The Girl with the Goalden Boot

Sunday, July 22, 2007

 

JAPAN 1-1 SOCCEROOS
(4-3 penalties)

The referee ruined otherwise what would have been a decent match. Sent off Grella for the slightest contact, gave yellow cards to Harry and Carney for diving - wtf? Um, hello, what about the Iraqi players from the group phase match - their entire team could've been booked!

We needed more attempts & shots on goal, and better passing/creativity in general. A draw was a fair result, as the Japanese were rather lacklustre despite their man advantage. Graham Arnold got the order wrong, he shouldn't have sent on Harry for the first penalty as his ankle caused problems moments earlier. Not only that, I reckon the boys didn't get to work on penalties during training.

One good thing from this match: the A-League is a decent league! Milligan and Carney were great and outperformed a number of their more experienced teammates.

Lola Nadal 12:24 AM