I'll miss watching Ned Zelic slouched on his couch

With the Socceroos’ defeat at the hands of the ref, and the Italians, I am reminded of why I normally hate soccer. Here is a game where the end result can have very little to do with the actual game. Yes, Australia has trouble handing the finishing blow to the other team. They just tend to attack and attack and then fizzle at the end. And yes, Harry Kewell (the closest thing we have to a Brazilian player) was missing from the lineup. And yes, I know that finishing off attacking plays with actual goals is part of the game, but… the Socceroos were otherwise the dominant team in that game (remember that Australia was already ahead in possessions long before that red card was given to the Italian dude) and yet the final result does not show that one bit.

Soccer must be the most frustrating game for a fan. If I was following a team, like I’ve been following the Socceroos, for an entire league season, I’d probably have a heart attack ten times over.

I suppose this might also explain why there are more soccer hooligans than hooligans of any other sport (except maybe pockets American basketball fans – like when LA fans started riots and burning of cars after the Lakers won a championship – really nasty stuff). It’s just frustration.

It was quite interesting watching that ‘Song for the Socceroos’ program when Ian ‘Dicko’ Dickson was on. His constant gripe was that all the songs on the show were too positive, whereas a good football song should reflect the frustrations of being a fan as well as the winning and the good times. He scoffed at lyrics like ‘Best of the best’ and ‘We can’t be beaten.’ His favourite football song is del Amitri’s Scotland World Cup anthem ‘Don’t come home too soon’. (he gets extra points for it being a del Amitri song).

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In other soccer-related news, just when you thought we couldn’t love Guus Hiddink any more than we already do, it’s been revealed that he actually runs a low-profile charity program in South Korea, helping underprivileged kids over there. His latest project with them is to, of course, build them a soccer pitch. Sure he looks like a high school principal with a football pump permanently up his arse, but St Guus makes winners of underprivileged kids on top of making winners out of underprivileged soccer countries. Wow.