Socceroos united for clash with Thailand

[admin]

The Socceroos are united and determined to put in a much improved performance for their crucial Asian Cup clash against Thailand. That is the clear message given to us by a prominent Socceroo.

Angered by recent press reports, the senior Socceroo spoke to us on the condition of anonymity.

“I want to set the record straight. The talk of a split in the camp is not true. Good news stories don’t sell newspapers.â€￾ he said.

“The media took this negative line the last time the Socceroos put in a poor performance at the Confederations Cup tournament in Germany under Farina. Craig Moore was the media whipping boy that time and this time its Lucas Neill.â€￾

“Lucas Neill is a good bloke. He knows he had a bad game, he knows he was stupid to get sent off and he has apologized to the team. There were 14 players who took part in the game against Iraq and we all are responsible for the result. We all take responsibility for the resultâ€￾.

On coach Arnold the player said the media was being merciless. “The media are like sharks and they can smell blood in the waterâ€￾ he said. “But we all know you just cant blame one man for what has happened so far.â€￾

“With the benefit of hindsight we can all say we have got some things wrong. We are under-prepared, we under-estimated the opposition and we have under-performed. Yet we are still in this tournament. We have one more game to set things straight. The boys are determined to set things straightâ€￾.

We asked the Socceroo how the team was coping with all the criticism in the media and the airing of dirty laundry. “Some of the criticism hurts especially when its personal and you know its not the truth. But we are professional footballers. Everyday somewhere there is somebody criticizing us for some reason. It comes with the territory of being a professional footballer“ he said.

The Socceroo finished off by re-enforcing the message that the team was united. “After the game (Iraq) we had a team meeting. We talked about what was happening on the field. It was a frank, down to earth discussion as only Aussie can have. Every single player was self critical of their performance. We all agreed the poor performances were a mutual responsibility. We are determined to put up a good performance against Thailandâ€￾ he said.

In only 24 hours we shall see if the Socceroos can turn around their Asian Cup campaign. The scene is set for a classic backs-to-the-wall performance that is one of the typifying characteristics of Australian sporting history.

[mr_bojangles]

The scene is set for a classic backs-to-the-wall performance that is one of the typifying characteristics of Australian sporting history.

This is same crap that pumped us up in the first place - lets getting our bottle of shiraz hands off it and start playing football ffs

[olympiakos]

its interesting how there are so many players saying things but on the condition their name isnt printed, why is that? something to hide perhaps? this is laughable and very amateurish behaviour from so called "pros"