Australia vs Japan About to Start

June 12th, 2006 | By: Zé Fernando | 9 Comments »

Keep Left sign in Sydney, Australia Half of the World Cup group stage games have already been played. Today, we’ll finally see games from Brazil’s group F when Australia meets Japan in Kaiserslautern in about 20 minutes.

Unless I’m terribly mistaken (has England played Japan before?), this is the first time a World Cup has a match against two different nations that use to drive on the left side of the road and have the steering wheel on the right side of the car. This is World Cup history in the making right there, folks. If the universe collapses in itself in the next half hour, you’ll know the reason.

Regardless, I can tell you Brazilian and Croatian eyes will be glued to the TV to watch this game. Zico’s Japan did an impressive job of almost winning against Germany a couple of weeks ago, and they’re serious contenders for one of the qualification spots; Australia may be the underdogs of the group, but they’re pretty strong mates and they can pull a surprise if they’re able to keep their breath during the first and second halves.

Update: the match has ended, and Australia is the winner by 3-1. You can see WorldCupBlog’s live blogging here. I can say the result surprised me; although they scored the last two goals near the end of the match, Australia was better for most of the game too. Japan will have to struggle quite a bit if they want to get past the group rounds.

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Comments

By laura | June 12th, 2006 at 3:24 pm

kinda slow game….goal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:)

Posted from Lithuania

By Euler | June 12th, 2006 at 3:59 pm

The goalkeeper was completely pushed, unfortunately. The Japanese are dropping to the ground all the time. The Australians, at the other hand, love to kick the Japanese legs. The game is fast but not good at all. It will be hard for Brazil to play against this kind of physical style.

By Soze | June 12th, 2006 at 4:55 pm

That was a very amateur game. But what a turn of events at the end huh?…The Japanese keeper got a little too cocky after the first free kick save and thought he was unbeatable..bad mistake.

By Clint | June 12th, 2006 at 6:18 pm

I’m sure you Americans and Brazilians are perfect gentlemen on the field. How bout you guys in the USA worry about getting past the Czech Republic first before pass judgement on lesser ranked teams.

Posted from Australia

By emi | June 12th, 2006 at 9:43 pm

ARGENTINAAAAAAAAAAAAA
saludos de caniggia

Posted from Argentina

By persian | June 12th, 2006 at 11:07 pm

clint rankings dont matter. whoever plays better wins. Australia played better and won. I dont care about the us because they get past the first round.
Brazil will win

Posted from United States

By Miguelinho | June 13th, 2006 at 12:56 am

You mean the US will NOT get past the first round, right? That sounds more reasonable…and that’s what I expected before the world cup started.

Posted from United States

By VooDoo | June 13th, 2006 at 1:10 am

Psy-influence on the results of the World Cup 2006!
According to unexpected results of the football matches that have taken place on this World Cup 2006 – this site http://www.voodoo4football.com is working very well!
How can you explain uch big amount of strangeness that have taken place during the World Cup 2006.

Posted from Ukraine