Australia went through to the last four of the Asian Futsal Championships last night in their 3-2 win over Kuwait.
They have now qualified for the World Cup.
But last nights game had shades of Germany Austria back in the 80's when both teams simply failed to attack ensuring a 0 -0 score and both teams qualified.

I didn't watch the State of Origin I rarely do.
I've never watched the Brumbies despite being a passionate Canberran. Rugby just doesn't do it for me.
Football is my sport - my thing. So it is great relief that Aussie football returns after what seems like a huge break - well two weeks since the last ACL games.

Graham Arnold and Ange Postecoglou are proven Aussie Coaches.
We are now confident that any team they put out will have a plan, a football nous to take on any team at any level.
Can they change tactics mid-game? Arnie over Ange at this stage but Ange is probably superior in his vision, just.

There was a lot to like about Sunday's Grand Final. And here's a few that had me thinking.
1. The number of young Aussies getting football experience in front of over 50,000 fans in a pressure cooker.
For the Roar - Luke Bratton took centre stage no less - Nick Fitzgerald lit up the flank and James Meyer had a run, while the Glory's Josh Risdon was tested all afternoon and Scott Neville came on late.

One of the keys to writing successfully has nothing to do with prose, headlines, fact checking, or opinion. Rather, you must win the battle before the battle starts. You must make a very important decision: who are your readers?

This lecture is in English. Yes, Google Translator could butcher it for other folks, but my intended readers speak and write English.

Two bits of A-League off field brilliance to make you weep this festive sesason.
Marcos Flores is brilliant - and still United couldn't win the league - well lets sign the Coach up for four years and let Flores go.....
Loving the A-League business minds working hard around the country prior to the season and now the chooks have come to roost.

Great weekend for the believers in young Australian football players, attacking players.
Bernie Ibini, Mustafa Amini, Demi Petratos, Mate Dugandzic just some of the young Aussies hitting the net - and three of them are Under 20.
Laugh: Robbie Slater in his column on Sunday discussed how to beat the Roar - and he mentioned how Sydney would miss THE PACE of Mark Bridge.

I'm cheering at the Nearpost!
Iain Ramsay is certain to get more game time now Dutch star Andre Slory has left the game.
Isn't it time we gave our younger players ago rather than taking washed-up overseas stars who have lost their love of the game.
We don't want you, and we don't want you coming here to reinvigorate yourself - unless you're Tomas Broich or bloody good.

Socceroos won in Bangkok last night.
And wasn't it fantastic. Tense, tight and terrific football - from the Thai's at least. With a packed stadium in downtown flooded Bangkok the Aussies are no longer in Oceania.
And remember this is only the first group stage.
We needed a point - but if Robbie Kruse didnt know which of the Sutkee brothers at the end he played with in Melbourne - Michael Zullo had a fair idea by the end of the night.

The A-League is back - the Young Socceroos have played their World Cup - so how many of our young guns are flying around the league on the opening day of the season? Or come to that the next group of Young Socceroos?
Steven Lustica - hard to believe a Young Socceroo couldn't get TWO full games with the Gold Coast over the last two seasons, walks into a four year deal with Hadjuk, has played a number of crucial games in the centre mid position already.

Socceroos defeat of Wales: a sign of things to come - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

The Socceroos' upcoming World Cup campaign looks on firm ground. This morning's friendly against Wales showed the evident class of both sides' top players, but a workmanlike Australia were the superior team against a side whose Premier League pedigree belies it's FIFA ranking of 119.

So often in major international tournaments, the knock-out stages are where the rot starts to set in, even though they are supposed to be where the tournament ‘hots up.' Thankfully, the 2011 Women's World Cup quarter-finals were more hot than rot. In truth, although the group stages produced a lot of watchable football, they lacked a bit of bite and intensity at times.

Don't tell me the men and womens game is different.
I've watched the Aussies take on Guinea, Norway and Sweden.
The result is the same - hack De Vanna, hack anything that moves - and not a professional referee to stamp anything out.
The Women's game has sadly come of age!

It's always painful to see your team lose a crucial game, but it hurts more when you concede the game to the opposition rather than being simply outplayed.
Australia gave so many poor goals away in this tournament - they'll be remembered for that - but last nights final goal that smashed the World Cup dreams of us all was the worst yet.

Don't get Twitter? Do yourself a favour and have some fun - check out the fantastic tweets on Our Harry from the funny Aussies.
http://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/%23kewellaleaguedemands
And check out Bernie Mandic - the interview that started this whole thing on Monday - hear what Harry's agent actually said.

By Chris Wright

Surely even those with the most liberal interpretation of the 'ball to hand' rule must admit that Equatorial Guinea Women defender Bruna probably should have conceded a penalty for her little brain-wobble against Austrailia?

Fortunately, especially for the referee's sake, the Aussies eventually went on to win 3-2.

Celtic fan Collette McCallum introduced the Celtic anthem to the Matildas side in 2007 and when the team plays like this Australians can finally say as the song says - we don't care if we win lose or draw.
Because the Matildas are playing the best football ever seen by a women's Australian side.

The U.S. U-17 MNT spent its morning at Estadio Corregidora watching the final match of the group stage - a game that was suspended last night between Australia and Denmark.
Denmark needed a win to advance to the Round of 16, and it looked like they had one locked up, but an 89th minute strike from Rochester Sorenson tied the game and sent the Aussies to the knock out round.

Nearpost is suffering from Termites it seems.
We are looking for a one or two hosts/presenters who'd like to join the team to keep the show going. This may require once a week/ once a fortnight commitment with the other members of the team.
We'll train any presenter/host.
You need to have a passion for Aussie football - we don't talk Man Utd or Arsenal on the show - just Aussie football, mens and women and nothing local - that's Peter Funnells Nearpost Local show.

The Socceroos young guns stepped up to defeat NZ 3-0 yesterday. Despite the usual whingeing from many fans about the play there was plenty for me to like about Holger's team performance.
Particularly the crisp passing and pacy interchange in the final third. We don't often get to see it in the Green and Gold - and Josh K was on the field too, who would have thought!

David Fuentes Solarno, Lucy Zelic and Eamonn Flanagan talk Aussie Football
The review! Matildas, Aussie news and ACL :We've got Aussie football covered. We've got all the news, and how many football poddies only cover Aussie football?
We are clearly Australia's number one football poddie, apart from all the others, We discuss all the news from Australian football.

Paddy Bordier, Lucy Zelic and Nick Cumpston talk Aussie Football
We've got all the news, and how many football poddies only cover Aussie football?
We are clearly Australia's number one football poddie, apart from all the others, We discuss all the news from Australian football. What more could you wish for from the Australian media?

With so many young Aussies and older Aussies heading to Asia in the recent A-League break you have to start to wonder who will fill the spots next season.
Matthew Leckie, Robbie Kruse, Mustafa Amini, Luke Devere, Dino Djubic, and Alex Brosque are just some of the good great and ordinary A-League players who have left or will leave the A-League in coming days.

Paddy Bordier, Lucy Zelic and Eamonn Flanagan talk Aussie Football
We've got all the news, and how many football poddies only cover Aussie football?
We are clearly Australia's number one football poddie, apart from all the others, We discuss all the news from Australian football.

1. Rini Coolen's steal of the year. Iain Ramsay is given game time and wins games creates goals. Nice one only ruined by the ending.
2. Ange Postecoglou - turns a team of good players into a passing, moving, dream machine.
3. Ange - so good I mentioned it twice.
4. Graham Arnold - for turning the Mckinna dour Kilmarnock inspired Mariners into the Magnificent Mariners - the West Ham of Aussie football.

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This week's main report reviews the 2011 Asia Cup tournament that was played in Qatar from January 7th-29th. We congratulate Japan on winning their 4th title and look back at the good, bad and ugly moments of the competition.

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This week's main report reviews the 2011 Asia Cup tournament that was played in Qatar from January 7th-29th. We congratulate Japan on winning their 4th title and look back at the good, bad and ugly moments of the competition.

For a country which hadn't won either of its knockout games before the 90th minute mark, it was only fitting that Japan should win its record fourth Asian Cup in the second half of extra time.

All it took was a few moments of heroics from Eiji Kawashima and a solitary meltdown in defense from the Aussies, who let Tadanari Lee smash one home with enough time and space to construct a megayacht and cure cancer simultaneously.

It required working overtime but Japan's reward was well worth the wait as the defeated Australia 1-0 in the AFC Asian Cup final at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha.

An extra-time from substitute forward Tadanari Lee left the Socceroos needing an equalizer within 11 minutes but fatigue kicked in as Tim Cahill and crew failed to overturn the deficit.

Everton's Tim Cahill says he's ready to win the Asia Cup this Saturday when his Socceroos meet Japan in the final. After many pundits had Uzbekistan and Australian on even odds prior to their semi-final match on Tuesday, the Socceroos ran out and cruised to an easy 6-0 victory.

Meanwhile, in the other semi-final matchup, Japan battled hard and knocked off South Korea on penalties.

The Aussies thumped Uzbekistan 6 - 0 to power their way into the finals.
Japan on the other hand had to fight off a very determined S Korea in their semifinal before finally getting through on penalties.

Two young Aussies knocked on my door at 3.20am this morning. Two young footballers without Fox.
And myself and their Dad cheered long and loud when Harry Kewell scored after five minutes.
It was tense as the Uzbeks had 70% of possession but the space in attack for Australia was surprising but for this supporter who's seen Bahrain, Iraq, Korea and of course Germany and others limit our opportunities over the last six months.

Paddy, Aaron and Nick are on the pitch and up for the Asian Cup: Can the Aussies win? Are you happy with the squad and of course all the A-League news.
How many football poddies only cover Aussie football?
We are clearly Australia's number one football poddie, apart from all the others, We discuss all the news from Australian football.

Thanks to the folks at the AFC's official site, we have a look at the stats for the Aussies and Uzbeks going into Tuesday's Asian Cup semifinal. Here's how the teams have looked on paper:

Defense and Goalkeeping
Statistically, Australia are by far the best defensive team of this tournament.

Aussie football is dead, long live Aussie football.
Australia produced a performance at the Asia Cup, good enough, just to sneak into the Asia Cup Semi Finals for the first time.
Sure it was close but Matt McKay, Sas Ognenovski, David Carney, Mile Jedinak and Nathan Burns were a few of the A-League made players who are not comfortable in the Green and Gold.

We still love Asia:
Paddy,and Eamonn are on the pitch and up for the Asian Cup: Can the Aussies win? Are you happy with the squad and of course all the A-League news. We review the India game, preview Korea and of course the rampaging Reds.
How many football poddies only cover Aussie football?

Nothing better than watching Australia play in an International Tournament. And tonight it's Aussies v India.
Can't wait. No matter how good or otherwise India are meant to be, this is a game that has to be won, and to set us up nicely for the cracker against Korea.
One player up front, maybe on Friday, surely not tonight as Australia go for broke.

The English cricket team will not look like this when they return home

This is a magnificent victory. It is cricket and as such has no place on a blog about soccer/football but for those growing up around that game like we did in India or elsewhere in the cricket playing world - the Aussies were damn near invincible for aeons.

While the Aussies played a 0-0 draw with UAE last night as they start their Asian Cup 2011 bid on the weekend it was announced by AFC President and Qatari Bin Hamman that Australia has won the rights to host the 2015 Asia Cup.
Aussie media are reporting we were the only bidder!
I'm telling you who cares.

We love Asia:
Paddy, Aaron and Steph (welcome Steph) are on the pitch and up for the Asian Cup: Can the Aussies win? Are you happy with the squad and of course all the A-League news.
How many football poddies only cover Aussie football?
We are clearly Australia's number one football poddie, apart from all the others, We discuss all the news from Australian football.