Hiddink in Heaven

Some of the Aussie fans sure loked like they gave up a few minutes before the first goal for the Socceroos. It was great to see Hiddink get so rialed up.

Posted from  Republic Of Korea

Koreans are going down!!! HOPP SCHWIIZ HOPP SCHWIIZ!!! Congratulations to Australians…

Posted from  Switzerland

which game were you watching mate? if you think that was a boring game… all australians know that when we play in any sport it’s never going to be boring, because we know that our players will NEVER say die.
we dominated that entire game, call me biased if you like, but for crying out loud!! how many times does australia have to play a solid game before people stop discounting us? we were strong in defence and we created chances throughout the game - what more can be said?

Posted from  Australia

It reminded me of World Cup ‘94 when Korea was trailing Spain 0-2 then Hong Myung Bo scored and assisted in the final 5 minutes or so of the match to make it 2-2. Wasn’t a win, but still a great comeback, and against Spain no less..

Posted from  United States

Go peace a Korea!
Go peace a Korea!
Go Korea!
You can do it!!!!

Posted from  United States

I bet a huge bet on this with my friend. lol (kissing shoes or more or less licking all over it until it is shiny clean)
it’ll be a big disgrace for this russian friend of mine to be doing that in public eh?

korea must win tomorrow. I’m sure Togo is going back to their dogo with 3 losses since they have so much other internal problems witht their team…

Go Aussis!!! mate, u can do it! for the love of all the world, Roots!!!

Posted from  Canada

Wait till another disastrous Mr. McClaren takes over the English national team, and they’ll be pouring with rage - not having appointed Guus as the successor to Ericsson.

Posted from  United States

Australia dominated the match hands down. Japan had about 2 shots on goal, and the one that actually went in shouldn’t have even been allowed. I don’t know how anyone could say that Australia were outplayed? I think you need better glasses…

go Korea tonight!!!!!

Posted from  Australia

Rohan is right. We dominated the match. I don’t quite know which game you were watching Greekfreak. Look at the match stats and we had 9 shots on target to 2 as well as majority possession.

Posted from  Australia

After Japanese and Iran losting, Asian country is counting on korean team.

I bet Korean will win this match! I am always on Korean side.

Posted from  China

Just because the opposing team has a lousy offense doesn’t mean that your defense is good. Japan had nothing but a mediocre midfield who failed to hustle. Australia did the best they could with what they had. No more, no less.

Japan chose to coast on a fluke goal, and they paid the price. Neither team could string many passes together; kudos to Tim Cahill who exploited a defense that was far too respectful (read: shitty), but both the Australians and the Japanese played with a lethargy that Floyd The Barber would have admired.

The Italy/Ghana and Czech/USA games were much more entertaining.

Posted from  Republic Of Korea

Come on, and vote! WHO WIN?

http://www.enazalkalmazott.freeblog.hu

Who win the match?
Togo
South Korea
Drawn

Who win the match II. ?
France
Switzerland
Drawn

Who win the match III.?
Brasil
Croatia
Drawn

Posted from  Hungary

Greekfreak - how you can say that Australia played with “lethargy” is beyond me, and I’m sure everyone else who happens to waste their time reading your post. I happen to be a Japanese student living in Australia, and I have no problem admitting that we were outplayed by the Aussies. Boring football is Greece’s hallmark - not last night’s game. The USA/Czech game was also hardly action packed stuff - talk about a foregone conclusion. And as for the weak team in group F? I’m picking Croatia to be floundering at the bottom come the end of the first round.

Posted from  Australia

Easy, I just said it.

There was no urgency in either of their games, and I was expecting Japan to be a lot speedier than they were, just as I expected Australia to take advantage of the size differential. As it happened, both teams played like they were on prozac, and Australia happened to come out on top. I gave them full credit. You’re taking things far too personally. I have higher expectations after Japan’s decent showing four years ago, as well as their Confederation’s Cup showing last year.

Incidentally, I would agree with you of late concerning Greece’s gameplan, but that’s another story (and another tournament, hopefully). Fact is, I watched the game and felt that it was like watching paint dry. If you got a tingle watching it, well, that’s just fabulous.

I din’t care much for the England/Paraguay game, either, particularly the second half, although the Brits have admitted they were out of gas after the half. Neither was the Holland/S&M match all that interesting.

By far the most entertaining games have been Argentina/Ivory Coast, and Italy/Ghana. I’m not concerned with goals, but I’d like to see teams put an effort to win.

Maybe if I was Australian, I’d have cared a bit more. I just didn’t have anything invested in the game to give it weight, and the teams weren’t all that impressive. Bottom line.

Posted from  Republic Of Korea

Seriously Greekfreak, you’re entitled to your opinion, but how can you possibly say that Australia never really threatened until the end when they had 20 shots to Japan’s 6, and 12 on goal compared to 2?

Anyway, this group looks certain to come down to the Croatia-Australia game on the 23rd. It won’t be the prettiest game to watch, but for excitement and importance it’ll rate as one of the biggest of the first round.

Posted from  Australia

I have to say I thought the game was a bit erratic - but then again so are many opening in the competition - look at England. I don’t think that based on last night’s performance Australia are World Cup final contenders, but they are now a force to be reckoned with on the world stage - primarily because so many of their team now play in the English Premiership and other top flight European leagues. The atmosphere in Sydney was unbelievable.

Posted from  Australia

dear friend Kurcsa ..you 1-5 now i am wondering can you ever pick anyone just to WIN ??i hope you don’t have the same indecision in other things of life !

Posted from  United States

Guus for P.M.
I came accross this site the other day, I expect the campaign will be gathering speed shortly!
http://www.cafepress.com/guus

Posted from  Australia

Dear Greekfreak,

I think you meant both teams played like they were on Valium (a sedative), and not Prozac.

Prozac is an antidepressant, and that would probably have given both teams a perkier game.

Posted from  Philippines

Hiddink is definitely in heaven all right - He was given the unoffical title of the most popular individiual in the country and became the first-ever person to be given honorary South Korean citizenship for bringing Korea into the top 4. In addition other rewards soon followed - a private villa in Jeju island; free flights for life with Korean Airlines and Asiana Airlines, free taxi rides, and so forth. The World Cup stadium in Gwangju was renamed Guus Hiddink Stadium in his honor shortly after the World Cup. His hometown became a popular stopover for South Koreans visiting the Netherlands.

——————

The Socceroos defeated the Japanese team 3-1 during their first game in the 2006 FIFA World Cup Finals, with Tim Cahill scoring 2 goals (’84, ‘89) and John Aloisi scoring 1 (’92) all in the last eight minutes to claim their first World Cup goals and victory ever. An early controversial call by the Egyptian referee that awarded a goal to the Japanese team, despite an apparent foul to Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, had the Australians playing catch up until the last eight minutes. The referee apologised to Schwarzer and Australian captain Mark Viduka after the match for his error and conceded he should have disallowed the goal by Japan - The Age;Fox Sports; Aljazeera.

———————–

Hiddink has since taken on legendary status in Australia and is referred to affectionately as “Aussie Guus”. A slogan for the Socceroos’ World Cup campaign was “No Guus, No Glory”. His reputation has only been enhanced by his remarkable transformation of the national side. Many pundits have remarked that his transformation of the defence has been particularly noteworthy, turning a team which conceded many goals under Frank Farina into a solid defensive unit which only conceded one goal away from home to both Uruguay and the Netherlands.

——————————-

Man this guy is literally in Heaven. He brought the Koreans into the semi-finals and gave austrailia it’s first win in the World Cup.

Posted from  Canada

I think Hiddink is a good coach to australia team.
we already saw his ability last world cup.
He will direct australia team to become final 4.
Good luck australia team.

Posted from  Australia