And, like any trilogy, we come to the end of our story. And, like any 3rd movie, this is possibly the worst - like Godfather III, or the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi, this one should be better than it is.....but it just isn't......
Despite being the most recent of our 3 successes, I have no recollection at all of the 2008 Oceania Nations Cup. I couldn't even tell you where it was, or who we played. I think this is because Australia aren't involved, so there isn't any giant-killing going on. My good friend Wikipedia tells me the ONC was part of the 2010 WCQ, so maybe that's why it isn't sticking in - it just blended into the background. After a round robin we came top out of a group featuring New Caledonia, Fiji, and Vanuatu.
Have the AWs ever played in Africa before the warm-up matches prior to the Confeds Cup in South Africa? A 2-1 loss to Tanzania was followed by a 0-0 draw with Botswana. Were these good or bad results? Who knows? I hope that the Botswana Meat Commission FC were represented! Following those matches, we put on what could be our greatest ever non-competitive match, leading Italy THREE TIMES before going down 4-3. Hopes were raised.
And then dashed.
Playing Spain was never going to be easy. Tiki-taka vs good honest toilers is only going to end one way. And for us, it ended badly. Spain raced to a 4-0 lead by the time a quarter of the match had gone, and took the foot right of the accelerator. It would be easy to imagine this game blowing out to be a bigger score than the 13-0 drubbing our U20s (?) got against Spain all those years ago. Is it necessary to mention 'that' air-shot?
But then, for me Clive, things got worse as we lose 0-2 v South Africa.
Which on the face off it doesn't sound so bad. But we didn't have a shot. Not a shot on goal, not a shot off target - no shot at all. This was probably the most inept performance I have ever seen from the AWs - and I remember Robbie Ironside smiling as he got sent off vs the Aussies in a WCQ. How could we not even get a cross-that-went-wrong-and-counted-as-a-shot? Pathetic.
And then a 0-0 draw with Iraq, and the team celebrating like they just won the fudgeing World Cup. OK, fair dues - it was our first point in a senior mens FIFA competition, but it was all a bit OTT. And Iraq were there for the taking too, but we played too defensively and didn't want to risk a 3rd loss. Just as the Italy game was a positive sign of things to come in the 2010 World Cup, this game was a precursor to that Paraguay match, where the team was too conservative to go for a win.
So all in all - a letdown. It seems to be a running theme in our Confederations Cup campaigns. Are hopes too high that we'll do well? Are we in a phase of building for the following year, so just treating this tournament as a chance for some matches and some much needed Yankee dollars? We never seem to do overly well at the CC for whatever reason - either results wise or performance wise. No goals in 2009, but our first point. We could have been utterly humiliated against Spain, but we could/should have beaten Iraq.