Welcome to World Footy News Monday, January 06 2025 @ 04:44 pm ACDT
The two Yukis from Adelaide, South Australia, could be the secret weapon that the All Japan Samurais team needs to advance to the big finals of the 2008 Australian Football International Cup, which is now heading to Warrnambool in country Victoria.
It was the Scott Fleming show yesterday at Ransford Oval. But don’t be fooled into thinking he was a lone hand. Both on Wednesday and again yesterday we repeatedly saw the brilliant passing of Aaron Falcioni (and other team mates) giving Fleming the best possible chance to mark out front on the lead where defenders were unable to have a say in whether he marked or not.
He is not a one trick pony though - we have seen Fleming pounce on the loose ball at pace and snap goals on the run. It was Fleming who started the ball rolling early on with a mark out front on the edge of the arc. However, he had to wait some five minutes to take the kick as Sweden’s full back Mattias Fagersson, who was knocked out falling heavily in a previous marking contest, had to be treated by medical staff and was later taken to hospital. Fleming restarted the game with a solid boot for maximum points.
South Africa take on Denmark at Kardinia Park West (St Marys FC) in Geelong to complete round 2 of the 2008 International Cup today, 12pm AEST. Quarter by quarter live scores will be updated here.
| Denmark | South Africa | |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1 (7) | 1/4 | 1.3 (9) |
| 2.1 (13) | 1/2 | 7.6 (48) |
| 3.2 (20) | 3/4 | 7.8 (50) |
| 3.2 (20) | Full | 9.11 (65) |
The Singapore Wombats proved to be too fit and too powerful for the Malaysian Warriors in a tough encounter played in wet conditions at Alice Smith ground in Kuala Lumpur on 23rd August.
After an even first quarter, the Wombats' resilience, superior teamwork and ability to run enabled them to eke out a comfortable 8.7.55 to 2.8.20 victory, thereby regaining the Changi Cup, a trophy they lost for the first time last year, and extending their dominance over traditional rivals Malaysia to 20 wins against just four losses since the year 2000.
 | Great Britain has been brought back to reality following their 127 point victory over the Peace Team on Wednesday. Nauru’s Chiefs beat the Bulldogs by a comfortable 47 points, although the game was much more competitive than the score suggests. The match took place on the most-central of the three ovals, Ransford (it was originally scheduled at Western Oval) as it was the most evenly-matched game of the three that started at 11am. Conditions were great for football; sunny, mostly blue skies and minimal breeze. |
A good crowd gathered to watch and support the PNG and Peace teams in the 1.00 pm Round 2 match, almost as big as the crowd across the road watching the contest between Japan and Samoa. Some of the visionaries of football, and now international football luminaries, of the Victorian kind, including Ron Barassi and Brian Dixon, were amongst them.
It was inevitable that the novices of the Peace Team, drawn from Israelis and Palestinians, including some African residents, even with the coaching of the Big Dipper, Robert Dipierdomenico, would struggle against the athleticism and football skills of the PNG team. It was a hard fought but friendly match, with no quarter given.
In the first major surprise of the AFL International Cup, the Samurai from Japan defeated the might of Samoa. Truthfully it was always a possibility that Japan could upset the AFL's seeding in this match, but to do so relatively comfortably, by 4 goals, was somewhat unexpected. It must rank as their best international win, and they certainly celebrated like it was.
Unfortunately for Samoa the loss is likely to condemn them to positions 9 to 12 come the end of the competition, unless they can pull off the biggest upset in International Cup history and roll the Kiwis in their next match, in Warrnambool. Japan will be looking to mix it with some of the top sides, assuming they get the business done against India, a match which should be far less physical than today's.
While the US team may have had many of its squad from game one on the sidelines for this match, its goalkicking star of game one, Kidney Lakomy started off where he left off the last, with a goal. There was a light northerly breeze and although this was only Round 2, Melbourne’s great finals weather had arrived at least a week early. China had the breeze in their favour but it was Rob Lutostanski for the US who soon added a second goal after marking. The Chinese put to bed any thoughts of an easy hitout for the Americans with a series of heavy tackles particularly from Li Cheng and making the Revolution earn their possessions. Ruckman Gao Rundong was winning taps in the center but the US still managed to clear. With an extended period of the ball bouncing from one half back line to the other, the US could only score points. It looked like the US would finally goal when Lutostanski received a free kick for high contact after a series of Chinese tackles. His kick however went wide. The Chinese team may have made more progress but many of their kicks contained more height than length. The US led by 14 points at quarter time and coach Rob Oliver wanted the forward line opened up as their forward 50 was continually full of players from both sides.
The intention is to update these scores each quarter as the games progress. Match reports and images will follow later. All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST), which is +10 GMT. A warm day for Melbourne in August (late winter), 18 degrees Celsius and fine, getting quite warm for football with no clouds in the sky.
Round 2 - 29th and 30th August 2008
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Round 1 of the 2008 Australian Football International Cup threw up some very one-sided results, all of which were expected, although some of the margins were runaway results. Round 2 should see a few more exciting and tight matches, as well as more blow outs. This author is 8 from 8 so far but could well come unstuck tomorrow. For what it's worth, here come the tips.
Round 1 of the IC08 saved the best until last, as one of the tournament favourites, and dual runners-up, Papua New Guinea fronted Nauru, returning to Cup competition after missing in 2005.
And what a contest it was. PNG are expected to be very good once again, and slightly favoured by this writer to go all the way, just. The way the tournament is structured, if a team loses one match and their opponent wins their other two rounds, there's no way the loser can make it through to the top four (an artefact of having to squeeze so many games into a short space of time in what is, after-all, an amateur competition). So the prediction was looking very shaky and the PNG brains trust must have been concerned when at quarter time the Nauru Chiefs led the Mozzies by 3 points, albeit after having had the use of a strengthening breeze.
Playing in the middle time slot for Round 1, Samoa took on India in what was the first official game for the team from the subcontinent. The Samoans, newly dubbed the Kangaroos, smashed the Tigers as expected. But there was still plenty of interest, to see whether the Samoans had improved since solid 2002 and 2005 campaigns, and whether the Indians would cope with the big islanders.
As it turned out, the Indians were brave and showed glimpses of talent, but the pressure of decent opposition never gave them much of a chance.
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