Group D: France, Australia, Denmark, Tunisia

[carolinablue232]

We are not beating the Argies mate!

Ya never know!

 

[Cork Evertonian]

Australia get out of the group stage for the first time since the 2006 World Cup, so well done to them indeed.

They drew the short straw in Argentina for the next round, but who knows they might cause a surprise. Best of luck to them anyway.

 

[McBain]

Time for Individual match threads?

 

[deipnosophist]

NRL and Cricket are both declining. Only AFL is still very big in Australia still. This World Cup should be the catalyst for change in Australia and should mean more interest in soccer.

up against AFL?...you're joking mate...AFL is a religion in Oz. And cricket is the national sport. Association football will always be a poor second cousin to those two games in the lucky country.

 

[deipnosophist]

As a Kiwi (albeit born in England), I find myself on the very rare situation of hoping Aussie win...it's a cognitive dissonance for the ages!

 

[WA Toffee]

up against AFL?...you're joking mate...AFL is a religion in Oz. And cricket is the national sport. Association football will always be a poor second cousin to those two games in the lucky country.

Parts of Oz. QLD and NSW is rugby country.

Either way, football will never overtake either of them

 

[cronullasharks]

NRL and Cricket are both declining. Only AFL is still very big in Australia still. This World Cup should be the catalyst for change in Australia and should mean more interest in soccer.

Cricket possibly but NRL isn't. As popular as football can get it will not overtake nrl and afl as the domestic league is laughably bad.

A hearty chuckle at the state of rugby union in this country though, right down where it belongs.

 

[cronullasharks]

As a Kiwi (albeit born in England), I find myself on the very rare situation of hoping Aussie win...it's a cognitive dissonance for the ages!

You ok mate lol

 

[McBain]

Cricket possibly but NRL isn't. As popular as football can get it will not overtake nrl and afl as the domestic league is laughably bad.

A hearty chuckle at the state of rugby union in this country though, right down where it belongs.

The NRL and AFL are the big national leagues, domestic cricket gets about 10 people bar the silly BBBBL.. participation wise Football is still king.

Union is full of absolute nobodies.

 

[McCall2Radzinski]

Australia get out of the group stage for the first time since the 2006 World Cup, so well done to them indeed.

They drew the short straw in Argentina for the next round, but who knows they might cause a surprise. Best of luck to them anyway.

Penalty shoot out.

 

[cronullasharks]

The NRL and AFL are the big national leagues, domestic cricket gets about 10 people bar the silly BBBBL.. participation wise Football is still king.

Union is full of absolute nobodies.

Bit sad the absolute lack of interest in shield cricket where you'd be lucky to have 50 spectators across the whole season.

Sorry, back on topic. We've got no chance in this game unfortunately.

 

[McCall2Radzinski]

Between Aussie Rules, rugby league and union, there'd be around 1600 professional players in Australia. I would guess at most that only one would be good enough to be a serious football player that would make a difference.

I remember hearing on the radio during the week that once the A-League started, the funding to develop players at the Australian Institute of Sport stopped. It was the AIS that contributed to producing the good players from Australia everyone knows about during the 2000s.

That program might have to resume.

 

[cronullasharks]

Between Aussie Rules, rugby league and union, there'd be around 1600 professional players in Australia. I would guess at most that only one would be good enough to be a serious football player that would make a difference.

I remember hearing on the radio during the week that once the A-League started, the funding to develop players at the Australian Institute of Sport stopped. It was the AIS that contributed to producing the good players from Australia everyone knows about during the 2000s.

That program might have to resume.

We had young players going to europe and doing the hard yards learning the game properly, now it seems like they stay in the A League system and stagnate.

I know an ex NSL coach quite well and he also blames the whole wanting athletes that run around and fit a certain system over actual proper footballers plus the whole politics of the way the game as a whole is run, I'll pick his brain a bit more about it next time i speak to him. Also been told the whole Dutch thing they brought in with those technical directors from there set the game back quite a way too.

 

[McCall2Radzinski]

Fwiw, it's Nathan Cleary that is the only one of the non-football Australian comps that I think might've made a difference to Australia had he been interested in football as a kid.

 

[Rita_Poon]

Aussies... Never Say Die !

Smith was 'beers deep' at pub before making cut

Cameron Smith was "beers deep" at the pub before belatedly realising he had made the cut for the third round of the Australian Open.

www.bbc.co.uk