Last 16 and beyond

What a wonderful day. The final group games have been played and there is only 16 teams left to fight it out for World Cup glory.

No it's not a dream, Australia only needs to win 4 more games to lift up the most prized trophy in world sport. The first of these games is against Italy.

A team whose reputation is that of potential world champion. Round Ball Footy feels their bark is bigger than their bite. Give us a unbiased ref , a even playing surface and of course a round ball and there is no reason to think that Australia cannot defeat The Azzuri.


With defeat of Italy behind us the Socceroos would face the winner of the game between Ukraine and Switzerland in the Quarters. It is not unbelievable to dream of the Socceroos playing in a Semi Final on 4 July in Dortmund.

and then who knows...........

Was that really real?

Yes, Round Ball Footy fans, there is a Santa Claus (and fortunately he’s not on the FIFA payroll).

Stop pinching yourselves, it’s true:

WE ARE INTO THE SECOND ROUND!!!

Some words that have been used to describe the Aussie win over Croatia:


· Courageous
· Amazing
· Wonderful
· Euphoric
· Lion-hearted
· Momentous
· Justice
· Johnny (not really an adjective, but people sure were saying it a lot)

(As RBF scored it, we won 4–1. The 2 that stood; Timmy’s 92-minute goal; and if the two blatant penalties were awarded: Lucas nails one, V-Bomber sprays his wide. That Kalac thing never happened, forget about it. 4–1.)

The sweetest dawn.
When the sun rose over
a new era in Round Ball Footy.

S'cuse me, there's something in my eye...
I'm off to the pub!!

Newsflash: ref has shocker in Aus vs another team!!

Once again, Australian Round Ball Footy fans were treated to a succession of bewildering ‘judgement’ calls by the ref, this time it was pommy bastard Graham Poll.

Among the lengthy list of dubious decisions made in the Croatia game, we offer you some highlights:

· Inaugural winner of Round Ball Footy’s Dirtiest Player Ever award, Josip Simunic, tries to kick Hero Timmy in the face, inside the penalty box, pommy bastard awards dirty Simunic a free kick.

· Simunic (dirty, as mentioned above) crash-tackles the V-Bomber, again inside the penalty box. Spot kick? What are you, a European club?—it seems that Dukes is lucky not to get a red for diving.

· Some fucker takes a piggy-back on the V-Bomber, Dukes fouled for ‘backing into the man’.

· Simunic pulls Mega Fauna to the ground (pictured), proceeds to chop down ‘Arry. Even Graham ‘Pass it under the table’ Poll sees that one: second yellow for Dirty Simunic.

· 1+1=2; 2 yellows=1 red; red card=send-off. ‘Not on my watch’, says Poll (apparently he was refereeing this game—I’m not sure this display qualifies as refereeing): Simunic continues on.

· In the dying stages, as a Bresciano cross comes in, Mega Fauna is completely taken out again, leaving Timmy to run into an open net. Cahill recovers his lead in the race for the Golden Boot. ‘Nah! That’s time!’, announces Poll, producing a third yellow for Simunic (dirty), but forgetting to actually blow time-off to end the game.

Thank Christ we got through!!

NB. The above list is merely a modest selection of ref blunders going against the Socceroos—in addition to the other baffling fouls against Australia in the first 2 games (as mentioned in Round Ball Footy’s earlier whinge).

In the words of Craig Foster, ‘the ref had a shocker!!’ They all have, Fozzie, they all have.

Simunic: dirtiest player ever?

Now, the Round Ball Footy blog doesn’t pretend to be full of professional Round Ball Footy analysts or statisticians or historians.

But, we do know that it’s a rare occasion when a ‘player’ (so-called) manages to receive 3 yellow cards and 2 red cards in the one game.


Simunic: he just oozes dirtiness!

Crap hair too.

That’s exactly why we given full votes to Josip Simunic as dirtiest player ever.

Booo!!!! And get the fuck off the pitch, finally!!!!!

We’ve won!! We’ve won!!!!

(Drawn, at least.)

Auuuuussssssssieeee!!! Aussie Aussie Aussie!!

Aussssssiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! Aussssssiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Auuuuussssssssieeee!!! Aussie Aussie Aussie!!

Aussssssiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! Aussssssiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Here we go, here we go, here we go!!!

Here we go, here we here we here we gooooooooooo!!!

Here we here we here we here we here we here we gooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

Here we here we here we here we gooooooooooo!!!

See ya later, Croatia!!!

Hello to the 2nd round—and watch out, Italy!!!!!!

Croatia unveil 'danger-man': not mega fauna

Croatian striker, Ivica Olic, has been declared fit to start against Australia tomorrow morning, replacing Ivan Klasnic.

Worringly for Croatia, he's not a mega fauna, has a worse strike rate than V-Bomber, and doesn't even play for a club called Dynamo.



Here he is, struggling with his ball control.

Dude, the ball just hit you in the face!

More dirty tricks from Aussie opponents

After having been the victims of pre-World Cup smear tactics by the Japanese and Brazilian management, the Croatian media have stooped even lower to try to unsettle the Socceroos ahead of the crucial Group F match.

Croatian reporters have revealed the location of V-Bomber’s Croatian summer house, implying that it will be torn to shreds should the ‘Roos achieve their destiny of continuing to take this World Cup by storm.

Is this V-Bomber's house? Don't know, not telling.

Dukes’ villa is now being guarded by police patrol.

Sorry Croatia, no cigar this time. You should have stuck with the old chestnut, ‘Oooh, help, Socceroos play nasty and they disrespect FIFA officials’ (lies, by the way). That’s worked before. We don’t think real estate is the answer to your worries this time.

Try practicing your shots on goal (I hope to hell that we are!).

Friday on my mind

Well here we are Round Ball Footy fans hump day is here folks and as always I have Friday on my mind. Not for the usual reasons though. This Friday 23 June 2006 Round Ball Footy in Australia is going to go to the next level, a draw should be enough to see us safely through to the second round. Lets face it we should really be able to beat the Cro's, no goals in two games, they haven't even really come all that close to scoring.
Australia has spoken, according to the official Round Ball Footy poll, it seems Australia is confident of progressing, at least to the next stage, with 94% saying we can progress to the second round and beyond!
The Socceroos need your support, remember to go and check out our brilliant anthem for the Socceroos Look Mum, No Hands! go on, download it and sing your guts out on Friday.
We here at Round Ball Footy say BRING IT ON!

Geezer Set to Play

FIFA's Disciplinary Committee has cleared Harry 'the Geezer' Kewell to play the crunch game against Croatia on Friday morning.

As this picture clearly illustratess Kewell was simply having a polite discussion with match officials, after the debacle of a refereeing display, which saw Australia cop a penalty count of 25-9.

So justice has been done. Round Ball Footy just hopes we will have an unbiased ref for the big game against the Cro's, in which a draw could be good enough for Australia qualify for the last 16 of the World Cup.

Aussies first loss in 32 years

A nice air swing by Ronaldo

Australia have suffered defeat at the World Cup finals for the first time in 32 years. Not a bad record in the world's most prestigious sporting event.

The two goals to nil defeat has seen them drop off the top of the table in Group F to sit second behind Brazil, who are now safely through to the next round. With three points from their opening two games Australia is still poised to qualify along with Brazil for the second round.

Their next game against the Cro's promises to be a tightly contested battle - Croatia have failed to score a single goal in this campaign. Although against Japan, they did manage to hit the crossbar once, and had a good shot on target when they missed a penalty kick. Attack it seems is not their strong point.

Their defense is tight having conceded only one goal, however they are yet to contend with the revelation of the World Cup, a Mega Fauna . Australia has one of the finest exponents of Mega Fauna in Joshua Kennedy. He did not get a run against Brazil but is sure to be champing at the bit to come on and terrorise the Croatian defense Friday morning.