32 For 2010: Australia

The Socceroos have moved. Not literally of course but on an administrative level. Previously, Football Federation Australia were members of the Oceania confederation which only has half a qualification spot for the World Cup Finals. This manifests itself as a play-off against a low-ranked team in another confederation (Asia this time, but in the past it has been South America). This route to the tournament has proved problematic for Australia (most notably under Terry Venables for France 98) and was one of the reasons why they lobbied to be included into the Asian Confederation which has more competitive nations and more qualification spots.

With the domestic league still in its infancy, many Australians play overseas in Europe. A number of them are household names. Despite not being the number one sport in the country, there are a large number of experienced international footballers with a growing supporter base who have become galvanised by the team's exploits in 2006 which took them to the Second Round only to be controversially knocked out by the wily Italians.

Top players ahead of the trip to South Africa are Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, Tim Cahill of Everton and of course Harry Kewell, now at Galatasaray. However, some doubts remain as to the fitness of the former Leeds United player which would be a significant blow for the team's aspirations. Backing up the headliners are a rump of professionals from European leagues such as David Carney (FC Twente), Mark Bresciano (Palermo), Brett Emerson and Vince Grella from Blackburn Rovers and Luke Wilkshire of Dynamo Moscow. Jason Culina, played for PSV Eindhoven until he made a big money move to A-League side Gold Coast United last season. If he features in South Africa, he may be one of the few home based players to feature. Mark Viduka has effectively retired.

Conscious that the top players in the squad are getting on a bit, a squad of predominantly younger A-League players were selected for the Asian Cup qualifying campaign in the hope that this will yield some senior Socceroos for qualification to Brazil in 2014.

The coach Pim Verbeek was assistant to Guus Hiddink in 2006. The Dutchman is not the most popular figure and has been criticised for using negative tactics (a criticism he refutes). He will be stepping down after the World Cup.

Before that, the Aussies must overcome a tough group if they are to fulfill their dream of meeting England in the Second Round. Australia have been drawn with Germany, Ghana and Serbia. To be frank, progression is going to be a tall order. However, that famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) competitive streak and sporting appetite may see them through.

World Cup Bid 2018: Australia

With the 2010 World Cup barely visible on the horizon, thoughts are already turning to 2018 with many countries submitting bids to host the tournament nine years from now.

Much has already been said about those nations that have thrown their hat into the ring, but Some People Are On The Pitch is yet to give its opinion - until now. Here's the first part in our new series where we'll be weighing up the good and bad points of each candidate bid, and as we do so, feel free to give us your thoughts and opinions on the matter. You can also take part in our online vote at the foot of the page should you wish to express your allegiance.

Australia
If there's such a thing as a long shot that's worth backing, the Australian bid is probably it. When 2018 comes around, it will be the only continent yet to have staged the World Cup, and when you couple that with the fact that Australian football is rapidly on the up and up, FIFA may find it a difficult proposition to resist.

Had Australia put in a bid to host any previous World Cup, it might have won the sympathy vote amongst many of its peers. With only a single appearance in the 1974 Finals in West Germany before 2006, they'd have looked like a nation desperate for any help it could get in luring the World Cup to its shores, but that's no longer the case.

Forward steps
In 2005, Australian football took a few important leaps forward. For a start, it left the Oceania Football Confederation to become part of the Asian section, a move which ensured the Aussie national team would regularly get to play a better quality of opponent. In the same year, the Hyundai A-League was created, ensuring professional football would finally become a reality for players and fans alike.

Then came the cherry on top of the cake - qualification for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Australia made sure it wouldn't just be there to make up the numbers either. Only a narrow defeat to Italy in the Second Round curtailed their hearty attempts to go all the way after a convincing 3-1 win over Japan and a creditable 2-2 draw against Croatia.

Since then, football in Australia has gone from strength to strength. The A-League is attracting more and more fans with every passing season and the national team has just reached its highest ever FIFA ranking - 27th in February 2009. Yet despite so many recent advances in the development of the game, it's the lateness of Australia to arrive at football's top table that may impede its chances of hosting the 2018 competition.

Venues
To begin with, there's the issue of stadia. As we've mentioned before Australia has many a large stadium in which to hold sporting events, but the majority of them are built for Aussie Rules Football or Cricket. Not a problem, you'd think, but putting a square pitch into a space that normally holds a circular or oval one poses all kinds of logistical problems.



Looking at the stadia used by clubs in the A-League, only three of the ten have a capacity higher than 35,000 and with the average capacity in Germany 2008 being around 53,000 it's fair to say there'll need to be some new venues built unless other existing stadia are upgraded.

Appetite for the game
It's said that FIFA have been impressed so far with the growing enthusiasm shown by the Aussie public for soccer, but quite how intent that same public is to withdraw some of its support from games like rugby and the aforementioned cricket and Aussie Rules will be a sign of how far things have really progressed.

And on the subject of devotion to other sports, FIFA's insistence on holding it's World Cup during June and July might upset a fair few people over there. If the big stadia need to be used, that'll mean Australian Rules Football and Rugby League games may need to be postponed to a later date or relocated some place else. Can you imagine Premier League games being dropped in favour of, say, Rugby World Cup matches here in the UK? Thought not…

Location
Any remaining doubts for the Aussies (at least on this occasion) might be in the form of two matters that are fundamentally out of their control. Firstly, the TV market for football is in Europe and as such a World Cup taking place some ten hours ahead of CET won't be viewed upon favourably by the World Cup's many and varied commercial stakeholders.

Secondly, FIFA have said the World Cup shouldn't go to a third successive southern hemisphere country after South Africa and Brazil and has recommended Australia bid for the 2022 Finals instead. On this point specifically, it seems FIFA are standing on particularly shaky ground. The last seven World Cups going back to 1982 have all been held in a northern hemisphere country, and its with this blinkered logic in mind that the Football Federation of Australia are rightly standing firm on their intent to host the 2018 Finals.

Experience
And they have the organisational nous to do it too. Down the years, Australia have hosted two FIFA Under-21 World Cups, the 2008 Rugby League World Cup, the 2003 Rugby Union World Cup, the 2006 Commonwealth Games and the 2000 Olympics. Never let it be said that the Aussies aren't new to this kind of thing.

So with the backing of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, it seems Australia will no doubt be a force to reckon with when FIFA's representatives sit round the table to make their final decision. And why not give the World Cup to a country that hasn't hosted the World Cup before? It's supposed to be a world game, right? So let's see if FIFA can walk the walk on this occasion, not just talk the talk. Over to you, Mr. Blatter...

League Spotlight: Australia / A-League

Australasia remains one of the few regions of the world not held in Football's thrall. In his book The Ball Is Round, David Goldblatt pointed to the fact that when the first Australian colonies were founded, the game of Association Football had not developed, much less officially codified. In fact Aussie Rules football was formed before Soccer. Both Australian and Association rules football share their genesis from a previous version of the game now lost to history. By the time future waves of immigrants came to the country, exporting soccer, the native code had taken hold and Football never took its place as the pre-eminent sport like in so many other lands.

However, as we know, the beauty and simplicity of Football makes it a very hard game to resist and slowly the globalisation of the game grew stronger roots Down Under. The 80' and 90's saw a stream of Australian Soccer players migrate to Europe and the Australian national team (the Socceroos) slowly began to improve. Their recent performance in the World Cup captured the imagination of many Australians and the game now probably enjoys an unprecedented level of popularity. On the back of the growth of the sport, the National Soccer League in Australia was replaced in 2005 with the A-League, a new professional league of eight teams.

The league operates a franchise system. Five of the teams formed for the inaugural A-League season were brand new clubs. Only Perth Glory, Adelaide United and Newcastle United Jets survive from the old league. The new teams were Sydney FC, Queensland Roar, Central Coast Mariners, Melbourne Victory and from New Zealand, Wellington Phoenix. Players you may recognise that have graced the fields of the A-League are Tony Vidmar, Tony Popovitch, Juninho (yes that Juninho), Danny Tiatto and Kevin Muscat.

The A-League season is divided into two parts. A 21-week regular season determines the Premier (regular season) Champion and a top four to make up the post-season culminating in a Grand Final. The four team play-off competition is a novel and different approach to the first v fourth/second v third/final system we are used to here in England. In the A-League the top two play each other in the two legged Major Semi-Final. The winner of that match progresses straight to the Grand Final and chooses the venue for the match. The loser progresses to the Preliminary Final where they will play the winner of the Minor Semi-Final which is another two legged match between the third and fourth finished teams in the Regular Season. The Preliminary Final winners then progress to the Grand Final where the A-League Championship is decided.

The system satisfies the need for a showpiece climax to the season, which is very much at the heart of Australian sporting culture. It also clearly benefits the teams that finish further up the table and therefore provides incentives for clubs to keep going until the last week rather than settling for a play-off spot and taking their foot off the gas.

The winner qualifies for the Asian Champions League along with the winner of the Regular Season. Curiously, qualifiers do not enter this tournament for a whole year. This means that the 2008 champions, Newcastle United Jets, will enter the 2009 Champions League despite finishing bottom of the current A-League season.

This season saw Melbourne Victory take the Premier title. They played runners up Adelaide United in the Major Semi and ran out 6-0 victors on aggregate. United coach Aurelio Vidmar (right) took the defeat pretty badly and went on a Keegan style post-match rant. The only thing was, rather than slagging off the opposition, he slagged off just about everyone who had ever been anywhere near the club, including himself. Fortunately for Vidmar and his players, they got another crack at getting into the Grand Final against Queensland Roar in the Preliminary Final. The Roar were the form team at the end of the Regular Season and overcame the Central Coast Mariners 4-1 on aggregate.

Many people, including me, thought the Roar would er... roar past Adelaide by the force of their own momentum while Adelaide faltered under the wight of their coaches suicidal remarks. However, where Keegan's players failed, Vidmar's players rallied to a 1-0 win and sealed a place in the Grand Final at the Telstra Dome this Saturday morning (UK time). The game will be broadcast live on Sky Sports, more details will appear in our forthcoming Weekend TV Preview.

Next season, the league will take on a further two clubs in North Queensland Fury and Cold Coast United. Robbie Fowler has already signed up for the Fury and will be spending the twilight of his career expanding his already considerable property empire banging in the goals down under. Gold Coast have signed this season's A-League Golden Boot winner Shane Smeltz from Wellington Pheonix.

The standard of play? Unsurprisingly the quality does not match that of the major European leagues. However, the League is very much in its infancy and now there is a professional structure in place for young Australian sportsmen (of which there are many) to play football. Given Australia's proud sporting heritage, it may not be too long before the A-League starts to export its finest player overseas and provide the rump of a successful Socceroos team in the World Cup which, no doubt, we will never hear the end of...

World Cup 2010 Qualifying Update (Part 4)

And so to the fourth and final part of our round -up of the May and June World Cup 2010 qualifiers. Today we cover the Asia and Oceania sections...

Asia

Overview
A complicated process here. In Round 1, thirty-eight teams faced each other in nineteen home-and-away matches. Of the nineteen winners, the eleven highest-ranking teams (and by that we think FIFA mean those teams that won by the biggest margins) received a bye to Round 3 while the other eight played out Round 2 as a series of four home-and-away ties.

The winners of those games advanced to Round 3 where they went into the hat with the eleven biggest winners from Round 1 and the top five seeded teams overall who were given a bye (among whom were Australia, Japan and South Korea). These 20 teams were then drawn into five round-robin groups of four where the winners and runners-up go through to Round 4. (Just for the record, Round 3 has just finished - more of which shortly - and Round 4 gets underway on September 6th).

Finally in Round 4, the ten remaining teams are split into two round-robin groups of five. The winners and runners-up from both groups will qualify for World Cup 2010, while the two third-placed teams go into a home-and-away play-off. The winner of that play-off... does NOT qualify for the World Cup Finals, oh no - for them there's the agony of one more play-off against the top team from Oceania.

Then and only then will we know all the Asian teams going through to South Africa 2010... by which time qualification for World Cup 2014 will probably be underway, but never mind...

News
So as mentioned before, Round 3 came to an end towards the end of June and of all the five groups involved, Group 1 was easily the toughest fought. In it were Asian champions Iraq, Australia - relative newcomers to the Asian zone and one of the favourites, 2002 World Cup finalists China and the never-to-be-overlooked threat of Qatar.

If we say that none of the four teams managed to win any more than there of their six games, that should give you a measure of their collective lack of consistency. Australia seemed to make the best start with wins over Qatar and Iraq and a draw against China, but defeats to China and Iraq were to follow soon after and the Aussies were by no means certain of finishing in the top two going into the final round of games.

Fortunately for them, the threat from Iraq fizzled out in the last game of the group as Qatar gained a vital three points to snatch the runner-up spot in the group. Though they'd lost in both matches to the Australians, Qatar did well against the other teams in the group, and with China's only win coming in their last game against Australia, it was the Aussies and Qatar (above right) that booked their place in Round 4.

Group 2 had one clear favourite in the shape of Japan, and they didn't disappoint, topping the group with thirteen points from a possible eighteen. That meant there'd be a bit of a surprise in finding out who would take second spot in the group, and it would eventually go to Bahrain.

For them, the battle was won in the first half of their campaign, winning their opening three games against all of their opponents. The only team likely to stop them were Oman, but their challenge was never a strong one so Bahrain were home and hosed going into their last match against Japan who had already qualified. Thailand finished last in the group with just one point, picked up from their home match against Bahrain.

Group 3, similarly, had two front runners of its own and with a pleasant sense of symmetry and international accord, both qualifiers came from either side of the Korean border. Shoot, they even finished on the same amount of points in the end. Beat that, Ban Ki-moon.

Yes, it was a Korean one-two in the end with the South blazing their way to the top of the group unbeaten and scoring ten goals while conceding only three. The North matched them point for point, winning three and drawing the other three of their games, but they had a much more economical approach. They scored just four and didn't concede any. I think that's what's known as a 'mean defence', isn't it?

The other two teams in the group, Jordan and Turkmenistan, could hardly get a look in and had to make do with trying to score points off each other. This turned out to be a fruitful exercise for Jordan who beat the Turkmen 2-0 on both occasions, but neither could get any more than a single point off the two Koreas.

And so it ended with South Korea top and North Korea second, split only on goal difference, with Jordan finishing third, five points behind and Turkmenistan last on just one. And you might be wondering how those peace-loving Koreans faired when they played each other? The answer: both games ended goalless. How very amicable.

There was another two-horse race in Group 4, this time won easily by Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan, well ahead of Singapore and Lebanon. The two favourites made light work of their opponents, both winning five out of their six games. Their only defeats would turn out to be against each other.

Singapore's six points came from both their wins over the hapless Lebanese team who ended their campaign with a big fat zero in the Points column, but at least they can rest assured they didn't suffer the biggest humiliation of the competition. That undoubtedly went to Singapore who lost 7-3 at home to Uzbekistan despite being level at 2-2 just half an hour into the game.

Finally to Group 5 where Iran and the United Arab Emirates were expected to be the runaway favourites, but only Iran lived up to their reputation. Despite a slow start, Iran finished their campaign with three draws and three wins and comfortably topped the group on twelve points.

The UAE, however, were less sure of themselves. They had to fight off the attentions of Syria who were also struggling to gain any consistency and as the competition wore on, the daylight between them grew less and less. It was with considerable irony, then, that both teams met each other in a do-or-die game to decide the final qualifying spot in the group.

Syria needed to beat the Emirates by three clear goals to go above them on goal difference. Adopting a predictably offensive strategy, Syria went 2-0 up thanks to a goal either side of half time from Jehad Al Houssain, but with just seven minutes left on the clock, any hopes the Syrians had of winning came to an abrupt end. UAE striker Ismail Matar converted a penalty to pull the score back to 2-1, and though Syria picked up a third through Firas Al Khatib a minute from time, it was not enough. The United Arab Emirates were through to the next round by a single goal and the gallant Syrians were out.

With the ten qualifying teams known, the draw was made for the two Fourth Round groups, and here's how the teams fell into place:



At first glance, Group 2 appears to be the toughest, containing three of the five group winners from the previous round. It also features the inseparable pairing of North and South Korea along with the tough Uzbekis, although Group 1 will see a fascinating re-enactment of the Australia / Qatar tussle with Japan thrown in for good measure, too.

By way of a prediction, we're going for Uzbekistan, Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia as the four automatic qualifiers with Australia and the United Arab Emirates entering the Round 5 play-off. If that's the way it all pans out, you can expect some great games and some shocks along the way...

Oceania

Background
Easy-peasy, this. Nine teams started out in Round 1 (ten, if you include the non-FIFA affiliated Tuvalu), and from them, three progressed to Round 2 to join the seeded New Zealand.

In Round 2, all four teams play in a round-robin group and the winning team goes through to a play-off against the fifth best team from Asia.

News
As you'd expect, New Zealand are the hot favourites to represent Oceania in that Asian play-off and so far they've won all three of their games to lead the group. New Caledonia (seen right against Tuvalu) are only a point behind them at the moment, but they've played an extra match and the other two teams, Fiji and Vanuatu trail way behind with just a point each.



So the big question is 'when do New Zealand and New Caledonia play each other next'? Well as luck would have it, that's on September 6th in Noumea and if the All Whites win, they'll have virtually booked their place in the Asian play-off. Only a win for New Caledonia in the second match against New Zealand four days later and a loss for New Zealand against Fiji in November will provide any opportunity for the New Caledonians to succeed.

And that's that. All the qualifiers thus far have now been covered, but there are more on the way during the next month or so and you can bet we'll be back to give you news of those when they happen. Hopefully this time you won't have to wait so long for them, if you're lucky...

The Host With The Most: Football Rules Australia

Football - or rather 'Soccer' as it is known - is on the up 'down under'. In a country where rugby, cricket and of course, Australian Rules Football are the national sports, soccer (as we'll call it from now on to avoid confusion) is at last becoming the big spectator sport it deserves to be.

Melbourne's Telstra Dome held this season's 'Grand Final' of the A-League, which saw Melbourne Victory face Adelaide United. An attendance of 55,436 saw Melbourne coast to victory - an attendance which was not only the highest of the season but also higher than any Aussie Rules match held in that stadium.

Attendances have been impressive throughout the season too, with crowds of over 40,000 being a regular occurrence. Even amongst the young, Soccer has found a new home with over 350,000 children taking part. That figure is second only to swimming, and Soccer among boys only has more participants (268,000) compared to Aussie Rules (188,000).

So what has gone so right for Soccer in Australia? Obviously the World Cup effect has a lot to do with it, as the 'Socceroos' performed well in Germany last summer. However, the club scene has changed drastically. Major cities now have one club to support, allowing them to call on the support of every fan in their region - Sydney FC, Melbourne Victory for example. Try to imagine that in England if you can - London City, Manchester Rovers, Liverpool Echo... or perhaps, Glasgow?

Consider also Australia's new qualification path to the World Cup Finals. They now play sides from Asia instead of the mismatches against the likes of Western Samoa en route to the inevitable final against New Zealand. Soccer suddenly has a competitive level never seen in Australia before - at both club and national level.

The A-league of Australia has followed a similar path to that of the J-League of Japan, hiring bigger name coaches and signing older but recognisable stars to their league. This trend will continue until Australia produces enough big names of its own or the A-League is attractive enough a proposition to tempt players away from Europe and South America.

Those days are a long way off, of course, but with rising attendances, TV coverage and sponsorship revenue, surely a production line of young and talented footballers is a realistic possibility in a similar way to their cricket academies?

FIFA like to give the 'Global Game' (as they promote it) even more coverage across the globe. The apparent failure in trying to convert the Americans into fans of the sport has had a lukewarm response at best. America had its own favourite sports such as Baseball and American Football, and in cricket, rugby and Aussie Rules it seems Australia had the same problem.

That may have been the case not too long ago, but is that the case anymore? As we know, they love a pis... party down under, and have the infrastructure and experience (thanks to the Olympics, Rugby World Cup and Ashes series) to handle such a major event. Surely, then, Australia is ripe for picking as a World Cup host very soon?