It’s not often you see the English press admit they’re scared of the Aussies. Especially when it comes to football.
But if an article written by one of the game’s most respected writers is anything to go by, England are running scared of drawing the Socceroos in the group stages of the 2010 World Cup.
In his recent story on telegraph.co.uk, award winning football journalist Henry Winter lists Harry Kewell and Australia as one of the main teams England will want to avoid when the World Cup draw takes place in Cape Town on December 5th.
Along with Portugal and Ivory Coast – other potential teams that could be drawn with England in a ‘Group of Death’ – Australia “could… prevent England progressing from even the group stages of the World Cup.”
Singling out Kewell, Schwarzer and Cahill as difference makers, Winter says of a possible Socceroos vs England group match: “England v Australia would be an Ashes with studs, Bodyline in boots. The only team-talk that Kewell, Cahill and Mark Schwarzer would need would be ‘you're playing the bleeding Poms, people you don't give a XXXX for, now go out and stuff them’.”
Winter, a former UK FourFourTwo columnist, is one of the more measured, less xenophobic members of the English hack pack, so to come out and say the Socceroos are a team England wouldn’t want to play is a big statement this far out from the tournament.
Maybe the scarred wounds of 2003 are starting to itch a bit or possibly it’s the realisation that a hard pitch or moisture in the air won’t save them in a football match.
And while Fabio Capello might need to have the intensity of the rivalry explained to him – something the FA forgot to brief Sven Goran-Erikkson on the Upton Park clash – the playing staff will need no added pep talk to be up for this one.
In private, players on boths sides have stated they would prefer to avoid each other until a later stage of the tournament but there’s no doubting an England-Australia clash would bring our game more-than-usual exposure in the mainstream media.
Even the most diehard rugby fan –in the middle of the Origin series, as the World Cup usually falls – couldn’t fail to have their head turned by the familiar names of Rooney, Cahill, Gerrard and Kewell facing off against each other. Couple that with the game being on free-to-air and we’re looking at possibly the highest rated TV event in our history.
With fans staying away from A-League games this years amid claims of high ticket prices and lack of community integration, it could be left to a clash between the Old Enemies to kick the game in this country to another level and inspire a new generation of fans.
But if an article written by one of the game’s most respected writers is anything to go by, England are running scared of drawing the Socceroos in the group stages of the 2010 World Cup.
In his recent story on telegraph.co.uk, award winning football journalist Henry Winter lists Harry Kewell and Australia as one of the main teams England will want to avoid when the World Cup draw takes place in Cape Town on December 5th.
Along with Portugal and Ivory Coast – other potential teams that could be drawn with England in a ‘Group of Death’ – Australia “could… prevent England progressing from even the group stages of the World Cup.”
Singling out Kewell, Schwarzer and Cahill as difference makers, Winter says of a possible Socceroos vs England group match: “England v Australia would be an Ashes with studs, Bodyline in boots. The only team-talk that Kewell, Cahill and Mark Schwarzer would need would be ‘you're playing the bleeding Poms, people you don't give a XXXX for, now go out and stuff them’.”
Winter, a former UK FourFourTwo columnist, is one of the more measured, less xenophobic members of the English hack pack, so to come out and say the Socceroos are a team England wouldn’t want to play is a big statement this far out from the tournament.
Maybe the scarred wounds of 2003 are starting to itch a bit or possibly it’s the realisation that a hard pitch or moisture in the air won’t save them in a football match.
And while Fabio Capello might need to have the intensity of the rivalry explained to him – something the FA forgot to brief Sven Goran-Erikkson on the Upton Park clash – the playing staff will need no added pep talk to be up for this one.
In private, players on boths sides have stated they would prefer to avoid each other until a later stage of the tournament but there’s no doubting an England-Australia clash would bring our game more-than-usual exposure in the mainstream media.
Even the most diehard rugby fan –in the middle of the Origin series, as the World Cup usually falls – couldn’t fail to have their head turned by the familiar names of Rooney, Cahill, Gerrard and Kewell facing off against each other. Couple that with the game being on free-to-air and we’re looking at possibly the highest rated TV event in our history.
With fans staying away from A-League games this years amid claims of high ticket prices and lack of community integration, it could be left to a clash between the Old Enemies to kick the game in this country to another level and inspire a new generation of fans.
