The Australia v Japan match on Saturday created a new Australian pay TV record audience with an average of 419,000 people watching the game on Fox Sports.

Stand up Mark Milligan, David Carney and Michael Beauchamp.

This is what its all about. 1-0 would have been a satisfactory result. 2-0 a better one, but 4-0 is emphatic. Against the run of play, yes. But for once the Australians played like a mature football outfit, kept their heads and just marked up (most of the time). Ironically it was the young guns who led the way.

There are few better ways to silence your critics, and it's the way we all hoped it would have been from the start.

The analysis will sober us up, and the hangover will reveal that we now have to sleep with an in-form Japan on Saturday night, and that at the end of the day we beat a minnow of world football and it felt like beating Brazil.

But as I noted here, days like these are where we steel ourselves for our Asian qualification path, World Cup 2010 and beyond. And the Socceroos of the future led the way.

How do you turn a good news football story into a negative anti-soccer one?

Here is a piece from, where else, the Melbourne Herald Sun, in the 'Soccer' sports section:

Fans switch on for switched-off Socceroos

July 10, 2007 12:00am
AUSTRALIA'S wobbly draw against Oman in its first group game of the Asian Cup attracted an average audience of 345,000, making it one of the biggest sporting events in subscription television history.

The figures don't include those who watched it at pubs and clubs.

......OK thats a great story - a huge TV audience for a game against a relative unknown football nation, and an acknowledgment that many more are watching in clubs and pubs or at Conaldo's place.

This came on top of Seven's coverage of the Essendon-Geelong game which was the highest-rating Friday night home-and-away match in Melbourne (500,000) since Collingwood played Port Adelaide at Telstra Dome in Round 14, 2005 (572,000).

Ummm, what do you mean 'came on top of'...? That game was on free to air, accessible to every Aussie with a TV set...

Watching the soccer got us wondering

here we go.....

about those flares you sometimes see at games.

Noooo? really what a surprise - I wouldnt have expected such a train of thought from you!

Did you know the basic flare costs about $60 and prices can soar to as much as $120 for the rocket variety?

Did you have to look that up on google or ring around a few places to make this story take up an extra few cms on the web page?

So where do kids get the money to let them off at soccer matches? They don't. Most are stolen from boats.

Oh touche, touche - of course they are, and that means that the Pay TV television audience was so big (remember that train of thought?) because....ummmm......the kids who go to football matches steal flares from boats...

RIGHT!

But thats not enough to fill the 'soccer' story quota for our Herald Sun reporter.

A VIETNAMESE man was killed in an accident as he drove his motorbike through Hanoi to celebrate his country's Asian Cup victory against the United Arab Emirates.

The man died yesterday when he crashed into a traffic sign.

Be warned..watching 'soccer' and celebrating a victory can be hazardous to your health, and may cause you to swim in frigid Melbourne waters to steal fireworks out of boats, then drive erratically through the streets of Hanoi without a helmet on.

Welcome to Asia, Australian Football.

The torrid encounter against Oman, and, no doubt, the pain that is yet to come against Iraq and co, is the reason we will probably equal or better our performance at the next World Cup in South Africa.

Most of us, including this two-bobber, celebrated when we were accepted into Asia. The exposure, the tougher but fairer qualifying route, and the increased quality of the opposition would mean Australian Football would no longer be spinning it's wheels on the world and domestic scene.

I believe the Asian Cup will show us what that really means. Hard slog, reality checks, reputations and millionaire players count for nothing. Just performance on the park. And what that really means is that the National Team will get better. What we may just see at this Asian Cup, though, is that performances may get worse in the short term, until we make the shift in mindset.

Until earlier this year we didn't see the other side of the coin - stifling heat and humidity, stretcher bearers as 12th and 13th men, intolerant refereeing and monsoon showers.

Come qualifying time for the World Cup next year and into 2009, however, and there will be no more surprises, and no more naiveté to trip us up against teams like Iran, as has happened in the painful past.

The lads may have the bottle to do well in this tournament, but our opener has shown that there are many elements besides pure football to overcome. Hard games against wily opposition will make us stronger, and gutsy efforts to overcome these tough obstacles build the legend and draw the fans.

The Asian Cup looks set to be all it promised to be - an excellent proving ground for the Australian game and the 2010 Socceroos.

...for a day on 27th November 2007.

Ben Buckley(a.k.a. Mr Invisible) on the FFA website: “I am also very pleased to announce that Network Ten will broadcast this major event live nationally in a three hour special presentation."

He was, of course, talking about the upcoming visit by 'the team that David Beckham plays for now' (a.k.a. LA Galaxy).

Well, its a start. From lil things big things grow.

Ahhh......the good old days...



Thanks to the Age


Thats what I was reminded of as I watched the Socceroos v Singapore highlights on SBS this afternoon.

Kewell takes on and skins a player on the left flank, and crosses in for Mark Viduka to nod it into the back of the net.

Not since those heady days back at Leeds Utd have we had the chance to enjoy a match when both Harry and Dukes have hit the score-sheet in the most convincing of fashion.

I'm an optimist, and whilst many have criticised the performance as being a lack lustre one, I put it down to a stiff week of intense physical training in stifling conditions. For me its more important to see the big man Viduka putting some goals away for country as per his club form, Schwarzer making some great saves and the side recovering after a dodgy first half effort.

And when you look at the quality that was sitting on the bench or not even named in the starting squad. you have to look forward to the coming month with many positive thoughts.

I will be watching some of the games live, thank goodness, thanks to Conaldo's generosity, or the local Newcastle pub. But kudo's go th the Australian FourFourTwo website - your text commentary was fantastic for us non Fox viewers.

Kewell and Viduka, thanks for bringing back the memories...