Australia 0 v Italy 1 USA 2 v Czech Republic 2 Cameroon 3 v Kuwait 2 Nigeria 3 v Honduras 3

Damn Australia's first football game on prime time tele since France 98 qualification knock-out, and we bloody lose again. Bugger.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2000

Answers

It's started already?!! Great to see hte US get a draw. :-) Please keep posting footie results. The messed up way it's being "covered"(a term I use very loosely) in the US, means most people will only get highlights and maybe 1 or 2 full games. bah. CAn't wait to see footage of the Sydney skyline, though. Great city! :-)

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2000

Aye, that's a nice looking bridge they have in Sydney too.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2000

Aye, Pete, it may be bigger but it's just not the same with all that sun shining on it !

Ciara - though they're a bit commercial, for latest news and results have a look at www.olympics.com and www.olympics.com.au.

I'm getting SO excited about the games now. Sydney is absolutely humming with anticipation. I'll try and post the odd report up here for anyone who's interested, starting later today.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2000

One more site worth checking - our local rag the Sydney Morning Herald at www.smh.com.au/olympics/

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2000

Thanks for the sites! Be helpful for keeping up with results since whatever coverage we get will be tape delayed anyhow. If you happen to hear them, I'd love to know the scores of the women's games tomorrow, especially the US. :-)

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2000

We wuz f@#k!n robbed!!!

Cheating Italian gits. Everytime an Australian brushed by them they fell over on the ground rolling as if hurt. Then 95 000 people would start whistling, cat girls and shouting general abuse at cheating I-ties. During the second half one Italian went over, rolled around, the game went on, the crowed were abusing him and he sheepishly got up and went on with the game.

Then the Aussie kids started actually started hitting them and they didn't get back up. They didn't roll around either, a bit hard when you've been laid out flat. finally one Italian player took exception to being thumped and tried to have a go back, he ened up on the ground three more times. And all this before we went behind in the 81st minute.

On numerous occassions I thought the ref was going to card some of our lads after their tackles. He didn't, well he did, but not for their tackling. He carded a couple of the Italians for nasty cheap ass tackles when we were nearly clean through. I couldn't count the number of times our players came in hard, took the ball off them and started in the other direction leaving an Italian on the ground or looking around thinking 'what the frig just happened, I had the ball, now it's on it's way down the other end of the park'.

One of the best performances was by the captain Brett Emerton. An Italian player had a 20 yard start on him, down our right wing and was baring down on the penalty area. Emerton took off after him diagonally across the pitch, after a 60 yard sprint cuaght up with the player, disposed him, controlled the ball and sent it back the other way and started heading back down his wing. And this was half way through the second half.

I just couldn't believe the standard of the Australians. We dominated for long stretches of the game and didn't deserve to loose. LT mentioned he thought the Italians had another gear they could go to. Well I thought this to, untill half way through the first half when I realised they didn't. They were playing to their game plan, but didn't have another level to go to.

-- Anonymous, September 14, 2000

Ciara - an excellent start for the US women's footy team last night down in Melbourne. China also got a good result and must be a real threat, despite the following over-exuberant article that I've cut & pasted for you. Cheers

LT

There are two certainties over the next two weeks of the Sydney Olympics.

One is that the United States will win the most gold medals and the second is that one of those gold medals will be won in the women's soccer tournament.

The US team, the reigning World and Olympic champions, were simply breathtaking in their opening group match in Melbourne tonight, thrashing an outclassed Norway 2-0 at the MCG.

However the score did not emphasise their dominance - they could have won by far more if not for bad luck, with striker Tiffeny Milbrett hitting the post an amazing three times.

Milbrett upstaged her more celebrated strike partner Mia Hamm by treating a sparse Melbourne crowd to the full array of her skills.

The 27-year-old scored the opening goal in the 18th minute after beating two Norwegian defenders to a loose ball and coolly slotting home on the rebound after the keeper saved her original attempt.

Then she laid on the second seven minutes later for Hamm with a wonderful lobbed pass over the Norwegian defence, which stood still looking for an off-side flag which never came.

It was Hamm's 126th goal in 209 appearances while Milbrett has now scored 80 goals from her 157 appearances.

The United States' next match is on Sunday, again in Melbourne, against the team it beat in last year's World Cup final and the one which is most likely to challenge it in this tournament, China.

-- Anonymous, September 14, 2000

Thanks, LT! Good to hear they played so well. Norway is supposed to be one of our big rivals. China and Brazil being the other big ones. The China game should be interesting. Unless the Chinese have had a good break during the summer(which I doubt), they probably won't be in top form. They were nearly exhausted when over here for the Gold Cup in June. Still dangerous, but not as strong as they could be.

-- Anonymous, September 14, 2000