Socceroos in Asia: Group Stage Post-Mortem
Monday, 16 July 07, 09:28 AM
I was out of town this weekend, enjoying the lovely wine region of Margaret River, which is why I didn't write anything about the Socceroos' second Asian Cup match. That, and Australia's 3-1 loss to Iraq made me want to throw things.
But things seemed much better tonight. A 4-0 drubbing of Thailand, goals by Viduka and Kewell, and it would seem that normal service has resumed. It's hard to believe that, during a four-goal victory, there was a time when I thought to myself "Australia's problem is that they just don't seem to be able to give themselves a chance to score a goal."
But the fact is, while 4-0 is nice, and gives us the positive goal difference needed to go up, three of the goals were scored in the last ten minutes, and the scoreline is extremely hard on the Thais. Watching the match, there were plenty of what Sir Alex Ferguson calls "squeaky bum moments."
The Socceroos came into an awful lot of criticism following Saturday's match, and 99.5% of it was deserved. Honestly, I'm not convinced that all has been solved, and I'm just as worried about advancement in the next round of the Asian Cup as I was about tonight. But at least the Green and Gold have survived to play another day.
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Jonathan
Perth, AU
An American ex-pat's thoughts on Australian, American and English soccer
On Socceroos in Asia: Group Stage Post-Mortem