Australia v New Zealand

[Dog_ger]

Try

http://www.justin.tv/nelliek9#r=wXSkRTw~

[bloods08]

Vidosic scored in the 57th minute for the aussies

Aus 1
NZ 1

[Sploosh]

No offense to the kiwis, but you'd reckon if we can only manage 1-1 against them, Germany wouldn't be too worried about playing us in June??

[Dirko]

No offense to the kiwis, but you'd reckon if we can only manage 1-1 against them, Germany wouldn't be too worried about playing us in June??

Hope so. I hope they underestimate us....

[bloods08]

Won 2-1

Holman scored with the last play of the night.

Pretty poor first half by the sounds of it.

[Brucetiki]

No offense to the kiwis, but you'd reckon if we can only manage 1-1 against them, Germany wouldn't be too worried about playing us in June??

Agreed. 0-3 in the pool stage looks likely for Australia.

Now the FFA have turned this match into a political farce, making the players wear 'FIFA pass us the ball and Come Play 2018-2022' t-shirts. Also, why is the team doing a victory lap, they only beat New Zealand for crying out loud!

[Sploosh]

Well, a win is a win, but very unconvincing.

With regards to the T-shirts, it is perhaps a little cringeworthy. I think the players would be genuinely happy to do anything that raises the chances of us winning a bid, but the question is: would these T-shirts make even the slightest iota of difference to the people who make the decision. You'd have to think not...

[devilsadvocate]

No offense to the kiwis, but you'd reckon if we can only manage 1-1 against them, Germany wouldn't be too worried about playing us in June??

Agreed. 0-3 in the pool stage looks likely for Australia.

Now the FFA have turned this match into a political farce, making the players wear 'FIFA pass us the ball and Come Play 2018-2022' t-shirts. Also, why is the team doing a victory lap, they only beat New Zealand for crying out loud!

I think the more people that see or hear about our pitch for hosting the world cup, the better. And this was a good opportunity to get the message out there.

They weren't doing a victory lap, they were saying 'thanks for the support' and giving the fans a change to rev them up before the world cup. We did the same thing 4 years ago against Greece. I think it's a pretty cool gesture from the players and the FFA to the fans actually. All too often these days in sport, the fans are forgotten by primadona players.

Anyhoo, on that performance, we should be pretty concerned for our prospects in SA. If we defend like we did in that first half, we could see some ridiculous scorelines. We totally failed to deal with Fallon - his height was way too much for our defence. I thought our midfield was overrun in the first half too. Sure we put the boot in a couple of times, but there were some silly challenges and Grella was a lucky man not to see red. That was a disgraceful challenge.

It was a good fightback in the second half and both goals were well taken. Brad Jones pulled out a great save and I thought Jedinak, Rustyyeiirnsllejnsk (sp) and Culina battled well going forward towards the end of the game.

All I can say though is PLEASE get well Harry!

[Dirko]

Agree with your post DA.

They did do the same thing last time against Greece.

No different to the AFL players doing it....

And we'll be right. Pim is the master of disguise

[Sploosh]

Yep, I guess Pim's typically curt response would be to say:

"My job was to make sure we won. We did."

[Deep Heat]

Honestly if Macdonald is in our best 23 we have no chance at all that guy looked so out of his league it was embarassing to watch. He looks unfit and hasnt scored in 16 caps playing alone upfront in 4-3-2-1 line up. He had to score against the kiwis tonight and didn get close prob cost us 3 or 4 getting in the way .

[Dogwatcher]

A few key players missing - let's not forget.
Chipperfield and Emerton would've done a lot to stop that run into the Kiwi forward half.

[Dogwatcher]

Some interesting cross code impersonations in the game though...

Cahill's attempted specky in the first and Oar's rugby tackle on Nelson (IIRC) in the second.