It's a little early to be passing final judgement on Jan Versleijen's group of Young Socceroos,
given that they are still in with a slim chance of progressing. But the report card is less than
impressive so far.
Many have showered praise on them for how they took the game to both the Czechs and Costa Rica, but
it's surely significant that Versleijen's charges only really did so when they were already chasing
the game.
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A couple of days ago, the Australian squad for the Asian U-16 qualifying series in Canberra in
October was announced. One thing that immediately catches the eye in the list is that it features
no fewer than seven players from the Sutherland Sharks club.
There may be all sorts of factors involved in this apparent anomaly (especially the very healthy
player base that the club has to choose from), but can their over-representation be put down, in
part, to the artificial pitch they have been using for the last few years?
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Craig Foster's weekly piece in the Sun-Herald deals, naturally enough, with the new National
Football Curriculum. But what is very surprising in the article is the vicious excoriation of Han
Berger's predecessor as Technical Director, Rob Baan. When Baan was appointed, he was greeted with
open arms by Foster (and the rest of the SBS crew).
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Jan Versleijen's Young Socceroos have drawn a tough group in September's U-20 World Cup in Egypt.
As well as perennial high-flyers Brazil, there are the Czechs, runners-up in the 2007 event, and
CONCACAF loose cannon Costa Rica.
The youngsters' performance at this event will be interesting to watch, for a number of reasons.
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Result: 3-0 Attendance: 16,998 (Record attendance for Adelaide United. Congratulations!) Crowded
House: Watching on TV, the atmosphere at the packed out ground looked amazing. For the 90 minutes,
the drums thundered and the fan sang. It was electric. The other codes can only dream of
international nights like this.
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Result: 3-3 Attendance: 9024 Man of the Match: This was very hard to pick since a lot of players
had an up-and-down game. Captain reliable Travis Dodd was consistently dangerous throughout the
night, running very direct at defenders which caused the Mariners all sorts of problems. He capped
his game with a penalty.
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It's pretty hard to disagree with any of the A-League players selected by Pim as form was evidently
the determining factor in selection. Shannon Cole continues his meteoric rise in Australian
football and his ability to hit the ball with both feet is something few other players in the squad
have. In him and [.
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In my previous match reports, I have been very critical of Jedinak. I argued that I didn't think he
had much of a future in the national team. I've only recently started to watch him week to
week (and yes, paying for Foxtel is a pain and a drain) and now I understand why [...]
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In my previous match reports, I have been very critical of Jedinak. I argued that I didn't think he
had much of a future in the national team. I've only recently started to watch him week to
week (and yes, paying for Foxtel is a pain and a drain) and now I understand why [...]
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Melbourne continued their very impressive start to the season with a 1-0 victory after going down
to 10 men after Ney Fabiano being sent off for a spitting incident. This performance was probably
more impressive than the 5-0 demolition of Newcastle given the way Melbourne controlled the game
and limited Adelaide to only a [.
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QPR Report 27 August @ 12:39 PM EST
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BBC -Flowers not happy despite victoryQPR assistant manager Tim Flowers insists the team still have a lot to work on despite their 4-0
thrashing of Carlisle in the Carling Cup.
Flowers told BBC London 94.9: "Speaking as a defensive player I was not happy with us.
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Was that the most entertaining and exciting round of A-League ever? With an average of 4.5 goals a
game, it probably was. And it was a round that was all about the foreigners, as well as some
established local stars. Queensland v Adelaide For the Roar, the three foreigners combined to score
an exquisite, and highly technical, [.
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If you can get your hands on this game or view a replay, do it as this 3-3 draw was the most
entertaining A-League game I have ever seen. It was really all about the foreigners who all played
a significant part in the goals and the game overall. There is often a lot of [...]
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For Australian football's sake...go! There comes a time in everyone's career when it is time to
move on...for Graham Arnold, for his own sake if no-one else's it's now.
Arnie has had two Campaigns, an Asia Cup and an Olympic campaign, where he was the Coach.
Who ever gets two Campaigns to fail in World Football?
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The Maybes The following players should earn caps during the course of the career. The question is
more how many and how significant their contribution to the Socceroos will be. Mark Milligan - Did
Mark Milligan's Socceroo career reach its peak with his selection for the 2006 World Cup and his
involvement in the 2007 Asian Cup?
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If history is anything to go by, then at least a handful of this Olyroos squad will go on and
become important future members of the Socceroos. I will go through the squad and look at the
prospects of each player. I won't go through the over-aged players as their role in the senior team
[...]
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Ben Kantarovski, 16 year old from Newcastle Jets made the most promising 16 year old debut in the
NSL or A-League since Mark Viduka...and it was the youth and debutants that caught my eye in the
opening couple of games.
The A-League kicked off four seasons ago. Kantarovski, Chris Payne, Evan Berger, Nick Tsatallios
and and established stars like James Holland, and Adam Casey, would have been playing junior
football wondering where to next?
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Here is one of my favourite quotes: "An opportunity is worth to a person exactly what their
preparation enables them to make it". This quote came from Mark Zupan's book, You Gonna Play:
How Murderball Saved My Life, about an American quadriplegic athlete who competed at the Olympics.
Let's draw an analogy to the Olyroos Olympic [.
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Big kick-off tonight with the F3 Derby. Interestingly the first Mariners Jets Derby drew 5,700. And
the Mariners started the first A-League season with 600 Members. Canberra, two years out, has 450
and out team doesn't even have a name yet!
Anyway here's ten to watch and most of them aren't Olyroos:)
Central Mariners:Well if Mark Bosnich signs up it will be him.
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Nearpost Host Russ Gibbs asks the question.....
The Olyroos: Where was the Magic?
By Russ Gibbs
So, that's that then. After building it up for several months in advance the Australian Olympic
team have bowed out of the Beijing Games with barely a whimper having picked up a solitary point
from their three group matches.
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The Olyroos' Olympic campaign came to a disappointing end after we were bundled out with a 1-0 loss
to the Ivory Coast. Australia's lack of precision and quality finishing in the final third really
cost us the game as we did carve out numerous chances, particularly in the first half. With the
Elephant's only needing the [.
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Australia went out of the Olympics tonight. They lost 1-0 in Tianjin to the Ivory Coast.
And whilst they gave perhaps their best performance of the tournament they never really looked
convincing in the the final third, not tonight, or indeed in the whole tournament.
They told us they were a great group of players, battle hardened having qualified through Asia.
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Nearpost
National Show:Ed Hollis talks about his Tottenham day job.
We preview the A-League, talk Olyroos and update on the Canberra A-League bid.
Download
Locally:Download
Woden Valley's Ed Hollis, Rachael Harrigan, Kadee Hollis and Amy McCloughlin talk Dane Cup, and
their trip of a lifetime.
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Tom Sermanni expects all Matildas to line-up for the W-League opener expected to be late
October.
Lisa De Vanna and Kate Gill are the only doubts at this stage but he's hopeful they wil return from
Sweden in time to play.
Speaking from China where Sermanni is scouting the Japanese men's group for Olyroo's Coach Graham
Arnold the Matildas Coach was delighted with the new league and delighted there would be eight
teams.
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Nationally we talk A-League kick-off, Olyroos and talk to former Tottenham Physio Ed Hollis
Locally we'll have all the A-League news and talk to Ed Hollis, Rachel Harrigan and Kadee Hollis
all have just returned from the Dane Cup with Woden Valley. Should be a great show. Nationally from
6.
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We are all very quick to jump on Arnie's back when we think that he gets it wrong. So, it is
refreshing to say that I think the changes to the starting line-up were pretty much on the money.
Out went players that would undoubtedly struggle with the pace and trickery of the Argentineans
(Topor-Stanley [.
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Argentina defeated Australia 1-0 in Shanghai but Perth Glory's Nikita Rukavystya could have stole
the show....if he'd have finished one of his three chances.
Argentina ran the show, but Aussie Coach Graham Arnold had his defence working overtime to halt the
threat of the Olympic Champions.
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I got to see the 2nd half live on channel 7. Argentina were clearly on another planet to the
Olyroos. And yet they couldn't score and were becoming increasingly penulant, firing off at
everything. Thompson off Rukavytsya on. 15 seconds later he is away, running into the box from the
left and firing a bullet - into the side netting.
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At this, largely under 23, level Argentina are probably the world's best. So the Olyroos v
Argentina would attract capacity crowds at a ground in Australia.
But on Channel 7 they won't tell when their delayed telecast starts. So there will be no pub loads
of fans watching that then. And all the kids whose parents can't afford Foxtel don't even get fair
warning and promotion on the free stuff.
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Olyroos Get a Lucky Point On Thursday night the Football tournament started the night before the
official opening ceremony. And our Olyroos kicked it off with a match against first timers, Serbia.
The score ended up 1-1 which is obviously better than losing. Tonight we take on defending Olympic
champions, Argentina and the heir apparent to Maradonna, [.
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Back off our Olyroos.
Reading the reviews of the Serbia game I felt quite cheesed off. It is almost like people thought
we were going over there as favourites and 'medal hopes.' If Australia were prepared to invest and
focus the time an effort on this football code - then yes I think we would be the best in the
world.
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Big game tonight. Can Arnie's defence hold out? and perhaps more importantly can we
create....anything!
Australia earned a point, outplayed generally by Serbia in the opening game, but yet if the fastly
improving Billy Celeski had scored rather than unluckily hit the post we would surely have won.
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Beijing Games opener analysis, Olyroos 1 v Serbia 1 GIVEN the context of an average performance,
Thursday night's 1-1 result with Serbia was just about as good as it could have been for the
Olyroos, and at least keeps them alive. What the game demonstrated above all else was the
significant gap in technical "on-the-ball" ability between the two sets of players.
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QPR Report 08 August @ 02:18 AM EST
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Herald Sun (Australia) - Olyroos draw 1-1 in opener against
SerbiaTom Smithies in Shanghai | August 07, 2008 08:51pm
AUSTRALIA'S Olympic odyssey started in positive fashion last night, with the Olyroos grabbing a
point against Serbia in Shanghahi to keep alive their dreams of qualifying for the knockout stages.
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There will probably be a lot of negative reports for this game so I'll start with the positives:
Positives Federici was excellent. While most of his saves were routine (although difficult), I was
impressed by his general command of the box. He needed to be commanding as Serbia racked up the
corner count (14 to 1).
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