Those Bloody Septic Tanks

It might have been the wake up call Australia needed before the tournament proper kicked off, but a 1-3 loss, especially to the USA, wasn't pretty to watch. Don't get me wrong, I applaud the US for their deserved win, and they were unlucky not to have won it with 4 goals, but it didn't make it feel any better, especially watching what's supposed to be our defence, crumble like it was made of honeycomb.

It's up the other end of the pitch that concerns me about this squad too, with Kennedy missing two good opportunitties on goal, and Pim changing to what shockingly looked to be a 442 formation. But Pim, you sent Scotty Mac home because you weren't playing a formation that could accomdate him, why then use 442 in this match? Was it for the knickers, so that when they complained about you not using it, you could point to this game and say, oh, but see, I did use it and it didn't work, so, there you are. I seriously can't work out some of Pim's decisions, but then again, I'm not looking after the team.

You may think I'm being ungrateful here, I mean, yes, Pim got us to both the World Cup and Asian Cup, and leaked very few goals doing so, so at the end of the day, he's been a success. I do enjoy beautiful football, but I'll take the way we qualified, heck, I'd be ecstatc if we get through the group stage playing the same kind of football that got us there in the first place, that being said though, is it good enough to get through Serbia and Ghana, let alone the powerhouse that is Germany?

Other factors that are going to be a worry include our injury tally, with the latest to join those ranks being Timmy Cahill picking up a neck injury in the US game on Saturday. Apparently Kewell and Emerton look set to line up against Germany, but it's looking ever more likely that we may be without Cahill for the opener, something. Just can't think about right now.

after all this self indulgent whinging, I wanted to make mention of Brad Jones, who found out before the US game that his son Luca had contracted Leukemia. Obviously there are some things more important than football, and missing out on the World Cup would pale in comparisson to your child being ill, let alone finding out they have something like Leukemia. My thoughts go out to Brad, Luca and their family at this time and hope it all works out ok for you.