Olympic Draw

[dibo]

Thats going to be f**ked if seven have exclusive rights to everything including the football, because football will not get preference over swimming or athletics if that is the case.

it did last time - i remember watching games live from athens in 2004, including the quarter final that we lost to iraq.

But ill be interested in all the games. Not just the ones Australia play in

well it is a multisport event, not just a football event. the football is important, but there are lots of other sports that justifiably get coverage - it's their one time in the spotlight every four years.

in any case, SBS will surely be showing some matches, particularly on digital channels.

 

[mariners4ever]

We should be using overrage players IMO. If Danny is out we should use Schwarzer, we should use Cahill if he is fit as well as Kennedy or MacDonald. If Argentina are throwing their big guns in so should we.

well i was reading parts of the 442 website and the world game website and they both stated that arnold wont be taking any overage keepers and probably no overage defenders

 

[Kareem]

a and b are definately killer groups
it seems every tournament australia participates in we get a hard group
i.e, wc06, wcq 2010, asian cup, womens wc now olympics... hopefully we get a good group if we make south africa

no offence but WC06 wasnt that hard

here are groups in difficulty
C>E>F, G, H>A, B and D

 

[serious14]

no offence but WC06 wasnt that hard

Once again, Kareem comes through with a pearler of a "comment"......

Japan - 2004 Asian Cup Champions
Brazil - Reigning World Cup Champions
Croatia - Growing European powerhouse, and 3rd place at World Cup 98

No offence to you Kareem, but our World Cup group was f*cking hard.

 

[northernspirit]

yeah what tha! lol
what serious said!

 

[brett]

Remember when looking at the other groups that we would be effectively there in place of the Asian team in each.

In my opinion the groups with Argentina and Brazil are naturally going to be tougher than the ones with USA and Honduras. We should be able to compete with the other two teams in our group. I don't think the U23's of Ivory Coast will be that good but obviously their overage players could kill us.

For our overage players, I wouldn't mind sending Meggsi just to try do a job on Drogba (although Boogs on Drogba is pretty mouthwatering if things panned out that way!). We should send McDonald because Serbia and Ivory Coast will likely have big boys at the back but not necessarily quick, and we need a different style to go with Big Bruce. Nick Carle or Harry Kewell should round out the three. Let the Grellas and Culinas have a rest.

 

[northernspirit]

I wouldn't mind sending Meggsi just to try do a job on Drogba (although Boogs on Drogba is pretty mouthwatering if things panned out that way!)

Eggy would be in heaven if that were to happen, best of both worlds for him - is he still Eggba these days?

 

[Kareem]

no offence but WC06 wasnt that hard

Once again, Kareem comes through with a pearler of a "comment"......

Japan - 2004 Asian Cup Champions
Brazil - Reigning World Cup Champions
Croatia - Growing European powerhouse, and 3rd place at World Cup 98

No offence to you Kareem, but our World Cup group was f*cking hard.

i meant to say WC06 group wasnt hard
and it wasnt
compare it to
ARG, NED, Ivory Coast and Serbia and Montenegro
or (not as bad)
Italy, Czech, Ghana and USA
i think anyone with any sense of football would see that our group was more favourable

 

[Kareem]

I don't think the U23's of Ivory Coast will be that good but obviously their overage players could kill us.

unless you have seen them (i havent either) i wouldnt be so sure to say that...look at oyuth tournaments lately.
u17 world cup- nigeria won it (i think) and Ghana made semi finals...African youth is crazy- usually perform good in these tournaments.
Not sure about their quality at u23 level although Cameroon won 2000 Olympics...
IMO African youth is very good young but dies out when it gets to Seniors due to less support and infrastrucutre for local football (ie. those good enough go overseas but those not are stuck in a low level of football in Africa)...

PS. teams may be similar to 2005 u20 world cup (except this time overage players)
Nigeria came 2nd and Morocco 4th (but lol they havent qualified)...watch out for African teams!

 

[brett]

Fair comments with your evidence Kareem, and no I haven't seen much of these teams.

I think that physically, the Africans could overwhelm opponents in younger age groups, but by U23's, those that haven't moved overseas may be lacking technically/tactically. I know little about their squad though - half of them could be playing in France and I will look like a right fool.

I imagine the Serbians to be quite physical also but possibly exposed to better club football.

 

[Kareem]

Fair comments with your evidence Kareem, and no I haven't seen much of these teams.

I think that physically, the Africans could overwhelm opponents in younger age groups, but by U23's, those that haven't moved overseas may be lacking technically/tactically. I know little about their squad though - half of them could be playing in France and I will look like a right fool.

I imagine the Serbians to be quite physical also but possibly exposed to better club football.

Thanks
i love African football hence my knowledge...
in our group the best quality IMO
Argentina- 100% awesomeness and then there is MESSI! lol
Australia- Athleticism (hate to say it) (and maybe multicultural nature...heck we got djite etc. from other backgrounds- more variety hopefully)
Ivory Coast- creativity/attackin style
Serbia- technique

 

[crooksey]

fark we've gotten a hard group...good luck to the boys

i'm a massive ivory coast fan and they should be able to field a pretty strong team that will def test out our olyroos...they have great youth as kareem mentioned and then to see that they plan to bring drogba and toure (i assume kolo but yaya would be just as good) and just checked and confirmed that a certain salomon kalou from chelsea qualifies as an u-23 player and could also be at the olympics...also have a few other senior squad members who qualify under the January 1, 1985 rule.

i'd say argentine would be in the same position with a few from their national squad being able to play down in the u-23 team, such as messi

serbia also very good technical nation who will have lots of no-names that i'm sure will draw a lot of attention from clubs across the globe...plus they'll most likely have Vidic as an over 23 player

as for us ollyroos, i hope we take McDonald and then a defender and midfielder but not too fussed on who they are...cahill would be a doubt i guess with all his recent injury problems

 

[RADINHO]

Fair comments with your evidence Kareem, and no I haven't seen much of these teams.

I think that physically, the Africans could overwhelm opponents in younger age groups, but by U23's, those that haven't moved overseas may be lacking technically/tactically. I know little about their squad though - half of them could be playing in France and I will look like a right fool.

I imagine the Serbians to be quite physical also but possibly exposed to better club football.

Thanks
i love African football hence my knowledge...
in our group the best quality IMO
Argentina- 100% awesomeness and then there is MESSI! lol
Australia- Athleticism (hate to say it) (and maybe multicultural nature...heck we got djite etc. from other backgrounds- more variety hopefully)
Ivory Coast- creativity/attackin style
Serbia- technique

True

 

[loyalist]

Majority of Ivory Coast players will all be over 23 imo just that they cant find the proper birth certificate

 

[Kareem]

Majority of Ivory Coast players will all be over 23 imo just that they cant find the proper birth certificate

thats a very harsh thing to say 

 

[RADINHO]

Majority of Ivory Coast players will all be over 23 imo just that they cant find the proper birth certificate

thats a very harsh thing to say 

Anyway the three players that they are getting that are over 23 are Didier Drogba, kolo and Yaya Toure  those players are of Crazy class and u also have Solomon Kalou

 

[marinersman]

Majority of Ivory Coast players will all be over 23 imo just that they cant find the proper birth certificate

thats a very harsh thing to say 

Actually Forza has a point, although I don't think it's the majority of the team.

I don't have any statistics of course, but you would think there must be a decent percentage of African underage players born in villages and outside of urban centres. Surely, very few of these boys would have their births officially recorded with the approporiate government department.

So how does anyone really know how old they are exactly?

 

[RADINHO]

Majority of Ivory Coast players will all be over 23 imo just that they cant find the proper birth certificate

thats a very harsh thing to say 

Actually Forza has a point, although I don't think it's the majority of the team.

I don't have any statistics of course, but you would think there must be a decent percentage of African underage players born in villages and outside of urban centres. Surely, very few of these boys would have their births officially recorded with the approporiate government department.

So how does anyone really know how old they are exactly?

Oh well that shows we need to help them if they can not even get a birth certificate right and that is a stereotype saying a decent amount are in born villages but off that topic and back to football.

 

[marinersman]

Majority of Ivory Coast players will all be over 23 imo just that they cant find the proper birth certificate

thats a very harsh thing to say 

Actually Forza has a point, although I don't think it's the majority of the team.

I don't have any statistics of course, but you would think there must be a decent percentage of African underage players born in villages and outside of urban centres. Surely, very few of these boys would have their births officially recorded with the approporiate government department.

So how does anyone really know how old they are exactly?

Oh well that shows we need to help them if they can not even get a birth certificate right and that is a stereotype saying a decent amount are in born villages but off that topic and back to football.

I'm not having a go at them and my intention is not to stereotype at all. All I'm saying is that surely not all of them come from urban centres where the births are recorded through the proper channels.

It would not be so easy to determine some of their their official birth dates.

 

[Teddy Bear]

Quote from a story on 442 website....

"Argentina already announced Riquelme and Mascherano will be there and the Ivory Coast have said Didier Drogba and Toure as their over-aged players"

Fark

Insanity, this is going to be tough!
Don't forget Messi in that squad and whoever their 3rd over-aged player is..
I wouldn't be surprised if it's a defender, Zanetti perhaps?

Send in the JEDI