Today I’ll focus on the aftermath of the Socceroos’ fine 2-0 win over Turkey. It’s just our fifth ever at a World Cup and one of the best Australian performances at the elite level.
Some Turks begged to differ. “I disgust this football,” wrote one unhappy customer on X.
“Such a shame for the ‘beauty of the football’…,” wrote another. “Once upon a time,Greece had won Euro Cup by playing just like that, but nobody respected & nobody remembers their success. But everybody remembers and respects Spain, even when they lose. These kind of tactics should be punished.”
Uhh, the concept of a team being punished for playing within the rules is a novel concept.
Australia had a game plan to beat Turkey, executed it perfectly and got the result.
Former Irish midfielder and indeed captain Roy Keane had a long ran on TV about the game. In my opinion he has nailed it completely:
“I don’t want to hear excuses. Before the match, everyone was talking about Turkey as if the three points were already in the bag. Well, football doesn’t care about predictions. Australia looked like a team playing for their lives. Turkey looked like a team waiting for something to happen. That’s the difference. One side competed, the other side expected. What annoys me most is the attitude. You can forgive mistakes. You can forgive missed chances. But you cannot forgive a lack of urgency at a World Cup. Australia won the physical battle, the mental battle, and in key moments they won the football battle too. That’s embarrassing if you’re Turkey because they were supposed to be the team making the statement tonight. Some players will look at the tactics, some will blame luck, and some will point fingers elsewhere. Nonsense. Start by looking in the mirror. World Cups are not won by talent alone. The harsh reality is this: Australia arrived believing they could win. Turkey arrived believing they should win. One mindset creates history. The other creates headlines like this.”
Keane can speak authoritatively about mindset, having famously been sent home from the 2002 after causing disruption in the Irish camp with his complaints about the training facilities.
The Kosovo Football Federation was very blunt in how they summed up the Turkish performance:
Oh, and speaking of Kosovo, THE SOCCEROOS ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS … kind of. Australia has claimed the Unofficial World Football Championship with our 2-0 win over Türkiye. The UFWC tracks back to the first-ever international match in 1872 when England defeated Scotland, with the title changing hands whenever the holder loses a match. Türkiye claimed the title in their win over Kosovo to send them to the World Cup, now forfeiting it to Australia. So there. A win or a draw in the next match(es) will see Australia hold on to the title; every match is in effect a championship bout.
But let’s just indulge a bit longer in the sheer joy of the goals, both of which were stunning. Here’s Nestory Irankunda’s family and friends going absolutely bananas when the little champ put Australia in front.
And this line is an instant classic: “If a meteorite had come in the box, Australia would have cleared that too.” Superb by FondreMediah.
Football Federation Australia has put out graphics showing where the players in the squad were born.
Tasmanians probably won’t fail to notice that none were born in Tasmania. At the last World Cup we had Nathaniel Atkinson, but the former Riverside (Launceston) youth product has not played for the Socceroos since Tony Popovic took over as coach. As he has only just turned 27 he might still harbour some hope of rejoining the Australian squad in the future.
Germany did the World Cup’s goals-per-game average a favour by walloping tiny Curacao 7-1. But there was at least a moment of joy for the islanders – total population is about that of greater Launceston – when they equalised at 1-1 and then held the four-time former champions for a delicious 17 minutes. See the highlights here.
The scoreline matched that of the infamous 2014 World Cup semi-final when Germany destroyed hosts Brazil. Hence the following map produced Terrible Maps:
Countries who have lost 7-1 to Germany at the World Cup.
Can’t quite see Curacao? Let’s zoom in then. There you go.
For what it’s worth I have been to Curacao and it’s probably worth the trouble. The dusty capital Willemstad has a certain laid back charm and lovely Dutch colonial architecture, and there are also beach resorts, good snorkelling and diving, and yeah you can also do a factory tour of the place where they make that weird blue liqueur.
In the other games of the day, Netherlands and Japan fought a 2-2 to continue the sequence of positive results for Asia teams. Highlights here.
Ivory Coast edged Ecuador 1-0 with a late strike, while Sweden ran riot late against a fading Tunisia to finish 5-1 to the good.
I’m already feeling the weight of the 48-team format as we are still lumbering through the first round and half the teams are still yet to take the field. Another eight at least are on show on Monday in the Americas being Spain-Cape Verde, Belgium-Egypt, Saudi Arabia-Uruguay and Iran-New Zealand. With Iran not having received its allocation of tickets, presumably due to USA telling FIFA that visiting Iranian fans are not welcome, the Kiwis might find themselves with majority support at the stadium.
Enjoy the football and have fun!
Alan Whykes is a Tasmania-based writer and an ex- too many things to list.
This blog is the start of a new section called Tas At Large which showcases stories of Tasmanian despora let loose upon the world.
Tasmanian Times is independent. External links are included on editorial merit only. Nothing in this article is paid, sponsored or commercially arranged.
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