Australian press is a joke!
The Australian sporting press is a big joke, at least when it comes to soccer.
Ahead of the second-leg match between Australia and Uruguay, they made numerous mistakes and assumptions, here are some:
They deliberately misquoted Alvaro Recoba saying Australia was “worthless”. Recoba has always been humble with his expressions and opinions, he has never been cocky. He did not ever say that Australia was “worthless”. They also made him sound like an asshole saying that Uruguay has a “divine right to be at the world cup”. What he meant was that, looking at the history of soccer in Uruguay, how much they have influenced the game, how many triumphs the small but soccer-crazy country has, the team should be at the world cup, and by God he’s right! His statements was taken completely out of context, it was just something to use to upset the Australians.
Now to Frank Farina’s absurd plead to the Australian fans. Australian media has attacked the Uruguayan fans of bad sportsmanship based on a lot of poor assumptions and just a lack of knowledge. Frank Farina on his hand, pleaded to the Australian fans to jeer the Uruguayans every time they touched the ball, mostly when Recoba touches it, since he’s the best player Uruguay have. Is that sportsmanship to you? Having 80 000 people jeering you every time you touch the ball? I would certainly not call it that. What sickened me the most was when it was time for penalty kicks, and the sound of 80 000 people jeering every Uruguayan stepping up to the penalty-spot. I don’t think I’ve ever been so disgusted before, it’s no wonder Australia won the penalty shoot-out.
Then it’s the thing about the referee change that Uruguay requested. The Australian press condescendingly said something like “Why not complain that the referee in the second leg match speak Spanish?(him being from spain)”. They also pointed out that there were some sort of friendship between the two countries. First of all, so what if he speaks Spanish? He also speaks English doesn’t he? Second of all, considering the fact that Spain almost completely erased the native Uruguayan people a few hundred years back, the referee being from Spain doesn’t matter at all, there are no camaraderie relations between Spain and Uruguay what-so-ever.
Then it is the assumption about Uruguayan coach Jorge Fosatti. After the first leg match, Jorge Fosatti said on a press conference that they would come home with the ticket to the world cup. The Australian media said it sounded that he was nervous and needed to reassure the Uruguayans that they were going to make it, they said it seemed he wasn’t so confident anymore due to the 1-0 result that he had to reassure the Uruguayans. If the Australian media wouldn’t speculate so much, maybe they wouldn’t have made such fools of themselves, why? Because Jorge Fosatti has ALWAYS been confident about Uruguay booking a place to the world cup, he has said similar things long time before after the first leg match. Before they met Colombia in a crucial qualifier, he said the following: “Not only are we going to beat Colombia, we are going to the world cup”. So why did the media speculate that he was intimidated after the first leg match? He shouldn’t be either cause Uruguay know how to guard a result.
Another thing, aside from the joke you call the Australian press, I found a comment by John Aloisi very amusing, saying something like: “It feels good that we have so much support, not only here in Australia, but also Argentinian team mates say they want us to go to the world cup”. I mean what kind of retarded thing is that to say? So what if SOME players from Argentina wants Australia to go further? Put them against the other millions of Argentinians who prefer Uruguay ahead of Australia, since they have a very strong brother-like bond. Put them against the other hundred of millions who much rather would like to see a star-filled, enjoyable-to-watch, beautiful-playing, technical well known legendary team rather than an unknown national team whose players play in second-division teams in England, many of them being on the bench, a team whose biggest stars are benchwarmers in their teams.
What an embarrassing thing to say, being proud that some people he personally KNOWS, wants Australia to go further.
Another stupid and cocky thing he has said was something he said in an interview to FIFA.com. He said that his former team mates Pablo Garcia and Richard Morales was scared of Australia, that he had heard them say things that made them appear scared of Australia. First of all, I find it very hard to believe that two good and respected players, playing in a good, well known national team with a proud history, would ever be scared, yet alone talk about it out loud when there is an Australian present. Walking off a field with a point and 3 goals scored, coming down from 0-2, away against Brazil, pretty much rule out the possibility that they would be scared of a team like Australia.
Seeing that Aloisi hadn’t been in the same team as them for about six months, since Pablo Garcia had moved to Real Madrid and Richard Morales had moved to Malaga, and at that time it being 5 matches left to play for Uruguay in the qualifiers where they could have very well ended up with a place in the world cup as one of the top 4 teams, I find it hard to believe they were planning so far ahead that they were discussing the Australian team and being “scared of them”. I think it’s just plain BS.