workingclasshero said:
surely this makes no sense as new zealand were able to qualify as soon as they didn't have to face australia.
didn't new zealand play bahrain in the play offs? which means the play off opposition for oceania has changed and it would be too easy for australia to be in that section.
that said, i agree, they should stay 'at home' where they belong. and not pretend they're asian.
Yes it does. I'll explain the changes in Oceania qualifying. Back in 2006, the top 2 Oceania teams in pool stages played one another. Australia and New Zealand. Aus won and played the 5th South American Team. Uruguay. Two games, winner goes through. Uruguay scored at home, and on the return, Aus scored. Penalties ensued, we won. We go to 2006 WC.
Next year, 2007, Aus, switches to Asia region. However, NZ no longer has to beat the 5th ranked South American team. Asia asked for a rule change, FIFA agreed. Oceania winner had to play 5th ranked Asian team from the final pool qualifying that ended in 2009. Australia topped pool 1, Japan second. Both Korean nations topped the second pool. Third place in both pools squared off to decide who would challenge the Oceania champs. Bahrain and Iran I think. Bahrain won. Asian delegates thought this was a ringer, an easy win for their zone. They are not happy at all. They thought allowing Australia in Asia would mean more traditional Asian countries made the final 32. They thought poorly.
The Kiwis carved up Bahrain. Asian powerheads were very angry. They assumed Oceania was a walkover without Australia. Australia let one goal in during qualifying but still played very poorly. Casual followers at home thought us Aussies were doing well. Heck, we were the second team to qualify for Africa 2010 world wide...by a few hours after the Dutch. Truth is that Verbeek did not experiement. He brought back players who had retired from the national team and play for crap local teams, like Moore. We barely beat crappy Asian teams...sorry but they suck. We got results in qualifying and some in the media and fanbase foolishly justified that this was good enough. It wasn't, because the form and onfield guile was absent. We scrapped results against crap teams whilst showing next to no substance. A trait easily exploited by a competent team.
The way the Socceroos play sucks as well. Pim left our best attacking options out of the final 23 for Africa. He left the better attacking options on the bench versus Germany. Newsflash. Australia have been terrible the last 60 months. This was obvious well over a year back. All the major commentators had been saying this for over a year. Change was needed. Germany were made to look very good, better than their recent form suggested they were. Thankfully being a fan of the game, I enjoy watching masterful play, so I can cheer for someone else quite comfortably. But it sucks watching your nation embarass itself because of a few retards who cannot get their $h1t together. Did I forget to mention Australia is ranked 20 in the world. Over 15 places higher than the next best Asian team. My point is I knew we'd get wooped. Glad it happened. Maybe FFA can put in a proper development structure at grassroots level so this crap never happens again. Our nation went backwards. That doesn't gel well with our national psyche.
To anyone who will try and justify the coaches choices consider these facts. Verbeek is paid AUS $2,000,000 a year to fly around the world and pick our best players. He didn't, I can name 5 who didn't make the final 23. Our PM, albeit he is a moron and the worst in history, is paid a little over $400K. Verbeek qualified us against a weak Asian assortment of teams and gets to pocket 5 times the leader of our Government gets. Something smells wrong here. Accountability. There is none. Verbeek is a joke. Pray your team/country doesn't get him ever. He ruined South Korea's most gifted generation and took Australia backwards. Spread the word people.
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