Vince Grella: Look out for Vince Grella at the World Cup


Vince Grella: Look out for Vince Grella at the World Cup

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Funky Munky
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:lol: :lol:

Fair go to the bloke, he obviously has a sense of humour. Or he actually believes it:p

Spain warm favourites with Socceroos to reign if own campaign ends early


1.England

2.David Villa

3.Of Course:p

4.Phillip Lahm's opening goal in the last world cup.

5. The B-52, Nicklas Bendtner

Edited by Funky Munky: 21/5/2010 11:34:01 PM
avy1990
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Link doesnt work, but I see the B-52 in your list. So im all over whatever this is :p
Bryan
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Quote:
Australia will play to its strengths at the World Cup, and Vince Grella says it's the only way to go.

ONE last time for an ageing group of warriors - that was the World Cup appeal from a fired up Vince Grella yesterday.

Uncompromising in his views as he is in the tackle, Australia's midfield stalwart said he would take at least a year off from the national team after the World Cup and most likely never return.

He also said he had no wish to return to play in the A-League and Australian fans who have urged Pim Verbeek to employ more attacking tactics were being naive.

''People are getting caught up with wanting to see this attacking football that sometimes doesn't pay. We're not Brazil,'' he said.

''I think we've got to remember who we are and where we come from. We've been playing the game for not a lot of years at this level. Let's do it one step at a time.''

Grella was making no attempt to gloss over his own situation. His first two seasons in England's Premiership with Blackburn had been an injury-marred disappointment. He wants to prove to English fans he is better than what he has shown them.

''More than that, I've got to prove it to myself. I'm a very harsh critic of my own game. Not being able to perform at the levels I know I can has been disappointing. I want to prove to myself that I can play in the Premier League. The facts at the moment say that I've been well under par.''

A day after his close friend and fellow midfielder Mark Bresciano suggested he might retire from the Socceroos after South Africa, Grella is of a similar mind.

''I just think that for me, after two years of interruptions, injury-wise, the best thing is to have a year of reflection and see where my body is in a year's time,'' he said. ''If I'm playing and playing well in a year's time, I wouldn't rule out playing for the national team. Right now … it's just too hard on my body.''

For the Socceroo group, this week's camp should feel like the start of a new adventure. And yet for a veteran first XI that many expect to be relatively unchanged from four years ago, it feels more like a final campaign, Grella said.

''I look around and the core of this team has played together and travelled around for the last eight years or more. I don't know how much longer that can last,'' he said. ''It is a special team and it will be [up to each] individual as to where the future takes players, but as a group this will be the end.''

It is not something the core group of Bresciano, Kewell, Schwarzer, Chipperfield, Culina and Neill need to talk about. ''You can just see that players are ageing a bit quicker these days because of the amount of games and the speed and intensity. Players are going to retire a bit younger.''

Grella does what few modern sportsmen do: he tells it as he sees it - regardless of the niceties involved. While others yesterday reached for ''sky's-the-limit'' lines, he was sober-faced about Australia's chances in South Africa. ''Everyone who is in football knows how tough our [World Cup] group is,'' he said. ''To get through that would be a marvellous achievement.''

It is possible, but not necessarily likely. To do it, he offered, Australia needed to catch its opponents on a bad day.

Is Australia - without Mark Viduka and also without a natural successor up front - a weaker team than it was four years ago? ''I wouldn't say it's better,'' Grella said. Grella still has two years at Blackburn but hopes that cutting out international duty will allow him to focus and get his body right. Following that, don't expect to see him in the A-League any time soon.

''It's something I'm really not interested in. Not now and probably never.''

The former Empoli man has clearly been stung by the treatment handed out to one-time Socceroo hero John Aloisi by the A-League boo boys. He does not fancy such a homecoming himself.

''I want to go out on the top,'' he said. ''Playing my football where I enjoy it.'' Asked if it was more likely that he would retire to his home in Italy than come back to Australia, he replied: ''That is 100 per cent.''

Fewer than 40,000 tickets are believed to have been sold for Monday's game at the MCG against New Zealand and Grella was less than impressed by that show of support.

''Come out and watch your national team play, people. Don't look at the opposition. I'd hope the public would want to come and watch their stars play. Everyone's here. Come out and support our team.''

Despite going undefeated through the qualifying campaign, Verbeek's team has come in for some criticism about an overly cautious style. They are comments Grella can scarcely believe, saying the Socceroos had not played ''any prettier football'' under Guus Hiddink than they have under Verbeek.

''He will have the best qualification record in Australia's history,'' he said of Verbeek. ''He'll go down in the history books, I can't see us ever doing that again. It's unbeatable. He has been very, very unfairly criticised.''



Just on another note. I grabbed this from http://www.smh.com.au/world-cup-2010/world-cup-news/once-more-with-feeling-for-ageing-socceroos-20100520-voub.html
about vince grella and his sober feelings about the world cup.

He's a great player and it looks like a few will call it quits after the world cup and this will give ample opportunity for the younger upcoming stars to shine like oar and holland just to name a few (who I don't necessarily feel have the mentality/physicality to be selected for the world cup but thats not to be confused with the passion to wear the shirt)

Also, I whats the deal with the melbourne farewell game. C'mon you bloody melbourne people get in it. I would love to go if I could! :P


Otherwise Grella has been great for australia and it seems he's not really for having a homecoming a-league appearance ever. LOL @ A-League Boo squad - We really do whinge a lot more than we should.

I'd love to see us make it pass the group stages and knock out england, people are rating them as world cup winners - I bloody hope not! :)

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Geez makes it sound like there ready for the grave. I wonder if Grella ever realised the EPL has fucked his body, not the Socceroos. I always enjoy a straightshooter, infact the world needs more of them but leading into the WC it would be nice if he was a little more upbeat about our chances. Doom and gloom wouldnt instill confidence in the less experienced.
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Haha, sorry lads. This is the Article I was linking too.
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Vince Grella makes the goal smaller

* Josh Massoud
* From: Herald Sun
* May 21, 2010

STRAIGHT-shooting Socceroo Vince Grella says his compatriots "have big problems" if they think Australia is a chance of winning the World Cup in South Africa.

The midfielder went on the front foot this week to temper wildly varied expectations about the team's chances.

Grella said he was as frustrated by people writing off the Socceroos as he was by those who expect the team to overcome soccer superpowers such as Brazil and Spain.

"There's been mixed comments about us," Grella said.

"Some people are getting carried away, thinking we can make the final. And on the other hand there's people saying our group is so tough that we might as well stay home.

"I try to be positive, but at the same time realistic.

"To be honest, I think Pim (Verbeek) is being realistic.

"I think if Australians get caught up in thinking we can win the World Cup, then they've got big problems.

"We are taking small steps forward and that would be too big a step forward at this stage. If people think that's going to happen, they're losing grips on footballing reality.

"I think our success in Germany might have given people the idea that we are a footballing power and then from nowhere we should be beating the likes of Argentina, Brazil and Italy.

"Now I'm not saying we can't beat those teams, but everyone needs to remember where we came from."

The tournament is shaping as a career-defining month for the 30-year-old, who has struggled with injury for the past two seasons at Blackburn Rovers.

Grella said a quarter-final appearance, surpassing the achievements at Germany 2006, would be enough to make it a "dream World Cup" for him.

And he was also conscious of the team's responsibility to perform well for the sake of the A-League and Australia's 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids.

"I think the success of the national team is very important for the World Cup bid," he said.

"If we don't win the bid, we've got to keep trying. We've got to ask the Government to have another go. We'll get it eventually."

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/vince-grella-makes-the-goal-smaller/story-e6frf9if-1225869833497

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Fair enough he doesnt want to play in the A-League, but not even wanting to live back in your own country one day! :-({|=

Does he even like Australia!

Maybe it was just the way the article was written.
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