To hear NOW - AFTER the event that Oz were "considering not entering" the OFC championships absolutely amazes me. I dont recall seeing any of it in the melbin press ...though I am not a "must have my paper every day" person
Sounds like sour grapes to me. For what reason would SA even consider not going??? Sorry but there is not one good reason to NOT enter.
With the money population & resources Australia has, the OFC should be a walk over and therefore by entering a team its a bit like accepting a cheque for the so called $US 1 million dollars. Just turn up and win SHOULD be enough.....with ANY selection of top NSL players.
So the Euro players werent available? Hey NZ squad was made up largely of Kingz players and where did the kingz finish the season? Tahiti & Vanuatu also caused Oz problems......did they call back all their overseas based stars too?
There are lots of people to blame here. Soccer Australia definitely, the overseas mercenaries definitely, but also Frank Farina.... assuming he was selector. Mehmet Durakovic???? yep one for the future there. Middleby surely should have been in the starting line up.
Frank made horrific mistakes v Uruguay and clearly elected to defend yesterday. After the opening 20 mins when oz could (should?) have scored 3 they were never ever in it. In fact I commented to my son that the way oz were playing, this match had 0-0 & penalties all over it. NZ didnt have enough creativity to break down the massed defence.
If SA really did doubt that they should go to the OFC champs then they must either have more money than they know what to do with or they are fools. I think the latter is probably the more correct.
It does seem that SA is riddled with more than its fair share of idiots....anyone thought about starting a breakaway group?