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This is just a follow on short story from my Droylsden Story, just thought i'd put it in its own thread.
June 1st
There we were me and my wife Jo waiting for the plane to arrive, it was about two in the afternoon on a warmish day, the plane was due around quarter past, some of the local press had gathered, it didn’t take long for one of them of them to approach me.
“Mr. Burnie, Sally Boje here from The Star newspaper in Johannesburg, do you have time to answer a few questions?”
“Certainly I'm always happy to answer a few questions Sally, and you can call me Matt”
“Mr Burnie, how do you see your side’s chances in the World Cup?”
“I think we have a good chance of progressing to the second round, it’s not to bad a draw really, and we have a full squad, so I'm confident of a good showing, the second round is anyone’s guess, We are capable of beating any one on our day, so you never know”
“Your goal scoring has been a bit non existent lately, your last two friendly’s have resulted in no goals for your team, who do you see scoring your teams goals”
“Friendly’s are practice matches in which we try different things so I am not too worried about the lack of goals there, and our scoring options are numerous, our midfield is one of the most potent in the world scoring wise, the likes of Cahill, Bresciano, Kewell and Zak have the ability to score from anywhere, Scotty McDonald has been in great form for his club side QPR aswell, then there’s Josh Kennedy, Aloisi and young Tahj Minniecon so I think we have enough fire power for other teams to think about.”
“Harry Kewell and your son have been struggling a bit of late do you think they can step up?”
“I certainly hope so, they’re international records have been great so far and I see no reason for that to change, it’s the same for every player in the squad though, if you cant get excited playing in a world cup then maybe Football isn’t a sport you should be playing professionally”
“Thanks for your time Mr Burnie and good luck in the tournament”
“Thanks Sally
I liked the shorter interviews, know one expected too much from us so we were mostly left alone it was also easier to keep a level face aswell and not give anything away and my fabrications had came out effortlessly, the goalscoring was a real problem as was the form of Zak and Harry, still they played well so far internationally so fingers crossed they fired here, if they didn’t we would struggle to progress to the next stage, it didn’t really matter though no one expected us to go past the first round anyway.
The plane landed and the players all filed out into the arrivals area, I greeted Johhny Kosmina and Johan Neeskens who were my assistants, and Ron Smith the team coach was there aswell, a brief chat with Kossi and as we went over a few things, Jason Culina was carrying a sore calf but was expected to be fully fit by the first game.
A few of the players did some interviews with Sally and when Customs was all sorted out we made our way onto the team bus and headed towards our base of operations, The Tower Lodge in Auckland Park was to be our home away from home, they had upgraded their facilities in anticipation of the World Cup and were more than happy to accommodate us, it was close to our training facilities aswell, we would be using the University of Johannesburg’s Bunting Road Campus facilities.
Our first official team meeting in South Africa went well with the players keen to do well, a schedule was handed out to each of the players which had down training details, places we were suppose to be, other activities that were planned for our time in South Africa the first few days were just some light training morning and night with a few activities thrown in, Visit the Zoo, going golfing, etc.
Everyone got settled in their rooms and did what they needed, we went to a local restaurant for tea and sampled a local beer or two, and we were back by 9. I was buggered so it didn’t take me long to fall asleep. I was Eager to get the Tournament underway.
12-27-2006, 07:15 AM
World Cup 2010 - an Australian perspective Post #2
Most of the day was spent sight seeing at the zoo, we had a light running session in the morning and the coaching staff went over the squad later that night while the players had some free time to do as they pleased.
Our three goalkeepers were:
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Brad Jones | GK | Middlesbrough | 183 cm | 80 kg | 28 | £240K | |-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Frank Juric | GK | Hannover | 196 cm | 95 kg | 36 | £220K | |-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Jess van Strattan | GK | Verona | 191 cm | 89 kg | 27 | £950K | |-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>
Jess van Stratton was to be our number one keeper, his form with Verona had been good in the season where as Brad Jones was struggling to get a game at Middlesborough, Frank Juric was a solid back up and in truth could have been our number one.
The defence was pretty good although they were prone to some errors
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Shane Cansdell-Sherriff | D LC, WB L | Hull | 182 cm | 78 kg | 27 | £150K | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Shane Lowry | D C | Genoa | 188 cm | 87 kg | 20 | £1.5M | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Jonathan McKain | D C | Everton | 188 cm | 82 kg | 27 | £2M | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Patrick Kisnorbo | D C, DM | Crewe | 188 cm | 78 kg | 29 | £625K | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Spase Dilevski | D/WB R | Queensland | 180 cm | 77 kg | 25 | £35K | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Lucas Neill | D/WB R | Blackburn | 186 cm | 79 kg | 32 | £2.2M | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Luke Wilkshire | D/WB L | Doncaster | 176 cm | 71 kg | 28 | £95K | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Brett Emerton | AM R | AEK | 185 cm | 82 kg | 31 | £2.1M | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>
Lucas Neill and Brett Emerton were the standouts here Lucas lead the defence well and Brett gave us a lot of drive from the right back, he did allow his opposite number a lot of freedom though so it could be a catch 22, but a lot of goals were set up through him so it was something we had to live with. Luke Wilkshire would take the other fullback role on the left, a solid left side player and he would be our designated free kick taker, Shane Cansdell-Sheriff was an apt replacement for the left sided if needed and could also cover the centre back role if needed. Jonathon McKain would be the other starting centre back the Everton player had done ok so far for them, but his international career was a bit shaky, Shane Lowry and Patrick Kisnorbo would both good cover, Kisnorbo with the added benefit of being able to slot into a defencesive midfield role if needed, the only other defender was 25 year old right wingback Spase Dilevski who was a backup for Brett Emerton might not see a lot of time, hopefully we were guaranteed second round qualification by time we played Denmark and then he would make his debut.
The Midfield was our strongest area and one that I felt would rival any other nations as far as talent.
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | Wnt | Matthew Park | DM | Hearts | 178 cm | 77 kg | 20 | - | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Kasey Wehrman | DM | Brøndby | 180 cm | 79 kg | 32 | £350K | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Mark Bresciano | AM RLC | Palermo | 182 cm | 76 kg | 30 | £4.8M | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | David Carney | AM RL | Wolves | 181 cm | 78 kg | 26 | £1.7M | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Zak Burnie | AM LC | Milan | 186 cm | 83 kg | 21 | £7.25M | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Harry Kewell | AM LC | Anderlecht | 181 cm | 77 kg | 31 | £2.1M | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Tim Cahill | AM C | Everton | 178 cm | 71 kg | 30 | £11M | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | Inj | Jason Culina | AM/F C | PSV | 175 cm | 74 kg | 29 | £2.5M | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>
Kasey Wehrman was in great form for his club side and he deserved his position there, Grella was great in this role but had ruined his chances when he refused a call up earlier in the qualifying campaign, Matthew Park was the young Hearts defensive midfielder his contract had run out but in his 5 previous caps for Australia he had averaged 7.60, so he was a proven performer at this level and a good backup, Kisnorbo could also play here if we needed someone to comeback and play as a 5th defender aswell.
Harry, Zak, Cahill and Bresciano would fight for the other 3 spots in the centre midfield, Zak was struggling a bit but was just ahead of Harry for the left centre midfield spot with Tim in the middle and Bresciano on the right. Jason Culina would start as the attacking midfielder a hard working combative type of player is what I liked in this area, but really Tim, Mark, Harry or Zak could play here. Dave Carney could play left or right so he gave us some versatility across the midfield if we needed it.
The forwards were our main problem, Scott McDonald was our best player in this area and he would take the lone strikers role to start, 2 strikers hadn’t seem to have worked lately so we thought the extra midfielder just behind Scott would be more beneficial.
John Aloisi would be a burst player for us, he was retiring this year, so this was his last hurrah, we were hoping for a good send off, Josh Kennedy was a good target man if we needed someone for the role, his aerial ability added another dimension if we needed it, Tahj Minniecon was a young striker from Terana great things were expected of him in the futute, we were hoping he could provide something a great backup for Scott if he became injured.
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | Ret | John Aloisi | ST | Alavés | 186 cm | 87 kg | 34 | £22K | |-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Joshua Kennedy | ST | Nürnberg | 194 cm | 90 kg | 27 | £1.5M | |-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Scott McDonald | ST | Q.P.R. | 173 cm | 72 kg | 26 | £2.7M | |-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Tahj Minniecon | ST | Ternana | 179 cm | 75 kg | 21 | £3.7M | |-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>
Brett Holman was unlucky to miss out and would have had John Aloisi’s spot if not for the Hamstring injury, still we had a more or less a full squad and were hoping for atleast a second round birth.
12-27-2006, 08:13 AM
World Cup 2010 - an Australian perspective Post #3
The following few days were surprisingly fairly relaxing, we went out as squad a few times, but most of the time was spent around the the training facilities, as the games got closer the training got a bit more physical and involved, we only had one injury during the time and that was Tahj Minniecon, he would available some time around the second game. As the opening day drew closer the teams understanding grew, the formation we used had worked well so far, but we were playing better teams so it would be interesting to see how it worked against the World Class teams.
The opening ceremony in the newly built Nelson Mandela Stadium in Port Elizabeth was a great spectacle to behold, the South Africans had gone the same way as the Germans and put on a show a couple days before the first game, other World Cups had seen a short 1 hour ceremony before the opening match, but know we were witnessing a new tradition being born, I wasn’t much for ceremony’s especially watching them on TV, but being part of this one has put a new perspective on it for me.
Nelson Mandela the 92 year old political activist (and still voicing his opinions in the press on political topics) started the proceedings by welcoming everyone and officially opening the stadium, All the nations partaking in the World cup then paraded around the stadium, its definitely something else walking around a state of the art stadium like this on such an occasion, when all the nations had finished their walk moved to the designated areas and then the real show began.
It had everything a brief history of the World Cup, aswell as the evolution of South Africa as a country, laser light shows, fireworks it had everything, Marcello Lippi and Nelson Mandela held the World Cup aloft, and Sepp Blatter wished all the Nations good luck as a finale to the ceremony.
The next day we boarded our Charter plane and it was back to Johannesburg, Thursday the 10th was one day before the opener that would see Ivory Coast take on holders Italy.
I was getting pretty nervous as the game got closer, but when the odds for the tournament was televised it settled my nerves a fair bit, it seemed we were not expected to get the first round and our odds of 33/1 reflected that. Brazil were favourites at 2/1, then Argentina France and Italy came in at 5/2, the Czechs were at 3/1 and Spain rounded out the favourites at 6/1.
The start was a day away.
12-27-2006, 09:21 AM
World Cup 2010 - an Australian perspective Post #4
Group A started proceedings off in the World Cup, Italy and Ivory Coast had the earlier game and Ivory shocked the holders with a 1-0 win, Didier Drogba getting the opening goal of the tournament, Argentina had a fortunate win over Russia in the other game.
June 12th
We were the first game up in our group, the Johannesburg Stadium was our venue and Uruguay our opponent, Villarreal Striker Diego Forlan was the dangerman for them and Lucas Neill would get the job of marking him when ever he came forward.
Timmy Cahill was the captain and he led the team out of the race and onto the pitch, the captaincy was a hard thing to pick Lucas Neill had done such a good job for us since the last world cup, but it was he who swayed my decision. In a team meeting he put it forward that Timmy Cahill was the icon of Australian football at the moment and it was he who should lead the team in the World Cup, it was well received by the rest of the squad and so it was done, Tim Cahill was the new Captain of Australia, with Lucas as Vice Captain and Brett Emerton as the deputy.
Our first up team lined up like this
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">McDonald Culina ZakCahillBrescianoWehrmanWilkshireMcKain NeillEmertonJones</pre>
The game started out slow, Uruguay were content to pass the ball around and look for openings their slow tempo was a direct opposite to our fast paced game, but we knew they would do it so were well prepared and content to let them do it.
It took 25 minutes for our first chance at goal, the result of a quick counter, a good move by Bresciano started the move and a pass to McDonald put him in a dangerous position he was fouled and in the box and the ref had no hesitation in pointing to the spot, the Uruguayans were complaining but it was a clear foul. Tim Cahill made no mistake with converting the penalty and a smile crossed my face for the first time that day.
6 minutes later the smile left me as Jonathon McKain who was under no pressure at the time made a horrible error the first was choosing to pass to Lucas Neill who had Diego Forlan lurking close by and the second was missing his target the ball went behind Lucas he had to stop and turn, but Forlan had anticipated well and swooped on the pass, a one on one with the keeper and the Uruguayan made no mistake, they were equal.
To say I was livid was an understatement, we couldn’t afford to give away easy goals like that against good quality teams, and when he made another error in judgement with his passing that almost cost us another goal my mind was made up to sub him. Apart from the mistake we were doing well, Jason Culina was struggling a little aswell in the Attacking Midfield role.
Jonny Kosmina convinced me to see out the half before making an substitutions, and so I watched out the rest of the half, both teams had half chances but not more much than that and at half time we were 1-1.
At the break I was generally pleased with our efforts so far, and that’s what I related to the team, I told Harry Kewell and Cansdell-Sherriff they would be starting in the second half. I just had a quite word to McKain, his decision making was bad and that cost us a goal but I told him he would have a chance to redeem himself so don’t get too down heartened. Jason Culina was a little disappointed but realised he wasn’t doing aswell as we needed in the role.
The second half got underway and as in the first half Uruguay tried to hold possession, the players did well in not rushing into any stupid moves, a problem we were having though was that Harry was tending to go out to the left wing and in so doing he was clogging up the space for Zak, by the 55 minute we were getting to congested so I gave them the instructions to switch, Zak would play in the spot behind Macca and Harry would move out to the left.
Just after the hour Bresciano is dazzling them with some play in midfield when he’s fouled, Wilkshire takes the quick free kick and passes to Emerton who is on the right wing, he moves down the right channel and a great early cross hit Zak without him breaking stride, the header was never challenged by the keeper who knew he wouldn’t get there in time and Zak had his first goal for the tournament as the ball went in a few inches from the right upright.
After the restart Uruguay started to play some more attacking football and on 73 minutes a good diagonal ball from the left wing allowed Sanchez in, a dummy, then a hard low shot went under the diving Jones and once again the game was level.
Aloisi was brought on in the 80th minutes but didn’t really find his footing, Uruguay got some free kicks in dangerous positions on the wings but Neill and Sheriff dealt with them and the game ended in a draw, not a bad result for our first game, we had scored 2 goals which was a good start, a good result would be needed against England now and maybe a win against Denmark would see us qualify for the second round, we were still in the competition.
Other results during the night seen England dispatch Denmark 3-1 in the other group B game, while Spain thrashed Ecuador 4-0 in their Group C opener.
12-27-2006, 09:57 AM
World Cup 2010 - an Australian perspective Post #5
The team meeting went well the next day where we discussed the game, and went over replays, Johno McKain was a bit embarrassed after we highlighted the obvious mistake both in decision and execution, a few other little mistakes were pointed out, but on the whole the meeting was positive, Lucas Neill’s efforts were pointed out in defence and he earned the Man of the Match award for the game and it was well deserved.
Next we reviewed the England game Darren Bent had knocked in two and Owen the other in the 3-1 win, but a weakness that the coaching staff had picked out early was his offside awareness, a plan was formulated with the back 4, and was worked on in training.
Cansdell-Sheriff was told he would be starting in the game against England at Johnno McKain’s expense. Jess van Strattan would also be starting, his agility and movement around his area was better than Brad Jones so this would be a plus against a quicker attack, where Jones positioning was better against the more flair orientated Uruguay. Other changes would see Harry start on the left in Zak’s position and Zak would move to attacking midfield just behind Macca, Culina would sit on the bench.
In news around the grounds Costa Rica held Germany to a draw in group C while in group D Portugal beat Poland 1-0 and Nigeria beat South Korea by the same margain.
A surprised France succumbed to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Belgium while Tunisia and Bahrain played out a 2-2 draw in their group E matches. Czech republic who are ranked 4 in the world suffered a surprise lose to Croatia in their opening group F match, other results in the group seen China draw with Cameroon.
Brazil got off to a shaky start but managed to beat the USA 2-1 while Turkey accounted for Japan 1-0.
Argentina had the second match and a high scoring game seen them beat Ivory Coast 2-1, while Holland beat Paraguay 1-0 and the home nation was held to a draw by Mexico in their group H opener.
12-27-2006, 10:52 AM
World Cup 2010 - an Australian perspective Post #6
The game against England was one the whole of Australia would be watching, there was nothing better than getting a win over the poms in any form of sport be it Football, Rugby, Cricket or even lawn bowls, there was nothing better than beating the old foe.
A two hour long interview with SBS sports Les Murray probed nearly every aspect of the approaching England game, I didn’t give away all of our game plans, but most of our tactics were discussed aswell as both teams players. Lucas Neill was getting high accolades for his performance in the opener against Uruguay, it seemed he shined in the big occasions and we were hoping the England game was one of these. Despite all the talk of him moving to a high profile club after the last World Cup he had shown his loyalty and still remained at Blackburn to this day, Brett Emerton was still contracted there aswell but a move was on the cards, he was disappointed with not getting a first team game there, and had spent the half of last season in Greece playing with AEK. All the other players were discussed even Zak’s poor form for Milan, in which I could shed no light on.
Once again Tim lead the team out, this time it was Rustenburg Stadium and a capacity crowd of around 45000 was there to cheer to the teams on.
England were strait out of the blocks and Darren Bent was already being targeted, but in the first few minutes of play our plan was paying dividends and he had been caught offside a few times, some good play from Bresciano seen him release Cahill on goal after 10 minutes, Robinson save was equal to the shot though as he turned it over the bar.
Zak stepped up to take the corner, Macca dropped out the back of the penalty box to about 30 yards, Zak found him unmarked, a quick flick forward and Macca still had no real opposition he steadied and smashed a curling drive towards goal, the keeper was never going to get there but it was a question of accuracy, the last 5 metres though seen the ball curl into the right side and hit the back of the net, and we had scored first. A stunning goal.
Half time came and it was a very physical first half, just the way we like to play our football, Bresciano was having a great battle with Ashley Cole on the right and it Brescia who had the honours at half time, just like us as we had maintained our 1-0 lead. Our offside trap had nullified Darren Bent completely and he hadn’t had a decent shot on goal, Owen was also shut completely out of the game so far, but we couldn’t rest on our first half performance, I reminded the team that they would come out after half time going for broke, we just had to defend well and try and get them on the counter.
The restart seen Bent with an early chance, but once again he strayed into an offside position, Downing was becoming a bit more lively in the second half (Emerton had given him a football lesson in the first half) and a couple of his crosses were dangerous, Neill was equal to the task though as he repelled many of their early attacks and the resulting counters put England on the back foot, Bresciano was causing a lot of problems on the right and Downing was booked on the hour for his second nasty tackle on him. Robinson saved a great free kick from the resulting Wilkshire free kick.
England were to wary of our counters now to go on an all out attack, but the inclusion of Hargraves and Defoe seen a bit more creativity from the them, and only some great defence from Sheriff and Neill stopped some chances that most likely would have resulted in goals. Jess was also having a good time in goals cleaning up the loose balls and long shots with ease.
Culina was brought on for Macca, and Dave Carney was brought Harry in the 80th minute and I had Matthew Park warming up, soon after Bent finally broke the offside trap and was through on goal, a great tackle from slightly behind by Cansdell-Sheriff dispossessed him of the ball, the ref called the tackle a foul, which I feel was the wrong decision as I believe he got all of the ball but the result was a red card for Shane, we were now reduced to 10 men and they had a good chance from the free kick.
Bresciano had had a great game but looked a little sore so he was brought off and Culina now went to his role, it meant we had no designated forward as McKain was brought on to the centre back role, with instructions to go long at every opportunity and don’t pass across goal he took his position.
The last 10 minutes went on forever and England were coming at us hard now, but we were defending valiantly 1 minute into injury time I almost had a heart attack as McKain hit a back pass to van Strattan which gave Bent half a chance to get too, luckily Jess was on the same page and came out to clear the ball past the half way line. An anxious minute later and the ref signalled the end of the match, we had held on and won 1-0 to the delight of the fans, the players were also in good spirits. Lucas Neill had put in another Man of the Match effort.
12-27-2006, 11:18 AM
World Cup 2010 - an Australian perspective Post #7
The team back at the hotel was in great spirits after the win against the old foe and even though we had a no going out order now we decided to have a party at the hotel, which resulted in much drinking. Our last Group B game would be against Denmark they had just beaten Uruguay 2-1 in tonight’s game so that meant they had beat us now to progress, a draw would see us through to the next round. But that was tomorrows worry, the other game of the night seen Russia hold Italy to a draw and now they had to beat Argentina to qualify for the Second round, I wouldn’t be distressed to see them bow out early.
The next day seen most of the squad nursing pretty big hangovers, the morning training session was canceled, and the night session would be a very light one, where Kossi would watch over them as I went over a few tactics.
The next few days were a lot quieter for the team, a few interviews by the players to SBS sport , who deserved the exclusives really, their support of Football in Australia was un paralleled. We the coaching staff put our heads together for tactics against Denmark, they played 2 up front with 3 attacking midfielders, we needed to stop Peter Lovenkrands influence and also Tomasson would be a threat.
Other games through the days seen Germany beat Spain 2-1 in their group C clash, but the biggest news came on the 20th June when Cameroon beat highly fancied Czech Republic 1-0, with Croatia beating China 2-1 it meant that the Czech’s could no longer make the second round and were the first big name out of the tournament.
USA beat Japan 2-1 to open their account in the tournament, but the hosts South Africa lost to a late goal against Paraguay and the final score of 2-1 meant they were up against it to progress any further.
12-27-2006, 11:24 AM
World Cup 2010 - an Australian perspective Post #8
This was the do or die game for both teams, England were suppose to easily account for Uruguay in the other game so Denmark needed to beat us to progress, on the other hand we only had to draw, but we knew the Danes would throw everything at us. If we did loose we had to hope on Uruguay winning as England’s goal difference was better than ours and if they drew they would take our spot.
You could hear the crowd from in the change rooms, every one there knew what was at stake, as did our players, a few of the younger players were a bit nervous, but our leadership group had been in this position before and were quite settling for the younger players. Lucas was talking to Jonathon McKain, hopefully he would forget about his first game and play well in this one, we couldn’t afford any mistakes if we were to progress.
I went around the starting squad and just gave them a few brief words of encouragement, tactics had already been gone over the night before and everyone knew their role, Brett Emerton would be crucial for us today he would playing against the Danes playmaker, Peter Lovenkrands he always looked dangerous especially when combining with their all time top score Jon Dahl Tomasson whom Lucas would we marking.
A large cheer from the crowd was deafening as we got play underway, a few nervous passes in which we lost possession, Denmark having the same problem, a shaky start for both teams.
Denmark had the first good chance a cross from Jensen came in towards Tomasson but Neill was there and headed it out for a corner. Jensen this time with the corner and he picked out Lovenkrands who was in acres of space, a shot…… well wide I could breathe again.
7 minutes gone and McKain has settled well making a good interception and getting a few good passes, but out first stroke of luck seen their right winger Jensen leaving the pitch, you don’t like to see people injured but his ankle would heal fine in a week or two and we needed all the luck we could get.
20 minutes passed and we had managed to hold on to nil nil scoreline, Denmark were pressing us hard and we couldn’t take advantage of their formation, 7 chances already, Lovenkrands was dangerous and he had missed two good chances. My pacing had increased alongside the dugout, and I was yelling instructions out, Brett needed to tighten up we would loose his attacking run but I didn’t want to go one down at all during the match.
Timmy Cahill had a good chance when he got on the end of a Wilkshire free kick, but his header just went wide.
Tomasson gets a shot on goal but van Stratton has it covered and parries the shot, Bresciano is there to take possession and the danger is averted
Half hour gone and Denmark were still in control we had managed a couple attacks but so far Denmark were controlling possession in our half quite easily, nervous times for me I was left chewing the skin around my now non existent fingernails.
A good flick on by McDonald seen Cahill through on goal but Schmeichel saved his shot well and tipped it over the crossbar.
5 minutes to go before the half and Bresciano has the ball on the right wing, a low hard cross ….Agger gets to it first but cant control, McDonalds in ….he’s gone down….whistle…ref is pointing to the spot we have a penalty.
Timmy Cahill is taking the penalty, I'm nervous as hell, but I can’t look away….Running in, hits it, keeper diving to his left, no my left…..who cares it in and we are one up.
The crowd erupts, and the heart slows down, an all important goal, and now I'm feeling a lot better.
Half time its 1-0 in our favour its all pat on the backs from me, we cant get careless out there is what I tell them, Brett you have to play real tight on Peter he’s still causing us problems, Kasey you need to track back harder when they have the ball, listen to what Lucas is telling you out there, a few other minor things are said but its all just repeats from our talk last night.
No changes to the line up yet, and Denmark get the second half underway to another rousing cheer from the crowd.
A good start for us holding on to possession is frustrating them as they push for an equaliser and 10 minutes tick away on the clock.
Denmark are laying siege now just about 10 outside our penalty box, a quick move out to their right and they whip a cross in Andreason gets to the header…..Jess tips it over, phew!.
Corner now and their centre backs have moved up Agger gets to it and knocks it down, McKain clears but not far enough, the ball gets pushed out to Lovenkrands but Brett is there and clears the ball out into the sidelines. Long throw, but we head it out, only as far as Agger he sees an unmarked player Storm I think and he lays it off for Tomasson who has a first time shot…McKain deflects it out for another corner. Jess comes out and collects the ball easily from the corner..he holds it up and its cleared way down the field.
A sigh of relief and a big breathe calms me an Hour down half hour to go.
Not long though and were under siege again, Lovenkrands out to Jakobsen he runs down the left and a cross…..Bresciano is there and heads it out….. Lovenkrands is there sees Storm making a run, pass…..oh crap he’s in the clear….steadies…..drives it with his left foot….Jess is scrambling and dives…..the crowd roar into life Denmark have equalised with a little less than half to go.
No we have to hold out, a quick consultation with Kossi and we agree to get some fresh legs out the for Harry, Wehrman also looks a bit ragged with all the tracking back he’s doing. Patrick and Carnes starting warming up.
A few minutes go by but once again Denmark start to get into dangerous positions I give the signal that I want to make a few changes at the next break in play.
Dave Carney the Wolves player replaces Harry who is looking a bit tired, and Patrick Kisnorbo is brought on for Kasey Wehrman, a few last second instructions sees me tell Patrik to hold up in the centre of defence and make it 5 across the back when they have the ball, Lucas knows what goings on so he will organise the defence accordingly.
The break gives us a respite and the fresh legs of Carney is keeping Denmark occupied down the left, on the one attack in the next 5 or so minutes Patrick does his part perfectly and so far the subs look good.
About 15 to go now and were looking a lot more settled Carney is doing well and a nice pass to Zak sees Zak with a bit of space, a nice little run forward Bogelund comes across, Zak goes to the left..no a crossover and he goes quickly back to right and moves around Bogelund 30 out and about to get closed down he hits a furious drive at the top right corner with his left foot, the curl pulls it well wide though, at least it gives them something to think about.
A couple more attacks by come to nothing but its valuable time off the clock, the best form of defence is a good offence I was once told, by my time we have about 5 minutes to go plus injury time.
90 minutes and the crowd is whistling, Denmark are throwing everything at us, Patrick Kisnorbo is doing a fabulous job he has repelled 3 attacks already in the last minute or two.
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Here they come again Agger hits it to Jakobsen, Jakobsen hits a long ball in but Kisnorbo is there and clears the ball out to the half way line, the ref blows his whistle and that’s it were through to the Second round. What a great display from our Defence, we have been outplayed but out defence stood firm and we have secured a second round birth.
12-27-2006, 11:39 AM
World Cup 2010 - an Australian perspective Post #9
It was a great result for us to progress to the second round, England beat Uruguay in the other group B match so meant that they were top qualifier. Argentina sealed Italy’s fate of not getting to the second round with a 4-2 win, while Ivory Coast booked their place with over Russia. The Czech’s poor performance continued, they couldn’t manage to get a win over lowly China and had to settle for a 1-1 draw, while South Africa’s shock win over Holland seen them replacing the Dutch team in the second round.
Our next match was against Argentina, it would be a very tough game, they were in good form with 3 strait wins in the tournament, but if we had a good game we could sneak through.
12-27-2006, 12:51 PM
World Cup 2010 - an Australian perspective Post #10
World Cup 2010 - an Australian perspective 
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