Yeah, he regrets it NOW. 25 years too late.

Yeah I know Johnston said that, but he has said numerous times that he regrets never playing for Australia.

I reckon one of the funniest situations I've seen is Neven Subotic. Born in Bosnia & Herzegovina, then moved to Germany when he was 5, then in 1999 when he was 11 moved to the US and represented the US U17 and US U20 teams then moved back to Germany to play for Mainz and then after all that decided to represent Serbia:lol:

You use interviews with australian half-wit publications as evidence of their patriotism? #-o

Bouzanis was quoted in many publications saying he wanted to play for Greece.

And I know you're talking shit about Johnston. Johnston was the man who was quoted as saying "Playing football for australia is like surfing for England" as he turned his back on Australia.

The thing is, it's a different dynamic in Europe. You've got players like Vieira, Rossi, Camoranesi, Perrotta,
Davids all not representing their country of birth despite spending significant years there as youngsters.

I'm not saying they couldn't have played for their nation of birth. But after moving to Germany at a very young age, recieving basically all of their football education in Germany and growing up in Germany is it really a surprise they chose to represent Germany.

As for Australia. Christian Vieri was born in Italy, moved here because his dad was playing for Marconi in the NSL then moved back after 3 years when his dad went back to Italy and was back for one year in 1982 when his dad came back here. Hardly enough to say he jumped ship.

Dean Bouzanis, yes he played for Greece at U19 level but he played for Australia at U17 level before that and only played 3 games for the Greek U19's. He was born here and spent his whole childhood here and it was always unlikely that he'd choose Greece.

Shane Lowry again grew up here and only moved to England with Aston Villa when he was 16, he's played 8 games all up for Ireland at youth level and was always likely to choose Australia if the national team manager showed an interest in him.

Rhys Williams, born here and funnily enough was elegible for Australia, England, India and Wales, made 10 appearances for Wales U21, but stated in an interview with Alpha magazine that his first choice was always to play for Australia.

Craig Johnston, born in South Africa, only ever made 2 appearances for the England U21 team and at the time he was playing he wanted to play for Australia but was basically told by his manager not to because it would jeopardise his place at the club and he has always said he regretted it.

The only ones in Australia's case that could be considered close to what Germany have is Simunic, Seric and Didulica who all received their footballing education here, and even then the cases are miles apart.

Like I said the thing with the German players is exactly the same as Dario Vidosic being born in Croatia and moving here when he was a toddler.

That's 5 more than nations like Brazil, Argentina or England. And it's not like these players couldn't have played for their birth nations.

If you want to look at it from an Aussie perspective then what about Christian Vieri, Josip Simunic or Craig Johnston. Even Dean Bouzanis, Shane Lowry, Rhys Williams who have been capped at a lower level for other nations and come back to Australia. All players that have or could have jumped ship.

How is it poaching players. The only ones born overseas are Klose, Podolski, Trochowski, Marin and Cacau.

Out of those the only one that could be considered close to poaching is Cacau who is naturalised.

Klose moved to Germany with his parents when he was 7, Podolski moved when he was 2, Trochowski moved when he was 5 and Marin moved to Germany when he was 2. Now unless they moved to Germany because the German FA asked them to because they'd be excellent footballers when they grow up it isn't poaching.

That would be like saying we poached Dario Vidosic because he was born in Osijek and moved here when he was 1.

How? There won't be any Diego Forlan next time and he's been the difference for them this World Cup.

Yeah, we should be poaching players off other nations before we're successful. We can't model ourselves around the Germans because our domestic league will never be as strong as the Bundesliga.

And people want to get rid of the 3rd/4th place playoff:lol:

didn't realise this game was on. lameeeeee.

How?

dont worry David Uruguay should be stronger next cup

One of the best games of the tournament, lets hope the final is just as good as this game was.

What an excellent game to watch. As a neutral it was one of the better games of the tournament so far - the game throughout the whole 90 minutes was pure entertainment.

Germany being such a young side will be a force in European football in 4 years time at the next World Cup. The Aussies should be using the German's example moving forward in to the Asian Cup and the WC qualifying.

Now, moving forward - Spain v Holland tonight (or tomorrow morning; whichever way you look at it). Looking forward to it :)

Why does my alarm fail to work. I woke up at 56th minute and it was already 2-1 so I didn't bother trying to stay awake.

Nice. Would've been awesome if Forlan scored at the end.


What do you think about the FourFourTwo article Germany Secure Third Place At World Cup?
GERMANY claimed third place at the World Cup with a late header securing a thrilling 3-2 victory over Uruguay.

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