World Cup 2022 FIFA World Cup - Group D - (France, Australia, Denmark, Tunisia)

[dirty2]

You know Dirty old mate, I'm an Australian and I grew up in a country that was able to and did laugh at itself - it kept us well grounded and kept us from being jumped up drongos.

Some people may be interested to learn that in 1975, a moustachioed transvestite boxer who rode around on a Harley introduced colour TV to Australian audiences.

In 1980, there was a comedy series called Home Sweet Home staring John Bluthal (plays Frank Pickle in the Vicar Of Dibley) who plays an Italian Taxi Driver (old country accent and all) in Sydney and it was a scream! Bluthal was world renowned and he was born in Australia.

There was Kingswood Country and the Mavis Bramston Show, The Naked Vicar ..... bloody hell, the rest of the world is still not ready for In Melbourne Tonight with Graham Kennedy which debuted in 1957: Jesus Christ, we had Norman Gunston!!! More recent stuff like the Gilles Report and Acropolis Now.

Very much a different world these days... And not for the better.

 

[Present Not Past]

You know Dirty old mate, I'm an Australian and I grew up in a country that was able to and did laugh at itself - it kept us well grounded and kept us from being jumped up drongos.

Some people may be interested to learn that in 1975, a moustachioed transvestite boxer who rode around on a Harley introduced colour TV to Australian audiences.

In 1980, there was a comedy series called Home Sweet Home staring John Bluthal (plays Frank Pickle in the Vicar Of Dibley) who plays an Italian Taxi Driver (old country accent and all) in Sydney and it was a scream! Bluthal was world renowned and he was born in Australia.

There was Kingswood Country and the Mavis Bramston Show, The Naked Vicar ..... bloody hell, the rest of the world is still not ready for In Melbourne Tonight with Graham Kennedy which debuted in 1957: Jesus Christ, we had Norman Gunston!!! More recent stuff like the Gilles Report and Acropolis Now.

It didn't work mate.
We still ended up with James Packer, Gina Reinhardt and Lachlan Murdoch in 2022.
At least we flushed ScoMo down the toilet. That's one victory I guess.

 

[FourthTimeAround]

In all the to-and-fro about what is the best way to play Argentina and Messi, noting that our South American friends have been through this all before.

If you take the 1982, 1986, and 1990 World Cup Finals combined, there were 156 games played, and 5960 fouls.

Of those, 2.5% of all those fouls covering every game, were on one player. Diego Maradona.
36 fouls in ‘82, 53 fouls in ’86, 50 fouls in ‘90.

They remain #1, #2 and #3 ranking of most fouls suffered by one player in a World Cup Finals campaign.

 

[Northalives]

Very much a different world these days... And not for the better.

Unfortunately brother, we allowed ourselves to become appendages of other countries and we lost our "Australianess", if there's such a word.

We imported a whole lot of American jargon and attitudes which have no place in Australia. The technological revolution and the ensuing transmission of "information", has debased our country. We still just manage to hold on to some semblance of a country that was founded by convicts and the organisation of labour that followed and it was this organised labour that took up the cause for the rights and freedoms of Indigenous peoples and we are far from reconciling with the Indigenous population but we are getting there.

What I'm saying is that we, Australians that is and I mean Australians from all cultural backgrounds, we have always had the propensity to not take ourselves seriously but at the same time, not beat around the bush with serious issues but unfortunately, this uniquely Australian attitude has become somewhat blurred by some falling victim to fashion from predominantly the USA.

This is a Soccer thread I know but it's good to reflect on the names of the players who took us to our first World Cup in 1974 and where we got our first point with a nil all draw against Chile:

[1] REILLY Jack (GK) Born in Stonehaven, Scotland
[2] UTJESENOVIC Doug Born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia
[3] WILSON Peter Felling, England
[4] SCHAEFER Manfred Pillau, East Prussia, Germany
[5] CURRAN Colin *Newcastle, NSW, Australia
[6] RICHARDS Ray Croydon, England
[7] ROONEY Jimmy Dundee, Scotland
[8] MACKAY Jimmy Edinburgh, Scotland
[11] ABONYI Attila Budapest, Hungary
[12] ALSTON Adrian Preston, England
[20] BULJEVIC Branko Split, Croatia
Substitute(s)
[21] MILISAVLJEVIC Jimmy *Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
[22] MAHER Allan *Sydney Australia
[9] WARREN John *Sydney, Australia
[10] MANUEL Gary *Australia
[13] OLLERTON Peter England
[14] TOLSTON Max *Wollongong, Australia
[15] WILLIAMS Harry **Wiradjuri man (central New South Wales) and the first Indigenous International footballer for Australia
[16] RUDIC Ivo Split, Croatia
[17] HARDING Dave Liverpool, England
[18] WATKISS John Willenhall, England
[19] CAMPELL Ernie *Sydney, Australia

Special mention to Ray Baartz a top striker born in Sydney and who had been selected for the '74 World Cup but his career was prematurely ended after he was felled by a blow from Uruguay's Luis Garisto in a friendly international fixture at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The blow to his throat had damaged his carotid artery.

 

[Northalives]

It didn't work mate.
We still ended up with James Packer, Gina Reinhardt and Lachlan Murdoch in 2022.
At least we flushed ScoMo down the toilet. That's one victory I guess.

It's a struggle that isn't over brother. Australia is still in a gestation period - we ain't been born yet.

 

[Northalives]

In all the to-and-fro about what is the best way to play Argentina and Messi, noting that our South American friends have been through this all before.

If you take the 1982, 1986, and 1990 World Cup Finals combined, there were 156 games played, and 5960 fouls.

Of those, 2.5% of all those fouls covering every game, were on one player. Diego Maradona.
36 fouls in ‘82, 53 fouls in ’86, 50 fouls in ‘90.

They remain #1, #2 and #3 ranking of most fouls suffered by one player in a World Cup Finals campaign.

Sign of the times and sign of how near impossible it was to stop him.

As for stopping Messi, we need to clog everything up just in front of our backline by our midfield not allowing space for Messi and co to run into and not allow space for the ball to be played to feet to the front men. All real simple hey ?

 

[ep2018]

The dutch have been hit with the flu the day before their game vs USA. Geez imagine if we could somehow get past Argentina and played the US.

 

[Northalives]

The dutch have been hit with the flu the day before their game vs USA. Geez imagine if we could somehow get past Argentina and played the US.

Mate, if that happens, I'm going out and buying a s**t load of lottery tickets!

 

[Munga]

The footage has emerged

 

[sorted]

Bruce McAvaney never played AFL (or any sport really). Murray Walker never drove a race car. John Motson never played football.

The list goes on.

That's a false comparison. Those guys you listed are commentator/presenters. Then they have former players who have played at the level of the game we are watching - giving expert analysis. So Bruce McAvaney might have Luke Hodge next to him. David Basheer might have Luke Wilkshire. Murray Walker might have David Coulthard.

In this case we are talking about studio discussion of the game. On the BBC Gabby Logan, a former gymnast, presents Match of the Day. Former Premier League players like Ian Wright and Danny Murphy provide the expert analysis.

 

[bloodsbigot]

The footage has emerged

That's great. Wish we had some lipreaders in the house.

 

[chef]

That's a false comparison. Those guys you listed are commentator/presenters. Then they have former players who have played at the level of the game we are watching - giving expert analysis. So Bruce McAvaney might have Luke Hodge next to him. David Basheer might have Luke Wilkshire. Murray Walker might have David Coulthard.

Bruce may have Daisy Pearce?

 

[SM]

Are you the protector of column inches for Big Footy are you? Bloody hell, if the length of a post affetcs you so badly, I'd hate to think what your attention span is like.

Hey!! Maybe it's because I offended your sensibilities somehow and you are just itching to have a crack. Doesn't really matter; I don't give a f**k.

The only manner in which you offend me is your utter dribble you carry on with.

 

[SM]

That's a false comparison. Those guys you listed are commentator/presenters. Then they have former players who have played at the level of the game we are watching - giving expert analysis. So Bruce McAvaney might have Luke Hodge next to him. David Basheer might have Luke Wilkshire. Murray Walker might have David Coulthard.

In this case we are talking about studio discussion of the game. On the BBC Gabby Logan, a former gymnast, presents Match of the Day. Former Premier League players like Ian Wright and Danny Murphy provide the expert analysis.

Should we not use players who have not played in the PL as they haven't played in a league of a certain quality?

You've used this argument before and it was as wrong then as it is now. Your reference to u15 teams playing womens teams just undelrines your bigotry.

 

[Gigantor]

That "note" episode is a bit of a nonsense story.
As if Arnie woudn't have known that the Danes were going to put on fresh strikers/wingers and bomb it into the box last 10 minutes.
Does anyone believe that Arnie would have done anything other than play deep and defend for dear life the last 10 minutes to protect a 1-0 lead?

 

[Northalives]

The only manner in which you offend me is your utter dribble you carry on with.

Oh snookems, did you misplace your security blanket?

 

[GC2015]

We've had it tough the entire qualifying process. This is what we're made for. The underdog tag suits us perfectly.

Let's just get the dub against Tunisia and we set up a sudden death situation with Denmark. Will we beat the Danes? Who knows but we've proven, many times, that a sudden death situation does not intimidate us. Let's go!

This worked out better than I could have ever envisioned back when I wrote that post in early November and it just goes to show how much we thrive as a nation when we're in an underdog situation. It's already our best ever World Cup performance but now we really have a chance to shock the world in the Argentina match. So exciting!

 

[GC2015]

This is a Soccer thread I know but it's good to reflect on the names of the players who took us to our first World Cup in 1974 and where we got our first point with a nil all draw against Chile:

[1] REILLY Jack (GK) Born in Stonehaven, Scotland
[2] UTJESENOVIC Doug Born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia
[3] WILSON Peter Felling, England
[4] SCHAEFER Manfred Pillau, East Prussia, Germany
[5] CURRAN Colin *Newcastle, NSW, Australia
[6] RICHARDS Ray Croydon, England
[7] ROONEY Jimmy Dundee, Scotland
[8] MACKAY Jimmy Edinburgh, Scotland
[11] ABONYI Attila Budapest, Hungary
[12] ALSTON Adrian Preston, England
[20] BULJEVIC Branko Split, Croatia
Substitute(s)
[21] MILISAVLJEVIC Jimmy *Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
[22] MAHER Allan *Sydney Australia
[9] WARREN John *Sydney, Australia
[10] MANUEL Gary *Australia
[13] OLLERTON Peter England
[14] TOLSTON Max *Wollongong, Australia
[15] WILLIAMS Harry **Wiradjuri man (central New South Wales) and the first Indigenous International footballer for Australia
[16] RUDIC Ivo Split, Croatia
[17] HARDING Dave Liverpool, England
[18] WATKISS John Willenhall, England
[19] CAMPELL Ernie *Sydney, Australia

Special mention to Ray Baartz a top striker born in Sydney and who had been selected for the '74 World Cup but his career was prematurely ended after he was felled by a blow from Uruguay's Luis Garisto in a friendly international fixture at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The blow to his throat had damaged his carotid artery.

It's an interesting insight into the origins of the Socceroos. So the 1974 squad of 22 players included 8 Australian born players, 6 English born players, 3 Scottish born players, 2 Croatian born players, 1 German born player, 1 Serbian born player and 1 Hungarian born player. That's 36% Australian born players and 64% overseas born players. Then you compare that to our 2022 squad of 26 players 48 years later:

[1] RYAN Matthew Sydney, NSW, Australia
[2] DEGENEK Milos Knin, Croatia
[3] ATKINSON Nathaniel Launceston, TAS, Australia
[4] ROWLES Kye Kiama, NSW, Australia
[5] KARACIC Fran Zagreb, Croatia
[6] TILIO Marco Sydney, NSW, Australia
[7] LECKIE Matthew Melbourne, VIC, Australia
[8] WRIGHT Bailey Melbourne, VIC, Australia
[9] MACLAREN Jamie Melbourne, VIC, Australia
[10] HRUSTIC Ajdin Dandenong, VIC, Australia
[11] MABIL Awer Kakuma, Kenya
[12] REDMAYNE Andrew Gosford, NSW, Australia
[13] MOOY Aaron Sydney, NSW, Australia
[14] MCGREE Riley Gawler, SA, Australia
[15] DUKE Mitchell Sydney, NSW, Australia
[16] BEHICH Aziz Melbourne, VIC, Australia
[17] DEVLIN Cameron Sydney, NSW, Australia
[18] VUKOVIC Danny Sydney, NSW, Australia
[19] SOUTTAR Harry Aberdeen, Scotland
[20] DENG Thomas Nairobi, Kenya
[21] KUOL Garang Egypt
[22] IRVINE Jackson Melbourne, VIC, Australia
[23] GOODWIN Craig Adelaide, SA, Australia
[24] KING Joel Wollongong, NSW, Australia
[25] CUMMINGS Jason Edinburgh, Scotland
[26] BACCUS Keanu Durban, South Africa

18 Australian born players (70%) vs just 8 overseas born players this time around. The most notable difference other than more Australian born players is the amount of English born players has decreased from 6 to 0 but the amount of African born players has increased from 0 to 4. Funnily enough, the amount of Scottish born players would have stayed at 3 had Martin Boyle not gotten injured but unfortunately he missed out and the official Scottish contingent this time around is 2. Croatia also remains at 2 and Serbia/Hungary are out completely.

In some ways the make up of the Socceroos has changed a lot but in other ways not really. We've still got a solid contribution from Scotland and Croatia as well as Australian born players but the biggest difference is obviously less English born players and more African born players. Very interesting.

 

[Forward Press]

Not a single one from WA.

The list of WA Socceroos players overall is quite small (maybe even not proportionate to population). Richard Garcia, Stan Lazaridis...who else?

 

[gaskin]

Not a single one from WA.

The list of WA Socceroos players overall is quite small (maybe even not proportionate to population). Richard Garcia, Stan Lazaridis...who else?

Sainsbury, Taggart, Rukavytsya is from Ukraine but moved to Perth as a kid, Rhys Williams, and Jason Petkovic are the only ones I can think of.

 

[RossFC]

Sainsbury, Taggart, Rukavytsya is from Ukraine but moved to Perth as a kid, Rhys Williams, and Jason Petkovic are the only ones I can think of.

Brad Jones?

 

[GC2015]

Not a single one from WA.

The list of WA Socceroos players overall is quite small (maybe even not proportionate to population). Richard Garcia, Stan Lazaridis...who else?

Perhaps more surprising is that not a single Queenslander made the World Cup squad either. I wonder what that says about developmental pathways at the Brisbane Roar and Perth Glory...

 

[TubbsFarquhar]

Not a single one from WA.

The list of WA Socceroos players overall is quite small (maybe even not proportionate to population). Richard Garcia, Stan Lazaridis...who else?

On the flip side, SA does quite well for themselves when producing footballers which goes down to United who have a very solid youth system. Got to make up for their significant lack of cricketing talent somehow.

 

[gaskin]

Brad Jones?

Ah yes. I forgot about him.

 

[SM]

On the flip side, SA does quite well for themselves when producing footballers which goes down to United who have a very solid youth system. Got to make up for their significant lack of cricketing talent somehow.

Still surprised there isn't a second A-League side in Adelaide with the amount of talent produced. Adelaide City getting in for a derby would be awesome.