Australia banking on European experience

HANOI, July 19 (Reuters) - Playing week in, week out in the pressure cooker environment of the European leagues could tip the balance in Australia's favour when they face Japan in the Asian Cup quarter-finals on Saturday, the Socceroos say.



Australia got off to an awful start when they drew with Oman then lost to Iraq, but raised their game to thump Thailand 4-0 and set up a mouth-watering clash with Japan.


The Australians know they will have to play even better to get past an in-form Japanese team but expect the 'cup final' mentality they are used to in Europe to work in their favour.


'This is do or die and that suits our character as a team,' said midfielder Mark Bresciano, who plays for Italian Serie A club Palermo.


'As we've seen in the past, that's when we perform at our best. We can step up on these big occasions.


'We don't die off too easily and if there's just that little possibility of winning then we're going to take it.'


Although Australia are making their first appearance at the Asian Cup, they have already developed a strong rivalry with Japan after coming from a goal down to beat them 3-1 at last year's World Cup.


Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, who plays in for Middlesbrough, said the Socceroos were only just starting to get back to the same form they showed in Germany.


'This is a big tournament, it's a major tournament and for us it's second only to the World Cup and we're treating it as serious as the World Cup,' he said.


Despite the poor start, Australia were improving game by game, he added.


'I'd rather be getting better than getting worse and if we can get the result against Japan it's just going to kick us even further.'


While the bulk of Australia's players are based in Europe, only two members of Japan's squad play outside their homeland - Celtic playmaker Shunsuke Nakamura and Eintracht Frankfurt striker Naohiro Takahara.


Nakamura won Scotland's player of the year award last season and Australia know the key to beating Japan is to shut him down.


'Obviously Nakamura is one of those players that can take very good free kicks and is also dangerous around the box and is a good playmaker,' Schwarzer said.


'But we're just going to play our game as much as possible and be confident that we an get the result we need.'

Oh yes, we really did rely on our European experience when we versed Oman and then Iraq . And wasn't it funny that we won 4-0 against Thailand by playing with a squad that was largley based with A-League players

Also, we tend to forget WE ARE NOT PLAYING IN EUROPE. WE ARE PLAYING IN ASIA. And as we have already seen, we can't rely on playing in Europe to win games, we actually need to play decent football.

Australians all let us rejoice,
For we are young and free;
We've golden soil and wealth for toil;
Our home is girt by sea;
Our land abounds in nature's gifts
Of beauty rich and rare;
In history's page, let every stage
Advance Australia Fair.

Yeh out anthem is also sung to the themesong of Gilligans Island

That's great. Now go get 'em Aussies!

I hate our national anthem: 'girt'...what a horrible word. Also no one really knows the second verse so whats the point when we;ve got more popular and better known songs out there.

I liked it, seems nice. What would you suggest?

Waltzing Matilda...mind you that is not all inclusive of the Indigenous and migrants...in fact it doesnt really represent contemporarty Australia at all...

"I still Call Australia Home" would be a better anthem, but Qantas bastardised it.

Screw that, "Land down under" is fucking perfect

"Land down Under"
Traveling in a fried-out combie
On a hippie trail, head full of zombie
I met a strange lady, she made me nervous
She took me in and gave me breakfast
And she said,

"Do you come from a land down under?
Where women glow and men plunder?
Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover."

Buying bread from a man in Brussels
He was six foot four and full of muscles
I said, "Do you speak-a my language?"
He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich
And he said,

"I come from a land down under
Where beer does flow and men chunder
Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover."

Lying in a den in Bombay
With a slack jaw, and not much to say
I said to the man, "Are you trying to tempt me
Because I come from the land of plenty?"
And he said,

"Oh! Do you come from a land down under? (oh yeah yeah)
Where women glow and men plunder?
Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover."

Buying bread from a man in Brussels
He was six foot four and full of muscles
I said, "Do you speak-a my language?"
He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich


I love in this video they actually show this exact scene. As for Vegemite? I'll pass.

Vegemite is delicious. The trick is to not use alot of it though

In other news, we lost on penalties. I didnt watch the game, but I saw the penalties. Kewell and Neil missed. I reckon Kewell did it on purpose though.

I tried it, friend of mine swears by it...I did not care for it.

Sigh, I really thought you'd have a shot at winning this.

I didn;t. I knew that our arrogance and the fact that we were so underprepared would work against us. Serves us right.

THE international future of Mark Viduka remains in doubt after the Socceroos captain failed to commit to their 2010 World Cup campaign.

Viduka will mull over his future in the coming days but he may have played his last game for Australia.

Graham Arnold and Football Federation Australia officials are believed to have held discussions with Viduka before he left for England yesterday.

"I still don't know, I'll go home and think about it," Viduka said when asked whether he'll carry on.

"It would be stupid for me to say anything now. But I've got no regrets about coming here and I'm happy I was involved with the Asian Cup.

"It was a very good experience against very good opposition and these are the sorts of conditions that if we want to become a dominant force in Asia we have to contend with."

The Socceroos could take on a whole new look with at least four players likely to announce their retirements before the South Africa 2010 qualifiers commence mid-next year.

Josip Skoko is the only one who has officially called it quits but Scott Chipperfield and John Aloisi could follow while Craig Moore is no certainty to continue.

Although he's almost certain to be replaced by a European coach, Arnold has been working feverishly behind the scenes to sway Viduka into continuing.

They have proposed a plan for Viduka whereby he will only be called up for certain internationals and World Cup qualifiers.

This will also apply for most of the older European-based players, including high-profile stars Harry Kewell, Tim Cahill, Lucas Neill, Mark Bresciano and Vince Grella.

Viduka was set to pull out of the Asian Cup and retire before his stunning U-turn, but it has not necessarily made retirement inevitable.

His reasoning for hanging up the boots was because he felt it was unfair to pick and choose when he played for Australia - his commitment has often and unfairly been questioned.

I'm happy Japan went through of course, but it could have gone either way. Kawaguchi had a good game, I still think he has what it takes to play in Europe but there are also other good Japanese keepers.

Umm what the f**k, this was the problem we had in the first place: players picking and choosing the games they want to play. Thought we were meant to be moving forwards, instead we seem to be moving backwards.