Group F thread (Brazil, Croatia, Australia, Japan)

[Deleted member 9102]

Edit: Chris Gayle

 

[evertonfan]

I think Australia are the 'Korea 2002' of this World Cup. They didn't deserve this defeat at all, but the bottom line is Brazil avoided the banana skin. I really hope Australia can beat Croatia now and qualify for the next round.

 

[angryangy]

Australia are all set for a good game against Croatia. The Croats have played very defensive thus far so playing at the tempo the Socceroos played at tonight might catch them outside their comfort zone.

 

[Ritwik]

Ronaldo was again off-colour in this match, although he redeemed himself somewhat by setting up that goal for Adriano.

I think Australia are the 'Korea 2002' of this World Cup. They didn't deserve this defeat at all, but the bottom line is Brazil avoided the banana skin. I really hope Australia can beat Croatia now and qualify for the next round.

Brazil messed up a number of times and Australia couldn't capitalise, so I would say they did deserve to lose.

 

[ZexyZahid]

Australia has a good defence. After the 1-0 they need to loosen up the defence to score goals, hence the 2-0 came. But good match of them.

 

[blackleopard92]

they had so many chances with Dino never in sight, but they couldn't find back of net.

 

[aussie1st]

Aus played well but defence was a bit suspect as I thought. And this was before we conceded the 1st goal. If Ronaldo was at his best he would have scored with some of the chances he got instead he totally misses the ball.

Our attack was the main worry just couldn't get it in and we couldn't create the opportunites to score. Kewell should have scored as it was an open goal.
Brazil were alright not their best but once again they are doing just enough to win games.

 

[cric_craze]

did brazil play very bad or did australia play very very good

 

[blackleopard92]

did brazil play very bad or did australia play very very good

Australia miseed many chances, while brazil kept hammering their defences, and once in a while, Australia's defence broke down

 

[.::Stevo::.]

Great performance by the boys. Neilly had an awsome match in defence and if we took advantage of the chances we had given we could of easily drawn, if not won the match.

Oh well, all we need is a draw against 'The Table Clothes' (Croatia) and the might of Australia will be through to the next round!!! Cmon Aussies!!! :hpraise

 

[Radaga]

Bad luck for australia, usually it is the defence that lets them down, while it wasn't anything special they stopped most of the more dangerous opportunities.
Bresciano should have started instead of Sterjovski

 

[IloveGilly]

What a great game! We only lost because of minor errors. Adriano's goal could have been stopped if Schwarzer had studied that Adriano likes to score across on his left boot and that last goal was tired defence.

But the most important thing was that Japan and Croatia drew so if Japan do "somehow" beat Brazil they'd need to beat them by 3 goals. But it's all down to Croatia which was probably more important than Australia's match.

And a fact about Kewell and his "open goal". If you studied closely, the keeper was diving and Kewell was running at an angle (I think).

Also with the confidence they gain and players not really having to worry about yellow cards, they are in a good position.

 

[James219]

To be honest, I thought Australia's defence was quite good for the first fifty minutes or so- before they looked to seriously attack the Brazilians. They were dropping back well, thereby having sufficient numbers, and giving Brazil's star midfielders hardly any space with which to size up their options and feed the strikers. They closed down Brazil's attacking plans, as they detected early on that they weren't really prepared to shoot from distances, and preferred to work it through. With that came a pretty balanced Australian midfield, and they could get forward well with that strategy also. Some great goal scoring opportunities, with the wrong options being taken, or just poor execution. Yeah, Kewell may have had an open goal in theory, but it wasn't quite as easy as it appeared to be.
With Brazil's opener came some loss in composure for the defence, but then again, their opposition weren't too relaxed or free flowing either at that stage.
All in all, Australia did pretty well, despite a few opportunities going astray, and Brazil clearly didn't find any real fluency or shape.
Leo, to say they hammered the Australian line of defence is just so wrong- they were actually running out of ideas as a result of some solid resistance in the first half or so.
Anyway, good to see a draw in the other fixture, giving Australia a huge chance -but still with a lot to do- and making Aloisi's last minute goal against Japan just that little bit more important...

 

[Iron-Haggis]

Australia played on par with the Brazilians during the course of the match, the Brazilians just were able to find the back of the net. Looking set to be a good match between Australia and Croatia.

 

[sachin]

Defensively we were very good at closing them down for most of the game.We controlled long passages of play but just couldn't find a bit of luck to help the ball into the net.The scoreline jsut doesn't tell people the realy story of the match;we matched Brazil all the way it was just their finishing skills that did it for them.
Poor performance from Croatia,who will be missing Kovac against Australia,who in the end didn't have the bes chances.Japan were lucky but unlucky with their dismal finishing.