i seem to be devoting quite a bit of time here to the world cup. funny, i still can’t really watch club football that much, but the world cup is something a little bit different, especially when your country’s in it. i don’t like this idea that they’ve supposedly had about having a world cup ’style’ of competition every two years. i think four is about right.

at least one of my teams is through to the round of 16, with sweden coming out with a draw against the poms last night. mexico plays this afternoon, but after drawing with angola have left themselves in a bit of a sticky spot, needing a draw or a win against portugal to guarantee qualification. portugal haven’t been looking exactly immense, but they’ve looked a bit more solid than mexico so far. if mexico lose this afternoon, they’re going to have to hope that iran can put one past angola. another match that could go either way, but again angola have looked a little better than iran so far.

then on thursday it’s the big one (another big one). australia plays croatia for a place in the last 16. there’s been so much written about the croatian links between the two teams, it’s finding it way into every article, even if that’s the not the main thrust of the piece. i’m sick of hearing about it. i can only imagine how sick the australian players are of answering questions about where their loyalties lie.

why in the hell would they consider leaning slightly towards croatia, as people have supposedly been suggesting some of them will? obviously i’ve never been involved in a competition on this level, but i have played plenty of competitive sports in my time, and let me tell you, you don’t take it easy on your friends. you want to beat your friends more than anyone else. you want bragging rights. i can’t imagine it’s too different in other cultures, or for those with other cultural heritage.

i’m going into thursday fully expecting to have suffered at least two heartattacks before the end of the match, but i’m predicting a win, albeit a narrow one, for australia. i’m trying like hell to be objective. it’s hard, but somewhere deep beneath the jingoism, i honestly think we’re going to get there.

whatever happens today, i just hope that we give a good account of ourselves. croatia lost to brazil 1-0 a couple of days ago, but were by no means shamed. infact, i thought they looked the better side for large parts of that match and deserved at least a draw, if not a win.

it’s about 5 minutes to kickoff in the japan v croatia game, and i’ll be cheering nippon banzai for the blue samurai this afternoon. if they manage to get a result out of this one, it makes what happens next so much less important.

looking forward to a good couple of matches this afternoon, followed by the largely ‘meh’ game of korea v france.

the man with one of my favourite names at the world cup has written a nice article for the times about his efforts in helping trinidad and tobago keep a clean sheet against sweden on saturday. and the best bit:

the three-hour drive back to our base in Rotenburg calmed us down a bit before we got back to our hotel just after midnight for some cheese toasties before we went to bed

cheese toasties. awesome.

i don’t need to tell you what happened, and if you’ve been cave dwelling over the last day or so the link will take care of that.

i said yesterday that i didn’t think we could afford to get off to a slow start, but i’m very happy to be proven wrong. i guess in all fairness, we really started the match quite well and not that slow at all. i missed the live coverage of the first 20 minutes, but having watched it in replay last night we certainly had all the running and were unfortunate not to be a goal up. and then. then we had the misfortune of going a goal down. sure, it was a pretty ordinary call and the referee has since admitted making a mistake and apologised, but i have to agree with various media outlets that schwarzer probably could have played that ball a little better. still, luckily it all turned out to be academic.

after that point i think we looked very flat. even though we still had slightly the better of position, japan looked far more likely to convert their possession into points and it wasn’t until tim cahill popped up and once again pounced on some scrappy ball that we really looked anything like the socceroos of the first 15 to 20 minutes. amazing what a surge of adrenaline will do. i suppose it was a combination oppressive conditions, which were felt by japan as well, and, despite what the players might say if you asked them, first time jitters. hopefully playing a hard match, where all looked lost at the 88th minute, will have helped to work out some of the kinks and settle the nerves.

in a quick report from fantasy land, how i would have loved to see aussie guus go the tonk on the sidelines when a fifa official blocked his view of the replay of the japanese goal. good to see him getting stuck in, in any case.

would you believe it, i’m actually starting to get a little nervy about this afternoon’s match. a little over three hours to go and i’ve been feeling a little twinge of nerves for about an hour or so no. how ridiculous.

my heart says a win for australia, but i’m really not going to be surprised by any outcome, except i guess a big win by either side. it should be a very close match against japan and although my football (soccer?) knowledge is limited, i’m hoping that australia’s size and physical game will unsettle the japanese and that we’ll come out firing, looking for the win. our starts in friendlies vs the netherlands and liechtenstein were pretty slow and both times we payed for it, falling behind to an early goal (albeit an own goal in the liechtenstein game). i don’t think we can afford a slow start against japan or indeed in any world cup game, although if we do get stung early it might just be what’s needed to spur us into action.

i’ve also read suggestions that both sides will come out not willing to be too attack minded for fear of taking a loss in a very important game, and that a play for a draw is likely. personally (again with my limited knowledge) i think that’s suicide, partly because negative football is rarely rewarded unless you’re italy, and partly because i don’t think a draw is good enough. that really leaves us with no option but to get a result against either croatia or brazil, brazil being nigh on impossible and croatia i think being more dangerous, if only slightly, than japan.

to be honest, i don’t think japan with a brazilian coach will be playing for a draw. i doubt that’s zico’s style. i also don’t think guus hiddink will be sacrificing attack for defense. the dutch style of play seems to be well rounded across the park. solid and technical in defense, but still allowing the freedom for guys to get forward and score goals.

anyways, now i’ve got that out of my system, i just have to hope that i can tune into the game here at work and that a few of the swedes get in there and cheer along with me. carn aussies.