Entries Tagged 'China' ↓

The Socceroos side held China to a draw last night, keeping them at the top of the ladder in Group A of Asia’s 2010 World Cup qualifiers. Qatar, who beat Iraq 2-0, rise to 2nd place, a point behind Australia.

The Socceroos had almost everything go against them: a spate of injuries, a tough environment to play in, minimal preparation time. Ten minutes into the game, things started looking even worse, as Pim Verbeek was forced to sub Archie Thompson off after he picked up a calf injury. Continue reading →

The Socceroos meet China tonight in the second round of World Cup qualifiers, and it seems everything is stacked against them. Not only must they play China in Kunming, at the lofty height of 1900 metres above sea level, but they must also do so without several key players.

Players have been dropping like flies: Tim Cahill, Josh Kennedy, Scott McDonald, Brett Emerton, Mile Sterjovski, Bruce Djite. John Aloisi was not added to the squad, apparently due to a knee injury. Not was Mark Viduka, who must have pen poised to sign his international retirement. Continue reading →

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oHPp_wHCEo[/youtube]

Midway through the first half, I thought one word could describe the Socceroos’ drubbing of Qatar: Clinical.

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Frankly, it’s not looking much better than the match against China. If Australian media wasn’t interested in the friendly against China, you can bet they won’t care about a friendly with Tianjin Teda – even if it is the Mayors’ Cup.

What about the Chinese media? I’ve searched through some P2P program guides for Chinese channels and come up with nothing. As far as I can tell, the game against Tianjin Teda will also not be on TV, be it Aussie or Chinese.

That said, if you know something I don’t, feel free to leave a comment and let the rest of us know how we can follow the game on Saturday night.

Details have unfortunately been incredibly sketchy, but reports are now in that the Victory has lost 1-0 to China tonight in a match played over three 30 minute thirds. The only goal in the match has been credited to Changchun Yatai midfielder Wang Dong, who headed the ball home in the 35th minute. Kaz Patafta and Matthew Kemp both managed to get a run. Naturally we never like to see a loss, but in reality it is not a bad result for a somewhat undermanned Melbourne against a national team in the final stages of preparation for a major tournament! Now let’s see how they do against Tianjin on Saturday.

It is great that Melbourne had the chance to play this match, but it is most unfortunate that the Victory could not cobble together even the most basic form of coverage. At the very least, surely it would have been feasible to get someone to SMS in some updates? After building up significant hype, it is a disappointing outcome for the die-hard fans.

Tonight’s game against China will not be televised. Not here, nor there. I have searched high and low. I’ve even gone through the laborious effort of translating Chinese pages into English through Google and turned up with nothing. It appears that the Melbourne vs. China match won’t even be showing in China.

But of course, if you know otherwise, please let us know by leaving a comment.

In any case, I thought it would be a fitting time for a pre-match roundup. This game is a friendly, and Merrick has pointed out that the result doesn’t matter. The Chinese are more likely to care about obtaining a win than we are: with the Asian Cup just a few days away, they will be keen to gain confidence from a solid win tonight. A loss would hurt us, but it would hurt them more.

The Victory squad is by no means its A-team. New recruits Kaz Patafta and Matthew Kemp will both get their first game, the latter buffering up the defence while Patafta will join Caceres and Allsopp up front to give Melbourne a three-pronged attack. The midfield will have to do without Brebner, who’s injured – but tall man Ljubo Milicevic, normally a central defender, will step up to support Muscat and Pantelidis in the midfield. Theoklitos keeps his spot in goals.

The fact that Milicevic is being put in midfield is somewhat telling, as it means that the Leijer/Vargas combo will once again be at the centre of the Victory defence, with Keenan and Kemp filling out the flanks. One of the questions this season will be whether Leijer and Vargas manage to keep their central spots, given the crowding of defensive players after the signings of Milicevic, Keenan and Kemp. Players are going to have to work very hard to earn their place in defence.

Some good man has started the Televise Melbourne Victory vs. China Match on SBS petition. I’ve just signed it and encourage you to do the same. It only takes a few seconds and there have been over 300 signatures so far. Hopefully a couple thousand signatures will provide sufficient prodding for SBS to get their act together and show the game come July 4th.

The Victory’s game against China on July 4 may be shown on free-to-air television.

Well, we hope so. Victory chairman Geoff Lord has already been in touch with SBS regarding the proposal. From the Age:

“To my knowledge, this is the first time any Australian club side has organised a game like this against a national team like China,” he said. “I think it’s an absolutely outstanding promotional opportunity from the City of Melbourne’s point of view.

“They could do a trade promotion around the game and use it to generate business and advertise Victoria. The game will be shown live throughout China, and the television audience is vast. I would like it to be shown live here too.

“We would hope to make this an annual event and build on the links we establish this year.”

Fingers crossed. If football is to grow in Australia, it’s going to require much better exposure from free-to-air TV.