Australia 1 v Japan 1 (3-4 penalties)

20070721 Not good enough, forget the biased refereeing, forget the Grella red card, forget the lottery of the penalty shootout. Over 90 minutes, the Socceroos were the inferior team and Japan deserved to go through. Time to rebuild for the next World Cup qualifying tournament. Olyroos will provide the new stars for the team; names like Carney, Milligan, Djite will provide the backbone of the new look Socceroos, along with Cullina, Grella, Bresciano, Emerton and Kewell.

Relief: Socceroos 4 v Thailand 0

The Socceroos had a Great Escape tonight, qualifying for the quarter finals of the Asian Cup. But after Beauchamp scored the opening goal, the Socceroos were pegged back on the back foot for prolonged periods in the match. Had the Thais finished better, Australia would surely be on the plane home tonight. In the end the heroes were Beauchamp and Mark Milligan who were immense in the centre of defence, Tim Cahill the playmaker set up two goals for Viduka and one for Kewell. Next opponent Japan, in the replay of the World Cup 2006 match in Germany. With this defence being shaky, the Socceroos need to buck up to stand any chance.

16 July 2007 Crunch time for Socceroos

It will be Bangkok, It will be hot, It will be a caudron in the arena with 60,000 baying Thai fans. It has come down to this, the Socceroos needing to win to keep their Asian Cup dreams alive. The Thais need only a draw. Can the star studded Socceroos do it? The weight of history is often against teams who need to win. Cast your minds back to May 2007, when Sydney FC went to Japan to play Urawa Reds, needing a win, Urawa needed a draw. The outcome was 0-0. So that could be it, the big heads in the Socceroos team could well be on the way home tomorrow. But for Australian football's sake, let's hope their star quality rears its head and they achieve the impossible.

Socceroos 1 v Iraq 3

Shocking, bad, poor play, clown defence, big heads, small performances: just a few of the many words to describe the Socceroos inept performance against Iraq. Now they can point to the weather, but hey every other team in the competition has to endure the same conditions. Arnold has a lot to answer to as well, playing a lone striker system that is devoid of any attacking flair or ideas. Let's hope the Socceroos can pick themselves up to beat Thailand to progress. Can they even progress? Even if they progress, can they go further? Might as well go home early la, because they won't get past the latter rounds. Hopefully I am proven wrong.

The rules for the competition are:(from AFC Asian Cp official website)

If two or more teams in a group are equal on points on completion of the group matches, their places shall be determined as follows:
a) Greater number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned.
b) Goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned.
c) Greater number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned (Away Goals do not apply in this stage of the competition).
d) Goal difference in all the group matches.
e) Kicks from the penalty mark if only two teams are involved and they are both on the field of play.
f) Drawing of lots.

Bottom line: Australia has to beat Thailand to qualify for the next round.(from the goal difference between the group match rule in bold above) A tough task, seeing Thailand convincingly beat Oman, who caused Australia many problems in the first match.

Socceroos 1 Oman 1

A stuttering performance, described by many as The Great Escape. Again Tim Cahill turns the super sub hero, blasting a 91st minute equaliser to a truly forgetable match. Schwartzer was the other hero, making world class saves from the tacky and speedy Oman play. However the time wasting by the Oman players feigning injury were disgraceful. Only teams from the Mid East are notorious for this type of behaviour, learning from their South American coaches. The South American cheating way is finding its way into the rest of the world game, starting in West Asia. FIFA needs to put a stop to this: maybe instruct the 4th official to add on double the time when players are 'obviously' feigning injury, or if a player is stretchered off in an international, he has to stay off the pitch for 3 minutes, not just hop straight off the stretcher back into play.