Am a shattered but also a very proud aussie.

The boys gave 150% and restored my belief that we really are a top 20 football nation.We truly belonged at the WC. In World Cups you obviously need to win but luck also plays such an important part and we had none. The red cards shagged us. Most top quality teams with 10 men would have got toweled up and bent over by the Germans. Finishing with 4 points is respectable.

Honorable mentions must go to Schwartzy, Beauchamp and Holman. And, yes im still removing the egg from my face when it comes to Holman. Hes proved me totally wrong.
Am also impressed with Valeri he looks like he could end up being quality.

The future looks bright i just hope we can get sum tip top friendlies organised against more 1- 10 ranked nations to bring these young guyz on. Hopefully a quality o/s coach will help these young guyz develop with confidence and the killer aussie instinct. Have heard Scolari mentioned and the current Chilean coach. Wouldnt hurt us to move away from the Dutch model.

We have alot to be positive about moving forward.

Oh so close...it could have been the Socceroos vs USA for a spot in the Top 8!!!!!
The Socceroos deserve a street parade down the middle of Sydney CBD or downtown Melbourne...well done!!!!

Tis a cruel world.
still not a horrible world cup by anymeans.
4 points is extremely respectable.

Our players showed that they were more than good enough to compete at this level. If it wasnt for our crap coach and some bad referees we would be through to the second round. At least we stuck it to all of the eurosnobs that said on this forum that said we had no hope of beating a team like Serbia!!

great game. I'm so proud of the aussies. That 2nd half was all heart...Holamninho...oh jeez...well done...Everyone criticized his selection...wat does he do?..gets 2 goals at the world cup..Well done to michael beauchamp aswell u were solid at the back and u showed u could step up. I really wanted to see Vidosic and ruka get more of a run tho.

USA are through to the second round mate.

I listen to a lot of world football podcasts and their was a universal belief that Serbia would win. This was not a question of Australia could beat them rather "when Serbia win...". It feels so good to prove people wrong. Good stuff Socceroos! It is not the second round but it is the next best thing.

Oh-a-oh-wa-oh-wa-ooohhh
Oh-a-oh-wa-oh-wa-ooohhh
Oh-a-oh-a-oh-wa-ooohhh
AUS-TRA-LIAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Great work boys! Well done. Australian Pride! Number one in my books who cares who wins the cup.

The boys did the job on Serbia when most people said otherwise. At least we knocked the war crims out as they said all week they'd roll us.

Im Very proud of the Socceroos! Holmans goal got to be up there for goal of the WC

In all my years of watching the WC Ghana would have to be one of the worst teams to ever make it through. Bloody disgrace!!

"Holman, once LOLman, now GOALman"
Love that analogy!!! I'm really happy for him, he proved his detractors wrong in the best possible way.
Valeri too has come of age and I was thinking, if Grella wants to take a year off, go right ahead, we are ok with Valeri.
Has anyone ever seen Beauchamp look better in a green and gold jersey? He was fantastic. Whereas he once looked lost at sea, now looks a power of confidence and the perfect deputy to Lucas Neill as CB.
Carney was a bit disapointing. More first team experience for Shane Lowry and Carney is in deep trouble.
I'm proud of our boys, they exited on a positive note and has restored the Socceroos brand to its rightful place in Australia's psyche. In the last two games, they fought tenaciously and endlessly and we can be all rightly proud of them. I know I am!
BTW. McLovin' the Tim Cahill pic on the top of the article. No wonder those dreadlock beanies always sell out at Roo matches!

I laugh at those who made fun of holman, bar far the best aussies best player. Holman vs Carle?, it seems stupid to compare now. Onwards t the asian cup, Go socceroos

Oh geez I must've dozed off more than I thought - I was sure we played attacking football in the last two matches. Certaily more than in qualifying, which lo and behold, is excatly what Pim said!

Is there no end to this diatribe?

Really proud of our boys.

In all honesty, i was just happy to be at the World Cup.

But we walk away with heads held high.

Now i get to watch Brazil/Portugal, Chile/Spain and many, many other killer games without any stress!!

If you had asked me before the tournament, I would have taken a 2-0 loss to Germany (same as Brazil '06). This would still not have been enough and we essentially got the same amount of points against better teams.

We did OK and I am ane who now looks at Holman with different eyes.

Top work by all the boys!

Can't blame Schwarz for the gaff. Low hard, moving ball on moist grass bouncing just in front is not a simple take.

He saved our balls many more times then let them through IMO.

Can't help but feel gutted.

I'm suspicous that Gernamy went 1-0 and didn't go on with it as well as some of the shite ref calls again in our game.

No way do Ghana deserve to go through on what I saw. I guess if South africa went through all things would be different.

Sour grapes....you bet.

Congrdulations to Holman. He came on and played his role to perfection. I must admit when he got the ball in space Iturned to the wife and said ' shit the wrong person to give it too in that spot". I ate my words 1 second later.

Cahill playing out of midfield was exactly correct...never upfront as they mark him out of the game plus he is not onto the ball.

Thats tough! I really wanted to see you guys make it through and when Holman banged that screamer in I thought we could see a collapse by Serbia and you guys slam a couple more home...alas it wasn't to be!

I don't think it's totally fair for y'all to blame Verbeek for the failure to make it to the next round. The card to Cahill, while dubious, was invited by the over zealous challenges he and others had been making. Besides, you guys should've known that Verbeek prefers to play boring defensive strategies and grind out results rather than look at creating more goal-scoring threats - look at the Korean team he took to the Asian Cup; defensively very strong but couldn't score in a whorehouse! Unfortunately for you guys your defenders are a bit crusty.

Anyway, at the end of the day you guys qualified for the cup and got the same results as 2006 so that ain't too bad; at least you didn't head backwards. Hard luck guys.

Our team won the game because they showed more drive, commitment & passion than Serbia. We wanted it more than them & went out & took it, while they perhaps thought it was gonna come a bit easier for them.
Well done Aussies, you played your hearts out.

Loved the AVEAGO spirit! I`m strangely happy for our boys. They did us proud!!! Pim`s to blame if you want to blame someone. We did get some unlucky reffing decisions, but the reff was good tonight, almost unnoticeable, which is how it is supposed to be. It is a bit of coulda, shoulda but in the end. Well done to a GREAT GENERATION! bring on the next generation!

Next world cup we should still have GOALman (no longer LOLman) too!

Well done Australia you fully deserved that victory. Fucking arrogant Serbia, as a fan of Serbia I cant believe Antic's mindset heading into the match. He rested Subotic and Kolarov because they were one yellow away from missing the next match. Stupid mentality going into a match thinking your gonna win it easy. Altough we dominated the possesion Australia were far better. To all the socceroo fans that feel that Verbeek era was sucess think again cos australia should have gotten out of group. Dont blame referees.

Well done Australia you fully deserved that victory. Fucking arrogant Serbia, as a fan of Serbia I cant believe Antic's mindset heading into the match. He rested Subotic and Kolarov because they were one yellow away from missing the next match. Stupid mentality going into a match thinking your gonna win it easy. Altough we dominated the possesion Australia were far better. To all the socceroo fans that feel that Verbeek era was sucess think again cos australia should have gotten out of group. Dont blame referees.

Bloody heck, didn't realise people could be as bad as the SBS pundits. We love playing the hindsight card eh?

Pim did well, we won a match at the world cup ffs, against a team way better than Japan.

It wasn't long ago that people would trade their organs, limbs and first borns to just get to the World Cup.

What a shock we'll be in when the rest of this Golden Age retire...

Edited by andytoddselbow: 24/6/2010 07:32:52 AM

The boys did well and can hold their heads high. Pim can **** off to Morrocco. Bring on the new and improved younger Roos for the Asian Cup and 2014...

It should have been enough to go through. We can point the finger squarely at Pim that it wasn't.

Well done Australia... really good performance. Such a shame we can't continue on through the tournament with this form.

Holman has made me eat my words and I am a fan now. Jesse Fink should apologise and write a congratulatory article about Holman.

I hate to be negative but it has to be said again.

One person is responsible for us not progressing and that is Pim Verbeek and his decisions/tactics/formation and mindset that he sent out against Germany. 4-0 will always be the result with that kind of non-sense.

Fair enough Greece can play that way, Italy too and a few other nations, but it simply is not part of the Australian psyche or thought process.

The next Aussie coach should be sat down in front of a DVD player and the biggest TV the FFA can find with Pim's team sheet, tactical sheet and log book and shown that performance 10 times straight.

Just so it is clear what I am getting at.

IF ANY AUSTRALIAN COACH EVER SENDS OUT AN AUSTRALIAN TEAM WITH THAT MINDSET, THOSE TACTICS AND THAT FORMATION (Germany 4-0) AGAINST ANY TEAM IN THE WORLD EVER AGAIN. HE SHOULD BE SACKED IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE GAME.

It wasn't a howler, it kinda came on him a bit weirdly, always difficult when it bounced that close to you. I think it moved in the air.

Another brilliant performance by him nevertheless. Arsene Wenger must be salvilating over him, i know i would be.

Ghana won't have long to celibrate. In 3 games they have created nothing, and will fall at the next hurdle.

USA have shown they are more than a match for Africa's most over hyped team.

While I am proud of the boys, it is clear that our ex coach's approch to the Germany game is responsible for us dropping out of the tounament. Since that game he has done well, but I will always remember the way he had us go out against Germany.

Hiddink - Victory against Japan dispite all odds.
Verbeek - Screwing up the Germany game, and thus our R16 chances.

Players were awsome tonight. I didn't expect that they would get more than a couple of goals in this game, I did have faith we would win it. We didn't have the preperation, and form strikers to make it 4-0.

I do hope we get better treatment from the refs at the next world cup.

Beauchamp was fantastic! Good signing for Heart to get him before the world cup where everyone can see his exploits!