US soccer writer tips Socceroos to be worst team at 2014 FIFA World Cup

Journalist Harrison Stark says the Socceroos have a historically “defeatist” attitude, claims none of our younger players are any good, and says our 2006 golden generation was a “fluke”.

Well, Stark has compiled in-depth previews of each of the 32 nations contesting next month’s football fest in Brazil in his new e-book. His previews are also running daily as a countdown on the website slate.com. He has clearly done his research.

Evidence of this is that Stark makes some insightful points with regard to the recent history of the sport of soccer, or football, or whatever you want to call it, in the Australian context.

He rightly states that the development of the game here is similar to that in America — in as much as the sport continually fights to get a foothold among other sports no one else in the world plays much.

Stark also gets just how well the Socceroos did at the 2006 World Cup, and how unlucky we were to be eliminated by eventual champions Italy on a dodgy penalty.

Lone Wolf wrote: 

WHEN the American soccer squad manage to beat an Aussie team in Brazil...

THEN I will take an American soccer commentator like Stark seriously..

UNTIL then..       

Ben_Reilly wrote:

Lone Wolf wrote: 

WHEN the American soccer squad manage to beat an Aussie team in Brazil...

THEN I will take an American soccer commentator like Stark seriously..

UNTIL then..       

Pfft. The U.S. would need a miracle even to get to that point; we have Ghana, Portugal and Germany for our first three fixtures. In fact, ESPN admitted it sounded wildly optimistic to give us a just-under 40 percent chance of surviving group.

Lone Wolf wrote: 

Chile 3  def.  Australia 1

DIDN'T help that Chile had 12 men on the field from the opening whistle !

Uruguay, Chile and Peru are renown as the leading cheats in S. America ~ up there with the likes of Italy and France on the world stage for cheats..

SO - to be fair, anyone coming up against these recognised champions at cheating should by rights be prepared for their dirty tactics !!!


Case in point:    
Chile's Eugenio Mena lunged at Tim Cahill and tried to grab his shirt;
Cahill complained to the referee;
The ref' gave Tim Cahill a yellow card for having the audacity to complain about cheating..
Mena's reply :"Yes, I'm a cheat. So what !"


ONE positive to be brought out of this for the future for the Socceroos ~ most commentators and those who know about these things, stated that Oz was the better and stronger team overall (as well as being a lot cleaner..), but slow to get started in the first 15 minutes, weak in capitalising on their opportunities and missed too many chances during the match..  

lovedust wrote:
^ Me too JD, he seems like a good bloke.

Lone Wolf wrote:   

AUSTRALIA lost 3-2 against top shelf team.

FIRST time that the Dutchies have beaten Oz..

Last time Oz played the Netherlands apparently some 8 years ago ~ so the current Dutch team is totally different to their last encounter.


AUSTRALIA led for the first half, nearly causing an upset..

MANY commentators are already calling Tim Cahill's goal the "Goal of the Series", not just this one game, already !!!     

BigAndy9 wrote:

Lone Wolf wrote:   

AUSTRALIA lost 3-2 against top shelf team.

FIRST time that the Dutchies have beaten Oz..

Last time Oz played the Netherlands apparently some 8 years ago ~ so the current Dutch team is totally different to their last encounter.


AUSTRALIA led for the first half, nearly causing an upset..

MANY commentators are already calling Tim Cahill's goal the "Goal of the Series", not just this one game, already !!!     

How many points did they come away with for leading in that first half?

Do they get extra points for a good goal too?

Sorry, i shouldn't do that to a person who comes from a country which is clueless about football...

You get NOTHING FOR LOSING!