Gee cw, I've seen a whole new side to you. And to think I pictured you as being a tad nerdy! GO SOCCEROOS!!!!!!!!!

Schwarzer for PM!!!!!!!
I will definitely talking about it on my Soccer Blog and even give some time on my AFL podcast to the World Game and our great Socceroos.

GO AUSSIES and bring on Germany 2006!
Molly
Http://www.mollyzine.com

I think Guus is great. But am I the only one thinking the deification of Guus is going a bit far? - You would think from reading the papers that Guus got out there on the pitch and single-handedly won the game for us. Let's not forget that Frank Farina worked with this team for years - he must deserve at least some credit for the success.

Personally, I think Hiddink's only major mistake was picking Emerton. He's never been a good big-match player, and I don't remember him doing anything useful last night (his 3 sprays around the goal were optimistic in the extreme!)

Lets not forget John Safran's contribution to all this:

TV prankster John Safran did an 8 part theological series on SBS called “John Safran vs God“. In one scene, he went to Maputo, Mozambique to have a 35 year old curse removed from the Socceroos based on a 1970 World Cup qualifier, where the Australians beat Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) with the help of a witch doctor, but the team didn’t pay him for providing assistance. In the book “Sheilas, Wogs and Pooftahs”, Johnny Warren claimed that the incident has been responsible for Australia’s bad luck in attempting to make the World Cup ever since (players getting ill before W.C. Quals., missing out every time after 1974, and even then they drew West and East Germany in its group), and quoted the Iran incident in 1997 among others, where the boys let go a 2-0 lead in the final 20 minutes.

To make up for everything, Safran travelled to Maputo, Mozambique, offered gifts to re-pay the debt, and then took part in a ritual conducted by the descendants of the witch doctor to remove the Australian curse, where he was covered in powder and chicken blood and then washed in water containing a dead chicken’s blood. He was then required to go back to Soccer Australia HQ and then to the Sydney Football Stadium to repeat the cleansing process over again, with Johnny Warren in attendance, thus removing the curse (but Australia lost its next match 3-1 to Turkey in a friendly.)

It would appear the Guardian writer who posted (see link above) has just eaten some humble pie too. Well, sort of...

Not a god, Jeremy? I'd say the turn-around from the Confederations Cup, where the Socceroos lost all three matches and conceded 10 goals qualifies as a genuine miracle: http://tinyurl.com/95yfr

Don't think SHE follows soccer. Kinda rules out the "miracle" theory.

Quite a turnaround from where the Socceroos beat a full-strength England team, under Frank Farina in 2003? I don't think we can thank Lord Guus for that one... Do we question the omniscience of Lord Guus when he only gets Australia to scrape home 2-1 in our 2nd qualifier against the Solomon Islands?

I am more inclined to thank John Safran. We were cursed, no question about it. Not even Lord Guus could have guided us to victory up against The Curse.

Oh dear what a fuss. I'm glad you have all been made so happy and I'll try and be good about enduring the hullabaloo up until we get knocked out of the Cup.

I did tune in for the penalty shoot out, I figured I could stay awake for that bit at least. Personally I think all soccor games should start with this. Overall I prefer to see men playing a game without offside and where people tackle one another and show courage. Or at least score, as in tennis. And where the violence stays on the field and is bounded by rules. But that's just me. And I have seen some great women's soccer games from the USA.

Anyway enjoy the celebrations, you've waited a long time for them. And I do like the way it has become a multicultural event.

Frank definitely contributed a great deal, Jeremy, but I don't think he'd claim to be in quite the same league as Guus. And frankly towards the end of his tenure, he seemed to be losing the plot.

And while that win over England was a beautiful thing indeed, friendlies aren't quite the same thing ... particularly when the entire England team was swapped over at half-time.

Could they beat England in the World Cup? Not without God's help.