its very direct, very boring, and doesnt use the skill that our midfielders and outside players actually have.
I didn't see much skill from Culina that night and Grella wasn't much to write home about either. We were understrength with players out of position and debutants and still managed to come back to win after going behind (something we haven't had to do all of Round 4). What's the problem? We are not going to perform the way Foster wants in qualifiers now or in the future and rightly so. The sooner people recognise that the better.
He can be a bit over negative. Generally I enjoy his summations and we have been boring, let's be honest, but we need to keep things in perspective. We're not Brasil or Argentina. But at the same time these countries aren't competing against 4 other football codes with a population of 19 million. We just need to be patient. I think we've gone down the right track with the Dutch influence. So little people and yet so many great players.
Pretty much agree with you. Its just that at the moment with Foster it seems the better the results the more he bags the coach. I think verbeek has done a great job with the team. They are playing with a purpose and are sticking to tactics very well. When we play well we control the games and when we play poorly we still manage to eke out a result (at least against current opposition). There's no doubt we will be playing better opposition in the World Cup, but there is nothing to suggest that we will be outclassed. Whatever happens there and no matter what the goals the players set themselves, our chances of progressing to the knockout rounds rest heavily on the draw and how things pan out on the day. We are capable of upsetting anyone, but then everyone else at the Wolrd Cup is capable of upsetting us as well.
Sometimes I think we underestimate Verbeek. The style of football we played against Holland was a fair contrast to what we've played against Asian nations. It was a friendly but the point is still the same. He instigates styles to suit the opposition. We're not going to set the world on fire at the WC but we'll be ok.
Totally agree. The game against the Oranje was absolutely awesome to watch. It's a shame Holland were reduced to 10 men (I think??) as it takes away from the achievement somewhat. But still a classy performance. I think Pim is pragmatic enough to know we need wins to progress and tweak the team accordingly. We already have a good schedule of matches as warm ups over the next year to make the necesary adjustments and ensure cohesion. On Foster I think he is being a bit unfairly criticised. I think you just need to understand that Foster is going to pick out the most minute criticisms. He is playing the devils advocate in a way. His heart is in the right place, he just wants what is best for football in Australia. I seem to recall him making some criticisms about Pims defensive tactics but he put it into the context of the WC and how this will not be enough. He also said that we need to wait and see what Pim does. Nothing he said there was wrong - It was spot on. Pim does need to become more offensive for the WC if we are to have a chance - we'll just have to wait and see what adjustments he makes over the next 12 months.
i couldn't stop loling at his post game talk after the usavbrazil game. He constantly indirectly kept bagging them out for having no skill, no touch basically no nothing lol and he talked about brazil and how them winning was like a successful crusade for "beautiful world clarsh football" Ever since he went to Barcelona he has seemed a bit evangelic the way he talks about spain or barcelona or brazil etc
This was from 4 years ago, but really it could've been written by Fozzie yesterday! http://www.theworldgame.com.au/opinions/index.php?pid=st&cid=47594&ct=33
I keep hearing him (Foster) question if we have the right coach. I've no doubt he wants the team to do well, but I just can't understand his negative attitude to the coach. He may not be Guus, but there are only a handfull of coaches with Hiddink's ability in the world and we can't afford them. Verbeek has impressed me with what he has done so far. Foster's continued criticism of him, either directly or indirectly, is unwarranted IMO.
The problem with Fossie is he continues to write and say the same thing, regardless of what the team is playing like. Our national team has improved leaps and bounds in terms of tactics, holding possession and generally having a plan of how to go about playing a particular match. We aren't full of world class players, but the ones we have are playing much smarter for the national team than we used to. I think Fossie doesn't look at things dispassionately and always sees our performances through the fog of his preconceptions. He doesn't give the players and particularly the coach credit for the improvement. We now play as a team, not as a bunch of individuals. This was something we could only dream of in 2004 when he wrote that article.
Craig Foster is a very learned football person, but he's too critical and I think that's the point Almango was trying to make. We know we're a fair way off winning a world cup, but I don't think we're as far away as Craig think's we are.
I havn't heard Fossie question his appointment as coach for quite awhile but I may just have missed it. Thats not on if true. I don't know how you can criticise the job he has done qualifying us for the WC. He did exactly what he had to do - playing more offensively may well have seen us come unstuck. That said this approach wont work at the WC. Fozzie is 100% spot on on this. We need to tweak our game, be more offensive and play for wins. It'll be interesting to see what changes Pim will make to team structure over the next 12 months. Pims job is only half done yet. The WC is what will determine whether he is a success or not.
One of his best lines ever..... http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/fo...inning-code-war/2009/08/22/1250362255869.html