Quote:
|
Originally Posted by El Capitano Gatisto
The Australian team being under prepared in the past is their own fault. I don't have any sympathy. Germany haven't played a competitive game in 2 years and they're doing ok in this World Cup.
|
You see, this is a situation where a having a clue what the fuck you're on about would be handy. Comparing our preparation to Germany's is laughable. I'm sure we'd be much better prepared as well if we'd played in Euro 2004.
Much as you love to deride us because we were in a shit confederation, we don't control the teams we play against. We can only play what's put out there on the park in front of us. And if there's nobody to play meaningful games against in your own confederation, you're up shit creek.
Our only option for playing meaningful games has been to look outside Oceania, and that's like trying to get blood from a stone. Since the loss to Uruguay in 2001, we've played a bunch of friendlies and in a Confederations Cup. Apart from that, there's really not a lot more can be done from inside Oceania.
When was the last time Ireland played a meaningful game against a team outside of Europe? I'll hazard a guess here and say it was the 2002 World Cup, which proves my point rather well.
The problem is, clubs don't want to release their players for friendlies and the ones that do show up aren't bothered, so friendlies are generally farcical and achieve nothing.
That's not to say we haven't tried, we've played friendlies against England, Jamaica, Venezuela, Holland, Greece, Liechtenstein, South Africa, Iraq, Indonesia, Turkey, Ireland and New Zealand since the last World Cup. That's on top of the Confederations Cup where we played Argentina and Germany's B teams, and Tunisia.
In effect, apart from the Confederations Cup we've played friendlies against 5 half-decent teams; England, Holland, Greece, Turkey and Ireland. Of which only the Ireland (preparing for Euro 2004 qualifying) and Holland (preparing for the World Cup) games weren't completely farcical. England made 11 subs at halftime, Greece came out here for a holiday and so did Turkey.
So out of all that, we've managed to have 5 games even resembling meaningful, one was after we'd already qualified and another was over 2 years beforehand. Again, we can only play what's put in front of us; it's hardly our fault if the teams we play aren't bothered.
Let that be a lesson to you; know what you're on about before you start talking.