This Sporting Life

As Roy ans HG would say too much sport is never enough.

1) Football

Ange has decided to quit now. I call this a dog act to copy my youngest son. You do not quit when your goal is to reach the World Cup. Ange took over when we looked all at sea after a terrible selection for national coach. Ange was all we could afford. He succeeded in some ways. Not for him to take a backward step. He played to win. Unfortunately his sides always leaked goals.Not a lot at first but it was consistent after the Asian Cup win. His sides also took a lot of shots at goal before scoring.
Some of the players never reached the heights playing for Australia they did with their clubs. for some reason he changed formations AFTER our mighty Asian cup win. The defence always looked leaky and often was. He selected players such as Brad Smith which had us all jawdropping. He had little playtime, little skill. Why was this man in the squad let alone playing.

In all that his time as a coach was a positive one. Even though he did not have the players he always played to win against any opposition. He knew the Australian way and kept consistent with that.

Who will replace him. I would go for Frank De Boer. however I think they will go locally and the only selection could be Graham Arnold.

It is interesting to know Ange was a failure in coaching the youth squad but learnt from that. Arnold too was a failure when he temporally took over from Guus Hiddink. Has he learnt.

2) Cricket
The Ashes start today. I cannot see how England can win. They simply do not have the bowlers in Australia to take twenty wickets.I anticipate fast and bouncy wickets and expect a number of english batting failures . If Root and Cook fail they will lose very easily.

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