I've talked about my conflicting feelings towards the Socceroos before in some earlier thread, but there are new developments now.

For the uninitiated, this is Australia's first year competing in football tournaments as part of Asia. They used to be in the Oceania group which had atrocious soccer teams (since countries like NZ, Solomon Islands, Fiji, etc do not play soccer). Many football fans were enthusiastic about this switch, but many for the wrong reasons. I too was happy about this development, but for different reasons. Australia has always complained that they got the short end of the stick previously in that to qualify for the World Cup, they had to top the Oceania qualifying group (a very easy thing to do), and then beat the 5th placed South American team to do so (not so easy). They usually had problems doing this, and were successful in this for the first time in 30 years for the 2006 World Cup, when they defeated Uruguay on penalties. The head of the football association then decided to move to the Asian qualifying region, with the misguided conception that with 4 World Cup places up for grabs, and having to complete against 'lesser' Asian teams instead of South American teams, Australia would have an easier path in qualifying for future World Cups.

I personally never thought of it that way. I've always thought that having to play 2 matches against the 5th placed South American team would be easier to do than having to compete against 3 good Asian teams (Japan, Korea and Iran)?

As all Australians would have detected from the pre-tournament write-ups and interviews, the Australian team as well as football personalities were all supremely confident about Australia's chances in this tournament, automatically assuming that Australia would win the tournament unbeaten. Good article by the SMH here.

However, after drawing with unfancied Oman 1-1 and losing to war-torn Iraq 3-1 in their group stage matches, this assumption is dissipating fast. After using up all excuses, the football head honchos in Australia are finally acknowledging that 'maybe' the Aussies have underestimated the caliber of Asian teams.

As an Asian-Aussie, you see my predicament? I want them to do well, but I don't like their initial smug arrogance. Luckily, they have learnt some humility now, and I really hope they beat hosts Thailand tonight and progress to the next round. I really want to watch them take on the real Asian powerhouses such as Japan (rematch!), Korean or Iran. Now we're not even sure whether they can get out of the group stages...

Anyways, learn from your mistakes and beat Thailand, Socceroos!

I like rugby so I don't really care much for the Socceroos in between World Cups. The only 'roo I really admired during the WC was Brett Emerton.

I also happen to think that soccer players are a bunch of overpaid, namby-pamby poofs so it's difficult for me to identify with the team. So the 'roos suck, what else is new?


Go the Wallabies!!

The Iraqis were hungrier and deserved to win. I like seeing the more passionate, more deserving team prevail. It also means more to the Iraqi people and I like that too.

We were bitching about the heat (funny that heat was somehow our friend in Germany 2006) and humidity while the Iraqi players have to deal with the psychological trauma of a wartorn country and homes bombed to bits. They deserved their win and we deserved to lose.

Well, while I was typing this, we just opened the scoring against the Thais with a good header.

Thailand played much better than I could remember from years ago. They didn't deserve to lose by that much. Anyway I'm glad that we're through. The next game against Japan will be hot with revenge!

On a related note, I'm happy for Vietnam getting to the quarter-finals for the first time. They are easily the lowest-ranked team in the last 8.

Agreed. I just finished watching the game. Don't have fcuking Foxtel, so had to watch it at a RSL, and only got to watch the second half. I couldn't believe it, the Thais were dominating possession throughout the 2nd half until the 75min. The Aussies couldn't even string a few decent passes together during that period. Ultimately, it was the experience of the Aussie's big stars in netting goals that was the difference between the two teams.

Yeah, Thailand were definitely better than losing 4-0 to the Aussies.

Hooray, finally Japan vs Australia again! The Japanese crushed Vietnam 4-1, so they'll be in good form to give Australia a fight.

Who do you think will win? I seriously feel that if Australia continues playing the way they are currently without much built up or strategy, Japan could sneak a win. From what I saw, the Aussies are relying too much on the individual skills of their players. Look at how slow they start their attacks and counterattacks.

Nakamura vs Kewell will be a tantalizing contest...

Kewell has barely played any club football I'm not even sure who Nakata's playing for nowadays methinks the key man will be Scotland's player of the year Nakamura.

A vegetarian who eats fish is like a pacifist who occasionally punches a small child in the face!

utterly disappointed in Korea's performance, who the heck is Bahrain

No seriously, I'm not an a-hole, talk to me

China just got thrashed last night by 3 goals to nil (3 goalie mistakes from 3 free kicks). They're now out of the Asian Cup.