hopefully ill be able to make it, but i have a sporting commitment sunday morning at 10, so i cant get the first train!!

on the subject of melbourne roverites, are they any other supporters that attend deakin uni apart from me and downunderrover.

because ive seen a couple of rovers shirts around, repeat offenders rather than just the odd shirt

the final countdown...

reid was good in the centre, so why not play him in the middle with savage. and drop mokoena to the bench. because we want to play with 2 up front v leciester.

pedersen on the left and thommo on the right, if thommo doesn't perform then bring emo in for the next match.

fantastic performance from the side.

hats off to todd, nelsen and reid as they were a class above.

stead was poor in the first half but after he got the goal he started to do some good things, amazing what confidence can do to you.

thommo had some good turns and touches, needs to get more balls into the box - but i spose its hard when playing 1 up.

proud day!

still a little unsure about this result, but id like to think we can take it at home.

either 1-0 or 2-1

Jens Lehhman

Diouf

mellberg

viera

Smertin

obviously there are teams i like to watch; namely barca, madrid and chelsea.

but i could never support thme or take pleasure in them winning.

Blackburn foremost and then Melbourne Victory is how it will always be for me

white shorts next season perhaps??

Emerton.

When was the last time you watched England?

I watched them during Euro 2004, and at times their midfield was woeful. Only Lampard was exceptional and looked like he could single-handedly make things happen.

Granted they are better for having Gerrard back in the team, but I would imagine that a Bresciano or Cahill would do the same sorts of things Scholes used to do.

And if Heskey can wear the England shirt, god knows Viduka could!

SWP - Gerrard - Lampard - Beckham

I dont see how tim cahill or bresciano could compete with any of these guys.

bresciano doesn't play an "english game" and tim cahill hasn't got the influence that these guys have.

Of course i think Viduka is better then Heskey, but at the moment he wouldn't get a look in ahead of Rooney or Owen.

I watched the Holland match (sadly) and i watched all their euro matches (They are my 2nd team basically) and I cant see our players getting a gig in their line up.

Cahill would do the Scholes job fine, but theres no room for scholes now anyway in that midfield, as he was ineffective at left mid in the euros when he was played there.

theres no australian player at the moment who would start in the england team, which shows how much better england are.

kewell is the only one who could get a run at full strength and thats saying alot for enlgands left hand side...

after schwazers peformances against bolton he would be the only player who could make it in the squad

and by the way Australia is a class behind England's current side. no forgetting that friendly was like 2 years ago....

ON PAPER England have always had more class

ON PAPER England have close to the best team in the world

ON PAPER England have the best midfield in the world

It's about backing that talent up that counts, something they continually fail to do

It is quite obvious they place to much pressure on their football players for success

I think moves abroad for some players would prove most beneficial

as flb said before australia is the same, with a full strength side on paper should be probably in the top 20 teams. but we cant put it together on the park

but with an incompetant manager unwilling to give th young guns a go, we are gonna have players in their prime (26-28) without an international cap.

took him too long to play bresciano, and its taking him too long to play kisnorbo, mckain, mcdonald, culina etc

I'd say that the US (which hasn't lost to Mexico in a competitive match since 1998), Mexico, and Costa Rica could all beat Australia.

with usa and aus both havign full strength sides i doubt it, but thats your opinion.

and by the way australia is a class behind england's current side. no forgetting that friendly was like 2 years ago....

whilst i am loving him and his contribution to the side at the moment please remeber that hes got a long way to go in his career and needs more time to prove the fee we paid for him.

And the bloody English couldn't score against that, this is the reason you guys will not win a major footballing championship any time soon.

Maybe not but at least we will qualify for them which is more than your socceroos have managed for over three decades. All you have to do is beat some fifth-rate (literally) South American team and you'd qualify but that has been beyond you so far. Thankfully FIFA still haven't given Australia an undeserved automatic qualifying spot by allowing the winners of the Oceania section a full place. Even if Blatter did make sure he was already safely re-elected by the time of his U-turn...

As for "one of the best midfields in the world"...yeah, ok. In your opinion and no one else's. Guess they will have a chance to prove it in your next all-important qualifying match against...er...the Solomon Islands. Tough qualifying schedule that. Maybe some average side like Colombia or Uruguay to lose to in the play-offs perhaps.

England may not win the next World Cup but they will almost certainly be there, they are also the only European team to reach the quarter finals of both the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004. Not exactly like watching Brazil but a damn sight better than your negative take on one (wow! one) friendly game which included Sven's usual messing about with players and, for a change, tactics this time. Andy Johnson on the right? Good one Sven...

Will Australia be there? Go on about friendlies all you like (it's what Welsh fans did a few years ago and look where that got them) but if you don't make the last 32 of the World Cup then you aren't even close to being anything special I'm afraid. There's been a lot of talk about the Australian national team as an emerging footballing power for years now but it's just been hot air so far. The USA reached the quarter finals last time; where were the Aussies?

England have an excellent squad and could certainly expect to reach the knockout stages, whether we have a manager capable of taking us any further is another question. "How bad is the English footballing team?" you asked, well we'll see at the next World Cup. Probably quite bad knowing us and Sven's recent dodgy team selections. Your lot gonna pop along as well for once?

indeed you may be right but when the socceroos squad is 100% we are definately in the best 32 teams in the world.

-------------Viduka - Kewell

Emerton - Grella - Cahill - Bresciano

Lazaridis - Moore - Popovic - Neil

---------------Schwarzer

that is a team that deserves to participate in a wc.

yeah moko was solid in the air and stepped up well. but he tries the long passes too often.

benni mccarthy is a class act.

Forgot to watch the game this morning! 

Luckily SBS will repeat the game at 10 pm tonight.

How did Culina play??

Same with me.

How about Mokoena?

mokoena tried to many hero balls..

match highlights on this page

HERE, halfway down

check out chipperfields goal

Forgot to watch the game this morning!

Luckily SBS will repeat the game at 10 pm tonight.

How did Culina play??

culina looked a bit out of sorts

wow, chipperfields goal was amazing, you wont ever see much better than that, later tongiht there should be highlights at the site--- www1.sbs.com.au

neil solid

emerton amongst the best

australia will probably line up as

Schwarzer

Neill--Moore--Popovic--Vidmar

Bresciano--Grella--Tiatto

Emerton--Agostino--Culina

im looking forward to seeing cluina, 11 goals this season in the dutch league, hopefully he can kickstart his international career and become the longer term partner for viduka.

my prediction

SAF 3 - 2 AUS

Benni McCarthy to run riot over poopovic, and that ajax player to score aswell.

culina and bresciano to score for aus

like many others im tipping a 2-1 win to us

with huckerby, emerton and savage scoring

chelsea 1-0

robben

what do i win?

thought we played pretty well anyway, lack the quality finishing and final ball.

didn't have much confidence with dickov taking the spot kick, but he battled hard and didn't step back from tezz.

much love to savage and nelsen.

mokoena needs to work on bringing the ball downfrom his knees and playing the ball along the ground, because if its not at his feet then he just volleys it anywhere.

nelsen needs to play the ball along the ground more, the long ball wasn't working

morten needs to develop a bit more pace when hes dribbling, but i thought he played ok

Rovers Players involved with

Malta v Norway

South Africa v Australia

Wales v Hungary

Full fixture list

Hong Kong v Brazil

Bulgaria v Serbia & Montenegro

Azerbaijan v Moldova

Romania v Slovakia

United Arab Emirates v Switzerland

Georgia v Lithuania

Slovenia v Czech Republic

Israel v Croatia

Malta v Norway

South Africa v Australia

Turkey v Tunisia

Egypt v Belgium

Poland v Belarus

Ireland v Portugal

England v Netherlands

Germany v Argentina

France v Sweden

Italy v Russia

Northern Ireland v Canada

Wales v Hungary

Venezuela v Estonia

Chile v Ecuador

Australia Squad v South Africa

Mark Schwarzer (Middlesbrough), Clint Bolton (APIA Leichhardt); Lucas Neill (Blackburn), Luke Wilkshire (Bristol City), Craig Moore (Borussia Moenchengladbach), Tony Popovic (Crystal Palace), Stephen Laybutt (Gent), Tony Vidmar (Cardiff), Jon McKain (National Bucharest), Danny Tiatto (Leicester) , Vince Grella (Parma), Archie Thompson (Lierse), Brett Emerton (Blackburn), Marco Bresciano (Parma), Mile Sterjovski (Basle), Scott Chipperfield (Basle), Jason Culina (Twente Enschede), Paul Agostino (1860 Munich), Max Vieri (Ternana)

I'd have no idea how Frank Farina is going to lie up this poor looking side, and i expect us to lose to south africa, as they have have there strongest team in for some time, and we are depleted as hell.

Viduka, Cahill, Kewell, Lazaridis, Skoko all out at the minute.

Id like to see (in a perfect world with my squad)

----------Schwarzer

----Neil Moore McKain Tiatto

Emerton Grella Bresciano Elrich

-------McDonald Culina

am i the only one who thought savage had a fairly good game against chelsea?

sure he goes in hard and may not be pretty to watch, but hes intimidating and effective, and makes players think twice before they go in with a tackle for him.

http://www.teamtalk.com/teamtalk/News/Stor..._284289,00.html

"Barry admits leaving rangers to go to rovers was a bad career move"

it all comes down to the end result

if we survive this season, and we strengthen in the summer, both up front in in the centre then a good deal

but

if we go down, thats a different story