Friday, July 13, 2007

Asian Cup 2007: Australia’s Nightmare Continues

Football is a team game. It does not matter how many stars a team has and how much popularity they have among the fans. In Asian Cup 2007 Australia is going to prove the thought as they are now on the verge of getting out of the tournament from group stage. After the first match draw with Oman, Australian lost in their second group match against Iraq by 1-3. However, if you look at the Australian players and their international success and background then you will, for sure, get some shock. Many of their players play in different European teams including Newcastle United striker Mark Viduka, Liverpool midfielder Harry Kewell etc.

Well, sometimes you can see in football that a team is playing well but can not get goals and eventually loses but Australian players even could not show any impressive performance so far though they have some star footballers. In the match against Iraq, Australia could not take the control of the match from the very beginning and they were defensive in their game. As a result, Iraq could easily take the control and attacked the Australian defense.

Wldcup reported:
The Socceroos fell behind after a 22nd-minute goalkeeping clanger by Mark Schwarzer, only to equalise through Mark Viduka but they were badly exposed defensively again for the Iraqis to wrap it up with two more goals.
The bumbling loss heaps further pressure on under-fire coach Graham Arnold, with chants of "Arnold out" from the travelling Australian fans.
Iraq now share the lead in Group A with Thailand, 2-0 winners over Oman Thursday, with the pair favourites to go into the quarter-finals after Monday's final pool games.

It is true that for Australia, the task of getting into the next round has been very hard. In the remaining match, Australia must have to win against host Thailand who are now in second position in the point table. However, Australia’s progress in the quarter final round now also depends on Iraq vs. Oman match. Australia started the tournament as one of the favorite teams to win the cup and now the reality has been changed totally. So, let’s see what will happen to the fate of Australia.

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