Yeah, that's right, "grit and determination" will get you through. Australian spirit. Just like it did against Germany. No wait...
Fingers, arms, legs, everything crossed for the game this weekend. Pray that Pim can transform into Mourinho and spring a surprise win.


What do you think about the FourFourTwo article Wilko: We'll Fight To The End?
LUKE Wilkshire insists there will be no World Cup surrender from the Socceroos after the Germany debacle with the defender fully focused on a six-point haul and salvation.

Have your say.

Everyone keeps saying that we need 2 wins. We need to win the next game which gets us up to equal with Ghana. After that we will only need a draw against Serbia if Germany win their other 2 games.

downunderfc - was just about to say the same thing. Although with the last two games of the group played simultaneously you'd have to play for the win against Serbia. Unless Germany decide to rest a lot of players, however, I can't see us needing it. A win against Ghana and a draw against Serbia should be enough to see us through.

Actions speak louder than words, Luke.

Let's see if this playing group has the stones to defy Grim Pim and go out to show how real Australians play - win, lose or draw.

Luke, help score some goals & dont worry about fighting till the end, you wont need to if your 3 nil up in the 1st half.

The whole 'fighting' term doesn't neccessarily mean coming from behind to win a game. What most of us want to see is the belief and confidence in our play, we want our guys to genuinely believe they have a great chance of progressing. ATM they seem quite deflated and lifeless.

downunderfc - 2 wins may still not get us out of the group. If we win both the next 2 games and Germany beats Serbia but loses to Ghana (resting players etc) unless we rout Ghana by 3 goals or more, we would still not progress on goal difference. It would likely be Germany, Ghana, Aust.

Nah Germany looked very strong, i don't think they will go short of 9 points in the group. I don't think there was a player who didn't perform well, except for maybe Klose who was quiet. Even resting a few players they will still dominate.

A win against Ghana and then an early goal against Serbia will get us through.

Edited by Vaughn2111: 16/6/2010 02:52:54 PM

They wouldn't risk losing to Ghana as they would only be 3 points in front (if we beat them). They would want to be certain they topped the group.

I have the same fear as phutbol. The more you look at it it looks like a real possibility.

Feet first... 2 wins might not even be enough with our goal difference being so bad. If we win both our remaining games and then Germany lose to Ghana... we would be out... unless we rout Ghana by 6 goals or so, which I can't see happening

The table would look like this:
Germany - 6 pts +7 GD
Ghana - 6 pts +2 GD
Australia - 6 pts -2 GD
Serbia - 0 pts +4 FR (fan riot)

but mathematically ... a win and a draw is also a possible out

even just winning once could prove enough... if we win say 3-0 against ghana ...
and ghana and serbia both cop a spanking of 3-0from germany and then we lose to serbia 1-
0

Table from that scenario

Ger - 9 pts: Ger 4/Oz 0, Ger 3/Srb 0, Ger 3/Gh 0 = GD +10
Aus - 3 pts: Oz 0/Ger 4, Oz 3/Gh 0, Oz 0/Srb 1 = GD -2
Srb - 3 pts: Srb 0/Gh 1, Srb 0/Ger 3, Ser 1/Oz 0 = GD -3
Gha - 3 pts: Gh 1/Srb 0, Gh 0/Oz 3, Gh 0/Ger 3 = GD -5

however all the required scenarios all add up to 1 thing... it is out of our hands
we are leaning on other results going our way

Assuming Germany beat Serbia there's a fair chance Germany will have nothing to play for against Ghana and, having spanked us by 4, they will still top the group on goal difference even if they lost to Ghana.

Having said that, even if they were resting players and had nothing to play for, I would still put my money on them to beat Ghana (who have everything to play for).

How about we win and Serbia beat Germany, we beat Serbia and Ghana and Germany draw, we top the group!

Where do I sign?

If this was a possability Pim would turn around and say that losing to Germany was all part of the master plan to put off both Ghana and Serbia.

The old Rope a dope trick.

Brilliant tactician that Pim.

Why not forget about "if we this and they that".......lets just win 2 bloody games? At the end of the day thats all we can do! At least then we would have achieved something because to be realistic we were never going to actually beat Germany. So to quote meatloaf....Two out of Three ain't Bad!

If we win 2 games we can sort've say it is our best result in the WC finals :p

Well they better! If they get hit for six by Ghana, all the good work done before/during and since 2006 will have been undone. I mean, who's going to want to coach the Socceroos if we get thrashed in the next two games? I hope we won't, because if we do, it'll take Australian football back 10 years.

Not only will it take us back but as the worst performing team in Asia/Oceania you can rule out a World Cup coming our way... There is more on the line than just your pride boys, so pick it up.

As long as our best players are fit and playing in positions they are familiar with especially throughout the Asian campaign, we will have chances to score. So hoping Harry is ready to start putting in some 90 min performances.