Given you have to run, turn, jump, pass, shimmy and tackle during the game like everyone else wtf do you require specific fitness work, which is apparnetly done in the dressing room ?

I smell something os not quite right.


What do you think about the FourFourTwo article Harry Blasts Back At The Press?
HARRY Kewell has lashed out at suggestions he is behind a supposed rift in the Socceroos' camp following Pim Verbeek's failure to bring him on as a substitute during Australia's disastrous 4-0 loss to Germany in its opening World Cup game.

Have your say.

It's a pity Harry has to come out and say this, that in itself is a sign that things are not right.


I've seen that (bold) quote a few times, Moore said the same thing. Seems like Pim still has the change room on his side, which is important.

The players have been constantly annoyed by the OZ media and the public not appreciating their qualification path, now they feel even more unappreciated and alienated from the fans. Hopefully they can use that as motivation to come out firing against Ghana and Serbia. We can still get 6 points.

Imagine if we'd played the Germans last... :-k

In 2006, Guus kept a lid on the media and controlled the information...shame Pim cant do the same. There were very few player interviews as they were locked down.

lol good on harry cockerill is a giant douche

Guys - lets face it, whilst football has become a mainstream game in this country, the footballing media is still a reactionary freakshow conditioned by NSL years where, in all fairness, they probably did know better than some of the goofs running it. But none of them have ever gotten over the fact that those years are gone. It's a professionally administered sport run by people with a knowledge accumulated a bit more formally than "well I hung around XYZ FC until they gave me a job and now I'm the boss". Couple that with the usual range of blow-ins who spent May googling "soccer" in preparation for the world cup and this is what we have got. A journalistic pack consisting of freaks and dimwits, every single one.

Mike Cockerill's last decent effort in the SMH came in approximately 2005. The lead football writer at Australia's most prestigious broadsheet appears to loathe every single person involved in the administration and coaching of the local game (with the exception of such proven winners as John Kosmina) and takes every opportunity to stir up prejudices and divisions because apparently that's journalism. Circus Oz couldn't come up with a bigger bunch of freak-clowns than the idiot panel at TWG. Les, you ought to be the exception but you went and employed Zelko? Give me a frigging break. "Professor" Foster would don the speedos and personally tow Australia in any direction but wherever it is going, if it wasn't for the giant "I wish I was a brazilian-spanish-german-with-a-UEFA-A-licence-and-a-job-at-Real" shaped chip on his shoulder that prevented him from doing any real work (or proper football analysis for that matter), and their continued employment of Fink suggests that "nut-house" in big pink and purple letters was the first slide on the TWG corporate mission statement. With the exception of Hill, the situation at Foxsports isn't all that much better - but in fairness to them, they all approach their jobs with a "we're all just a bunch of boofheads" mentality which fits perfectly with the oft-proven reality.

Against that background, you can understand the frustrations of people like Harry Kewell, who have had a career that not only encompasses some of the best football clubs and coaches in the world, but some of the best footballing media in the world. None of the "greats" of the Australian footballing media would get within a block of the Guardian footballing department without an escort from a proper journalist. The BBC would laugh heartily at the idea of employing them. L'Equip? Non. C'est impossible. Even those yankies with their mid-atlantic dutch and scottish accents over at ESPN smirk to themselves when the Aussie media contingent walk into the room. If the Australian footballing team are treating the Australian footballing media like a bunch of amatuer, provincial, part-time nut jobs trying to further their own petty agendas, then let me tell you boys: take off that crazy clown hair, because the cap fits you perfectly.



Edited by md_: 17/6/2010 09:38:57 AM

Spot on.

quite honestly, all these media distractions and termoil are far from positive for the team.......i hope they arent getting all the info we are, as it can only undermine our chances

Some VERY interesting news from News Ltd's Paul Kent (who's he?): http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/world-cup-2010/players-unhappy-with-verbeek-tactics/story-fn4l4sip-1225880707578

There's more analysis from Kent at the URL, but basically that's the "news" portion of it.

Far out md_, that was one of the most eloquent rants I've ever read!

Well in sir :)

To be honest, Pim never believed we will beat Germany so decided to rest Kewell,Bresh etc. He played defensive to try and minimise the damage in regards to score major fail.

He has always considered Ghana and Serbia as the games we need to win, so kewell and bresh will play no doubt he was just saving them. Easy as that, if we can't beat the two of these teams we don't deserve to go through.

@md_ - Love the description. Its amazing how quickly the media turned... I think Pim made a mistake in his tactics and personnel against germany, but lets put this in perspective. the germans have looked the best of all the teams to play so far... spain lost, italy drew, the dutch looked unconvincing, argentina looked good for the first 30 mins and then faded out, the french drew, and the english were held to a draw with a team that ran us off the park... why couldnt we have ended up in a group with algeria, greece and honduras???

=d> =d> =d> =d> =d> =d> Great post. I realise now why Football was a rotting corpse of a sport for decades. All these negative, unrealistic, arm chair experts were running it. All right the team had a shocker. Get over it!!

And another thing. How dare the SBS royalty accuse our team of being boring. You blokes would send a carton of Reb Bull to sleep.

Football will never get any traction in Australia while His Royal Dullness Les Murray and his old school soccer mates are presenting it!

Paul Kent is a Rugby League Jurno that the Telegraph sent to South Africa to right stories on the Cup. I think that says it all really!

Paul Kent is a Kent.

If the 'roos win against Ghana (I still honestly believe they will) and Kewell actually goes out on the field, what will people be writing about...

Who cares what the media are saying, focus on the job at hand. The media are doing there job by speculating and speaking shit, Kewell should do his job of playing football.

So it looks like Vinnie was disappointed at being subbed off, and Bresco was disappointed to be benched 90 mins, and they asked Pim about his decisions and he explained it and THEY ARE OK WITH IT.

And it looks like that was all it took for the press to start writing stories about "Discontent in the change room".

Well, if that's all there is to it, let's move on. Only 62 hours and 10 mins till kickoff against Ghana!!!

This whole is the Asian Cup all over again. Poor performance from the players, weird decisions from the coach, rumors of infighting, and the involvement of Graham Arnold - and now one (or more) of the players becoming overly defensive.

There IS something more going on - it was obvious last night and there is a history to back it up.

It's time for the football fans of this country to unite.

We were beaten by a great team, our tactics were poor and we paid the price.

It's not over by a long shot and we need to get positive and to show the media and all doubters that we are here to stay and not just here for the WC Circus.

We are football fans forever!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ErEk2720CA

One thing that should be clear about Pim is that he is a straight, honest talker. That is the Dutch way. It is in their culture. There is no sarcasm or mindgames, just honesty. It's honesty to the point where Australians can get offended (and have) but I'm convinced that if a player asked Pim why he was not put on the field he would have been given an honest, if not confronting, answer.

That is the beauty and also danger of appointing Dutch coaches. If you want someone who says what people want to hear then don't appoint someone who is Dutch.

Md - hat's off mate - you are right on the money. The non-football media are looking to put us down again. The champagne corks will be popping over at AFL house.

I do think the whole linching of the team and coach is counterproductive.

The players have been saying for a long time that they felt that Australians did not appreciate their efforts in qualifying for the World Cup and the Asian Cup. This would no doubt be fed by media reports but also them getting a sniff of what people like us are saying on the web.

Is this a good thing? Are we unappreciative, given that our team is just the sum of its parts and we can't make them better than they are?

Looks like Harry was after Cockerill's hide. I didn't notice his quotes on any Fox report.

http://www.smh.com.au/world-cup-2010/world-cup-news/livid-kewell-demands-fairfax-football-writer-shows-himself-20100617-ygtl.html?autostart=1



Australian football has a propensity to self harm like no enemy could hope to achieve in a lifetime.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.

what would have been the point of risking Harry when the game was lost in the first half hour?

precisely.

Considering the A-league is literally ignored by the press, we should be happy that the game is focused on us. Who cares what they are saying the tabloid press just get on with the job. Best way to respond to criticism is to win.

Maybe it's just part and parcel of Australia evolving as a football nation?

Just look at the hammering the UK players get from press and public.

Or then take a look at what the Spanish papers and fans are saying right now, not to mention Italy, France, and any other team that hasn't lived up to expectations (yet).

There will always be reporters looking for sensational stories, there will always be fans who know better than the coach, etc. If there are more of these people than 4 years ago in Australian, maybe that's a good thing.

It could've been 4-0 whichever way Pim played it. Pim took a gamble on the way to most likely get a point and we almost caught them while they worked it out.

Let's not forget that the 23 man squad is the best we have and within that 23 there isn't anyone (outside of Cahill, Emerton and Schwarzer) that aren't easily replaceable with someone else. We don't have any "world class" strikers or centre halves. Lets make the most of being there and get behind them as they give it a shake.

Cockerill >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> daylight>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> anyone on this forum.

I find it hilarious that Sydney FC fans in particular have some sort of vendetta against the game (particularly their team).

Mike Cockerill has been, and remains, the #1 football journo in the country by lightyears.


Trax -
"@md_ - Love the description. Its amazing how quickly the media turned..."

True - only the 'fans' (bandwagoning "I told you so brigade) turned quicker.

thanks for that, mike.

There is a huge gulf between public expectation and reality.

The mainstream press writes for the unwashed masses who think the Sokkah World Cup is a quaint little event held every 4 years. They think that by Australia qualifying we should win it. The mainstream press then perpetuates this by writing crap articles with a hidden "hate" of the sport. When Australia comes up short, the knives come out.

The reality is that we are merely a minnow in this sport with about two dozen teams better than us. The group we are in is a tough group and our first game was against a team playing good football, we got dudded a penalty call and a dubious send off and things just went downhill after that. Looking at the other games, I think Germany will be at least a semi-finalist if not winner of the gold blob.

Looking at the other top sides. They are battling for draws and narrow one goal wins against probably easier opponents than Australia.

Pim's tactics in the first game was probably to limit the damage (at least I hope and he did not have a fucking mental breakdown). It backfired. He didn't play Harry, Marco or Jesus, because, well, there was no point risking these players for nothing to be gained. Look at the players that did start and did come on as subs. You could see he wasn't trying to risk much.

I just hope we play our A-Team against Ghana in their preferred positions and they bring their A-game.

If they do we will have our confidence back for another Balkan opponent.

If not, well, the Australian press can continue sticking their knives in.

Edited by hotrod: 17/6/2010 11:15:20 AM