Australia v China & Iraq v Qatar World Cup Qualification

Get the latest Flash player

dinxbeau
March 27, 2008

Australia v China & Iraq v Qatar World Cup Qualification 26-3-2008 "The air in Kunming might be thin, but Mark Schwarzer was floating on it after reaching into his box of tricks to keep Australia'...

Australia v China & Iraq v Qatar World Cup Qualification 26-3-2008

"The air in Kunming might be thin, but Mark Schwarzer was floating on it after reaching into his box of tricks to keep Australia's compass pointed firmly towards the 2010 World Cup as they held China 0-0 at a raucous Tuodong Stadium.
Perpetrator one moment, peerless the next, Schwarzer repeated his penalty-kick heroics of November 2005 against Uruguay to this time deny China in a dramatic finale to another World Cup qualifier Australia could not afford to lose.
And thanks to the prince of the penalty stops they didn't as Schwarzer recovered from conceding a spot-kick two minutes from time, to hold his nerve and dive to his left to deny substitute Shao Jiayi in a heart-in-the-mouth moment reminiscent of Telstra Stadium 28 months ago when he made two shoot-out saves against the South Americans.
It looked like justice delivered with Schwarzer insisting his collision with Bo Qu, a result of a mix-up with Jade North, shoud never have been punished so severely by referee Omar Al Saeedi.
"I didn't think it should have been given," said the Middlesbrough monolith. "I'll have another look at it on TV but my first feeling was that it was harsh."
"But, playing away from home in games like this, referees are pretty quick to give these sorts of decisions."
Case in point Germany 2006, when Fabio Grosso's last-minute dive over the legs of Lucas Neill conned the referee and dumped Australia out of the tournament with Schwarzer unable to intervene on that occasion.
Schwarzer added: "I just tried to stay big and revert back to what I normally do at penalties - and it worked."
"I was told before the game that Weifeng Li normally takes them for China and he shoots to the right, but instead Jiayi stepped up. I was just happy to go the right way, and the ball hit my legs and bounced back into my hands."
"I haven't had a good run for my club since World Cup qualification, so this is extra sweet. It's nice to come up with saves in the big games."
"It would have been a travesty for us to lose because we played so well and looked comfortable for so long - if anything I thought we should have won the game."
Schwarzer was unwilling to hog all the glory for himself after a priceless point which, in the light of a raft of injuries going into the game, was gratefully accepted.
"The team were outstanding today, every player on the pitch performed admirably, especially when you consider the altitude, the travel and having just a day and bit to prepare. It was outstanding."
Brett Holman, who excelled off the bench as an early replacement for the injured Archie Thompson, exemplified the craft, guile and boundless energy of an Australian team forced to play for 78 minutes without a recognised striker.
The NEC Nijmegen attacking midfielder was signalled out by coach Pim Verbeek as Australia's perpetual motion man on a day when the understudies - Michael Beauchamp, Jade North and Carl Valeri included - showed they are worthy of leading man roles.
"I just wanted the chance to show what I can do," said Holman after just his 13th cap for his country.
"We had so little time to prepare ... it was my plan to show I might be worth a starting position in the games ahead add I was happy with my performance."
Midfielder Jason Culina, who shimmered alongside the pugnacious Vince Grella and hard-grafting Carl Valeri in the midfield workshop, said: "In the circumstances we're happy with a point."
"Schwarzy came to our rescue - he keeps doing it doesn't he? That penalty could have killed us. It was a bit soft but Schwarzy did the business."
"Overall we played nice football, we were patient. We had no recognised striker but if we keep going like this we'll qualify. It's a matter of winning at home and not getting beaten away."

26 March 2008 | 21:38 - SBS - David Lewis in Kunming

Category: Sports

Tags:

Football Soccer Socceroos Australia China Iraq Qatar World Cup Schwarzer Middlesbrough Lucas Neill Vince Grella

More From: dinxbeau

Play All Stop Autoplaying | Play Next

QuickList(0)

Clear | Save

This is a video response to Australia 0 v China 1 Goal 22-June-08

11 ratings

11,186 views

Favorite

Playlists

Flag

Want to add to Favorites? Sign In or Sign Up now!

Want to add to Playlists? Sign In or Sign Up now!

Want to flag a video? Sign In or Sign Up now!

Statistics & Data

Video Responses (1)

dinxbeau

View All - Play All

Text Comments (49) Options

yakookty (1 year ago) Show Hide

-1

Marked as spam

fuck qatar inshaalla wish australia and japan will go to world cup and qatra assholes go and fuck themsilves with the leader of qatar assholes the mother fuckr bin hammam

MrIraq1 (1 year ago) Show Hide

Marked as spam

Lol the only team I respect in our group is Australia, Qatar hade more brazilian players then qatari and if it wasnt thanks to the dog Bin Hammam (AFC president who is qatari) Iraq is out from WC!

R10K7 (1 year ago) Show Hide

Marked as spam

Haha next time well offer americans the passport against so we can win 10-0 ;) ha haaaaaa

R10K7 (1 year ago) Show Hide

-1

Marked as spam

Iraq?...Walla man..after thwe commetns ive seen from iraqis..id ratehr see israelees go up instead of you.

grim581 (1 year ago) Show Hide

Marked as spam

fcuk up iraq is better than qatar and we proved ourselfes many times

unbreakable236 (1 year ago) Show Hide

Marked as spam

there is no need to argue about all this ..
I don't allow people insulting Qatar..
If you don't want people to insult Iraq then I think you should stop swearing .. =D

IKingQ (1 year ago) Show Hide

Marked as spam

is iraq disqualified?

dinxbeau (1 year ago) Show Hide

Marked as spam

Not disqualified.
Just not qualified.

IraqiGladiator (1 year ago) Show Hide

Marked as spam

well..a little kid just shut u up...habeeb chalbi inta..habeeb treela..wilak ti2birnee loooooooooooooooools

lagel3inek (1 year ago) Show Hide

Marked as spam

who is the bitch now

we played against u , the referee and your stupid fucked up audience , and we won
why do u always look for reasons and excuses just admit it we kicked your asses and we'll always do

Showing 10 of 49 comments

Show More Comments

View All 49 comments

Would you like to comment?

Join YouTube for a free account, or sign in if you are already a member.

YouTube	Programs	Help	Policy	Discover
Contact Us	Advertising	Get Help	Privacy Policy	YouTube on Your Phone
YouTube Store	Developers	YouTube Handbook	Terms of Service	YouTube on Your Site
Press Room	Partnerships	Community Help Forums	Copyright Notices	YouTube on Your TV
Business Blog	Content Management	Safety Center	Community Guidelines	YouTube RSS Feeds
YouTube Blog		Creator's Corner		TestTube

Add YouTube to your Google homepage

Current Location: UK Show locations

Australia v China & Iraq v Qatar World Cup Qualification

More From: dinxbeau

QuickList(0)

Related Videos

Statistics & Data

Video Responses (1)

Text Comments (49) Options

Would you like to comment?