Australian Soccer Thread (A-League/FFA Cup/Socceroos/Matildas) (Part 1)

“…mum says not to take it out in public”

1 Like

Australia will never win a World Cup, since the World Cup began in the 30s, no minnow has ever won it. Look at the teams who have won numerous times, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina ect. There’s no competing with those giants where soccer is life. Teams like Holland, Croatia and Portugal have never won it and big teams like Spain and England have only ever won it once.

There was a lot of talk at the last WC from commentators, fans and officials that if Australia could some how grab a point against France (which almost happened), then grab all the points against Peru and Denmark, (almost borderline arrogance), people need to realise that teams like Denmark and Peru have to qualify against the best teams in Europe and South America, while Australia’s only real threat in Asia is japan who aren’t that much chop. It wasn’t at all surprising when the Socceroos couldn’t take the points against those 2 teams in their group.

Australia’s focus should be to one, qualify and two, just try and be competitive. If they can get out of their group then that’s massive.

2 Likes

We shouldn’t try and be good, because we’re not very good right now.

What a great mindset.

And I certainly like the theory that pencilling in Denmark and Peru for results, not one of the hot favourites and eventual champsions France, was the dumb bit.

I would take an Essendon flag over even an England World Cup win. Just give me one Essendon!!!

1 Like

nope, not saying that, just the reality that teams like the socceroos do not win world cups. Like I said they should aim to first make it and second try and get out their group.

Take a look who Peru has to play against to just make a world cup and you think they should be pencilling that in?

1 Like

That’s exactly what they do every time. Just want to get as far as possible.
Don’t think anyone thinks they will ever win it (delusional if so).

1 Like

Uruguay won 2 WC’s with a Pop of less that 2 Million. Croatia was in the final just last year with a Pop of 4 Million.

No doubt Australia could do it if the right amount of People participated and the FFA & FIFA et al put the Money and professional Coaching etc set up in place over a decade or two.

1 Like

… and if, as mentioned previously, AFL and the rugby codes ceased to exist.

Soccer is still the biggest sports in those countries and that Croatian team had a lot of talent in it, something the Socceroos will never have unless we get rid of AFL and rugby. Look at the size of the US pop, massive but they’ll always be making up the numbers in Soccer because of NBA and NFL

Also need to take into account that they won their first WC in 1930 (first ever WC) when there was only 13 teams competing in it. If anyone thinks Australia could win a World Cup then you probably need a reality check. Just scroll down and see all the previous winners. No minnows and no nations where soccer isn’t just a normal part of every day life.

1 Like

And it was played in Uruguay.

1 Like

You don’t aim to be mediocre.
You aim to be good.

Out of Peru (world rank 20), Denmark (10) and France (2)?

Absolutely.

If we were good enough, we would have got 3 pts there, and a pt from the other two games. We weren’t. But that’s got to be the aim.

Not sure how throwing our hands in the air and saying “but they’re from South America!!!” would have helped.

1 Like

Exactly right, but they’ll still never win a World Cup. being good for Australia is make it out of the group. As it should.

It’s not throwing our hands in the air and saying they’re from South America. It’s looking at the facts and seeing who Peru has to play to make a World Cup, they’re going into off the back of playing the likes of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia ect. Australia would’nt even come close to Making a World Cup if they had to go through that, so yea it’s no surprise they’ll rolled us 2 - zip.

1 Like

Maybe Australia would improve if they had to face that higher level opposition on a regular basis. Remember when we were in Oceania? What did we learn playing Samoa, Fiji, etc?

1 Like

Perhaps, or they could get slaughtered. Personally and its just my opinion but I couldn’t see them getting any where near it if they had to face teams like Brazil and Argentina in qualification. If they did have to face these teams on a regular basis then overtime you’d hope they would improve and be better placed to beat teams around them

20 years ago we were competing at a very high level across a range of sports.

Using the Olympics as an example, we consistently were finishing top 4 in the medals even though our population is ranked around the 50 mark or there abouts.

We could compete in the past and if we took soccer more seriously there is no reason why we couldn’t become more competitive.

We just dropped the ball and allowed other countries to outspend us.