Posts Tagged ‘australia’

the socceroos claimed all three points with a late victory over bahrain last night. the aussie team traveled to bahrain determined to continue their unbeaten run in the world cup qualifying group. despite missing a few big names, the socceroos were favourites to win the match.

both teams had chances to win the game, however thanks to good work by aussie keeper mark schwarzer, the hosts remained goalless. bresciano scored late in the game to secure the win.

australia remains on top of group b. japan is second after their win. in group a, south korea beat saudi arabia for the first time in nineteen years to go top of their group. the koreans were helped in their cause by iran who could only manage a draw against uae.

all national teams take a break until next february.

adelaide united have become the first aussie team to reach an asian champions league final. the south australian team beat uzbekistan team bunyodkor 3:1 (aggregate) to reach the final, against japan’s gamba osaka.

adelaide won the first game against bunyodkor 3:0 and traveled to uzbekistan with a big lead. they lost the return match 1:0, but a two goal lead carried them through. the team returned to adelaide this morning to a rousing reception ahead of their a league game against perth glory.

the final will be held over two legs, the first in osaka and the second at hindmarsh stadium.

the socceroos have taken the lead in their world cup qualifying group after a convincing 4-0 drubbing of qatar in lang park. australia have won both of our opening games and lead the group with 6 points,  followed by japan and qatar with 4 points each.

coach verbeek warned the socceroos not to be complaciant against qatar, despite 3-0 and 3-1 victories against them previously. and despite giving qatar more possession, australia’s defense remained inpenetrable.

tim cahill, returning from a long injury, opened the scoring after just 9 minutes. cahill has a history of terrorising asian nations after his two goals gave australia victory over japan in the last world cup. brett emerton doubled the lead 10 minutes later with a penalty.

emerton had a good game and was in the thick of the action. he got his second, and australia’s third, after the break. josh kennedy added to qatar’s woes with a late header.

qatar had a few shots on goal, but couldn’t get a breakthrough.

despite the good start, the socceroos still have a long way to go and are rightly cautious about their good form. the team played well, despite the absence of kewell, viduka and bresciano.

now the team looks to their november 19th game away to bahrain.

in other matches, japan drew with uzbekistan, blowing their chances of staying level with australia. south korea, after a run of mediocre form, turned on a 4-1 victory over uae. the koreans now top their group, but saudi arabia and north korea are level on points.

casey stoner leans into a corner during the australian motorcycle grand prix. stoner won the race ahead of valentino rossi. this photo is from yet another amazing series by the boston globe.

after a great string of wins,the socceroos have jumped to #34 overall in fifa’s football rankings. it’s a dramatic jump up 5 places from last month. we’ve recently beaten #4 team netherlands in a friendly, #25 team ghana and drew against #85 team south africa.

australia has been playing well lately and we are very close to our best ever ranking of 31st, which we achieved in july 1997. in six days australia faces qatar in brisbane (rc may be in attendance) and in november the socceroos travel to bahrain. we have already won our opening group match and should definitely finish in the top two, which will give us automatic qualification into the 2010 world cup.

in other news, south korea has dropped to #55, just behind new zealand who have jumped an incredible 57 places innto #54 spot.

well, i knew my name was uncommon, but now i know how much. a nifty little website called public profiler has a way to calculate the frequency of surnames around the world. i was surprised to find that smeaton is actually most common in new zealand (61 per million), followed by australia (29) the uk (25) and ireland (8).

my understanding is that smeaton comes from an area on the scotland/england border. so far, mostly thanks to this website, i’ve actually found about 4 other people called ‘david smeaton’. actually, there are a few famous ’smeaton’ things … most notably a town called smeaton in victoria (australia) and a smeaton lighthouse in england.

i’m not sure how accurate that website is, or how they build their results, but it’s an interesting little test.

if you’re a smeaton, or a david smeaton, please write a comment and say ‘hi’ … i love meeting people with my own name.

the socceroos continue their good run with a crucial away win to uzbekistan last night.

the game started at a slow tempo, but the aussies took control of the match after the 28th minute. it was the defenders who did all the hard work, keeping the uzbeki strikers at bay and putting together the only goal of the match. luke wiltshire’s cross was met by a chipperfield header. chipper’s low header hit the ground, bounced over the keeper, off the post and into goal. both teams had numerous chances, and the uzbeki players pleaded for a penalty after they claimed that their player was fouled in the box. however, neither side were able to add to the score line.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

coach verbeek was understandably happy with the result, the aussies taking full points in their first game and all but eliminating uzbekistan from the tournament. the socceroos get a month off to prepare for their tough brisbane match against qatar.

in other news, english striker theo walcott has cemented his reputation with a sensational hattrick against a 10 man croatia. beckham was benched and the youngster make the most of his run on. england cruised to a thumping 4-1 win.

thanks to american cartoons, i was one of many aussie kids who thought that if i tunneled through the earth, i’d come out at china. well, i know that’s not true now … thanks to this useful map tunneling tool. i actually discovered that australia would fit in the north atlantic ocean … and we wouldn’t touch any other nations.

kooky!

an interesting article, courtesy of the bbc, states that australia is suffering a man drought. the statistics conclude that australia has 100,000 more women than men, which is actually a lot considering our population size. while aussie women have become better educated and richer, aussie men are leaving the country to live and work abroad … an example of which is the 12,000 boomers living in UAE, most of whom are young males.

while this may seem like a bad thing, there are definitely upsides … aussie guys can take the pick of the bunch, leaving only the lesbians, uglies and fatties …

i went out for dinner with some friends last night. we headed to a restaurant and ate heaps of australian beef. of course, the beef went down very well … and there was lots of soju to go with it. i got a little pissy, but i had a good time.

when i woke up this morning i felt a little fuzzy. but the hangover wasn’t bad and i recovered quickly. school was easy today, since it’s the last day of the month and all my students have returned to their university studies. so i finished early and headed out to do some errands.

on my list of things to do was get a few shots. i was due for my second hep B shot, which i got done, and i headed to a children’s hosital for a hep A injection. in 5 months i get my last hep B shot and in 6 months i get my second (and last) hep A shot … i also need a yellow fever injection (which is probably going to make me sick) but it is difficult to get in korea. so i’ll probably get it abroad.

in other news, the korean won is diving like crazy. last week it was 1080 won to the US dollar, now it’s 1130 won. while it doesn’t affect my savings (which are already in US$) it means that i’ll be losing money on my income for the next six months … damn it!

there’s talk of a second economic crisis (only 10 years after the IMF last intervened and bailed out korea’s ridiculously over-inflated economy). the IMF has warned korea numerous times to control their economy. foreign companies are pulling out their investments and it’s widely predicted that shit and fan will meet.

i just hope the country can hold itself together for 6 months … or the won recovers. i really don’t want this to explode before i get out.