The Australia - Serbia match certainly didn't do my emotional equilibrium much good. Prior to the game, I believed that it would probably end in a draw or that the Serbs would narrowly win. Allied withmy predictedtwo-to-three-nil German victory over Ghana, such scenarios would, ofcourse, have meant that Serbia progressed to the second round.As it was, things turned out rather differently...
The lads put in a very laudable, very much improved performance
, but throughout the first half it looked like we were never going to score, while Serbia created (and missed) a few good chances - I had the feeling that Serbia would eventually get one on the break, instantly confirming our elimination. As the second half wore on, however, I thought that we were in with a chance of a goal, as the opposition had wasted several opportunities and began to appear increasingly frustrated. The Serbs' technical ability is brilliant, but theysimply couldn't finish off their moves.
Just after half an hour, the Australian commentary duo (one half of which is the infamous leg-breaking ex-Socceroo, ex-Crystal Palace / Wolves / Rangers / Millwallgoon Kevin Muscat
)mentioned that the Germany-Ghana match was still scoreless, which surprised (and rather worried) me. The commentators gave updates on the other match at regular intervals, so when at the hour mark it was revealed that kebab-man Ozil had stuck one in for the GermansI thought that Ghana would concede a couple more, thus improving Australia's (and Serbia's) chanceof progressing and,as a bonus, ensuring that another cartload of Africans would be dumped from the tournament.
When Australia scored two goals in five minutes (including Brett Holman's belter), all of a sudden things looked increasingly positive. I was still expecting Germany to get at least one more against Ghana and hoped that we couldcatch the now-desperateSerbia on the counterattack and improve our goal difference. But Germany failed to score and then Marko Pantelic put one in, so we were obviously out
. As therewere only a few minutes to go, a comprehensively shattered Rebajlo,increasingly horrified at the prospect of Ghana making it to the second round,
actually hoped that Serbia would get an equaliser - sure, Australia would be denied a win, but at least a white team would go through with Germany. Howsad is that, eh? It's funny how one's hatred of non-whitesleads to such sentiments. Put it this way - when the half-Samoan Tim Cahill scored Australia's opener, my soaring joy at my countrytaking the lead was tainted by the fact that the scorer was non-white (complete with coconut tribal tattoos).I had the same feeling when Jermain Defoe got England's goal.That's the paradox of modern "international" football - teams whicharesupposed torepresent "our" people contain alien racial elements which are utterly unrepresentative of "our" people, so how can one not feel an element of distaste when viewing such episodes which under "normal" circumstances should fill one with pride? I'm sure that the forum members of German descent felt the samedisgust when Mesut Ozil scored.
accesscrimea said:
Serbia should have gone through though - they had one valid goal dissallowed, and the striker in the last few seconds missed a sitter.
Which "goal" did You believe was valid?
As for England, the unambitious Slovenia made them look much better than they actually played - even then England only scored once.
jwhite96 - You'll be pleased to know that, this time, I actually
share Your concerns about the refereeing in the United States'next match
.Barring any, er, "miracles" involving the Ivory Coast in Group G, Ghana shall be the sole all-black / African representative in the second round, so I would not be surprised if their passage to the quarter finals is "helped along" by favourable decisions reminiscent of those granted to South Korea in 2002. Mind You, I'd be saying exactly the same thing if Ghana's opponents were a team
other than the United States
...
Anyway,I hope that the United States consignsGhana to the steaminggarbage heap on which the Africansbelong - with white American players scoring the goals
...
He can't make this stuff up. Anyone who watched the game knows it was Donavan or Demspey. Alexi Lalas also seems to have a love affair with Mr. Altidore. Good thing Altidore didn't score, I wouldn't be able to watch another U.S soccer match without the annoucners praising Altidore. Buddle and Beasley downright sucked today. 
