The World Game

[Looney]

SBS's church for the football acolytes..... its been around 2-3 weeks now, what does everyone think of the 6 hours of football on Sunday? I quite like it.

[psh03]

I only saw the first week but it was good. What I am disappointed about is that they seemed to have dumped the Serie A highlights package. Six hours of soccer talk is great but I'd like to see some games too. Some not played in England.

[Looney]

I agree, I miss the Italian match of the week. But I like the Asian football segment, someday when they cover the Asian Champion's League I hope to see the Wolves or the Glory playing in it too...

[bro09]

must say that when i saw it i thought it would promote aussies more often. all good having the asian segmant but i'd like a 30 min show on all soccer things oceania! don't like how they go into depths at some leagues but don't show anything at others. think goals and spectacular things but lots would be better! wanna see more about the "unknown" aussies oversea's too. was good to have a bit on breasciano last week!

[Looney]

Yeah I miss the Aussies Abroad segment from World Soccer. I would've thought they'd expand on that. Instead they cut it down.

[psh03]

Unfortunately at this point the Wolves won't get anywhere near the Champions League on current form. They'll turn it around though.

With so many Aussies going overseas before they can legally drink or vote often the first time we hear about players is when they are called up for the national team. The Aussies Abroad section would be good if it focussed on those players on the fringes of national selection. Like who is going to be the backbone of our defense now players like Vidmar and Muscat are getting on?

[bro09]

if we had a descent centre backs i think we would really be a better team. we have plenty of young attackers but apart from lucas neil im waiting to see who are the next backs for us. think kisnorbo is our big hope. bit earlly and haven't seen much of him but he kinda reminds me a bit of rio ferdinand in the way he runs and tackles.

[FANTA]

psh, they haven't dumped the serie a. well they aren't showing a full game anymore but still have highlights of the previous weeks games and preview all the games to come. but they only spend about 45 minutes talking about serie a which is disappointing.

i turn it off after that, since all they're going to be talking about for the rest of the show is michael owen's hattrick.

[psh03]

I got annoyed because late last year I got Austar and one of the incentives was the regular Serie A match of the week which meant I could see more than the extended highlights on SBS. This year SBS dumped the extended highlights and are only showing the highlights (goals) and Tony Palumbo's analysis (which is very good) and Austar dumped it totally.

Kisnorbo I haven't really seen much of thanks to the pitiful NSL coverage but to be picked in Australian sides at 18 or so must mean he has potential. Timpano is another who could be a future Australian player. I think he captained Australia's junior team and is playing at the NSL at 16 years of age which are both tremendous acheivements. Craig moore is also not so old he can't be a core member of our 2006 WC campaign. Costanzo at Marconi is also a very good player who is perhaps overlooked because he plays in Australia. Any other contenders are difficult to recognise because they have yet to break the starting lineups of European clubs.

[Looney]

They still do interviews, they did Tim Cahill this week and Marco Bresciano last week which is pretty good. They thing I like is the new fan's corner section, sort of a break from all the serious analysing and results and they're not ads.

[psh03]

Felt sorry for Cahill. It is pretty unfair now he is stuck not being able to play for Australia, particularly with players like Giggs and Matteo getting exceptions. It is crazy that one player could be eligable to play for 6-7 different countries.