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  Directed by
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  Starring
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  Specs
  • Full Frame
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital Stereo
  Subtitles
  • None
  Extras
  • Animated menus
  • Interviews - with Frank Farina & Sven Goran Eriksson
England 1 Australia 3 - Australia's Victory
ABC/Roadshow Entertainment . R4 . COLOR . 108 mins . E . PAL

  Feature
Contract

On February 12 2003, Australia took a giant leap in respect from the world when it humbled England in yet another sport. If destroying England in the cricket, tennis and rugby weren't enough, adding soccer to the list surely makes our dominance over our 200 year old exporters sealed.

Football (not soccer as the un-educated would like to call it) was usually the domain of the European and South American nations but, in the past decade, the Asian and Australian contingent have produced some of the most skilled and quality players the world has seen. It seems though that individual quality doesn't make a good Australian team. Anyone who was at the MCG on that fateful day in 1997 when a capacity crowd saw Australia 'lose' the game and the subsequent World Cup qualification can attest that experience as a team is necessary to win the big games. Sure the likes of Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka and Mark 'I thought it was Wizz Fizz' Bosnich made their mark on the game, however the team as a whole crumbled under the pressure of the moment and the expectations of a nation who once again were taken down the path of failure at the last hurdle.

We seem to be learning from our mistakes. Part of the problem has been the ability to get clearance from all the major clubs in Europe where our stars a playing and then to get them to fly half way around the world for a match that in the wash-up is insignificant. Soccer Australia always felt that they needed to have games on Australian soil to fuel the interest in the local market. The die hard fans know that they will get their fix of the game no matter what, so SA planned to stage more international friendlies overseas to make it easier to get the team together more often and they had instant success with the humiliation of some of the world's elite.

Those of you who woke up early that morning to catch a glimpse of the game will no doubt know just what a dance we performed around the hapless poms. With Harry Kewell starring for the Socceroos and scoring one of the best goals of the night, the final score was never in any doubt. The England players, their coach and the commentators knew it from the outset, this was going to be an embarrassment.

The insulting part of the build-up occured when the England coach announced that he was only going to field the first choice team in the first half and replace the lot of them with an under-21 squad for the second half. Is that the kind of respect they had for the Australian players, who perform remarkably week in and week out in their own Premier League? Oh to have ALL the clippings from the local newspapers in the UK the morning after. England came back to Earth with a thud whilst Australia took off with a new found respect from the rest of the world as request after request came in for more friendlies from teams who would once laugh at the proposition of playing the team from the land down under, even if they did know where to find us on the map.

With this new found respect set in stone and the local league receiving the desperate revival it needed, Australian soccer is poised to reveal to the world what we fans have known for a long while.

  Video
  Audio
  Extras
Contract

For those of you who recorded this historic event on VHS and have worn out the tape from watching it countless times since, this DVD will be a fresh and permanent bookmark in your football sporting catalogue. The full frame transfer is exceptional, vibrant and rich in color, and just as good, if not better, than when it was originally broadcast.

The audio is just two-channel stereo (what more do you need?) and captures the atmosphere of the game perfectly, even down to the small Aussie contingent chanting "Just like the cricket, just like the cricket, just like the rugby, just like the rugby" as it becomes obvious that England are not going to regain any respectability from their top-dollar paying fans.

The problem with this DVD is the chapter breaks; there are only four. One for the pre-match introductions, the entire first half, the entire second half and the post match interviews. If you skip past Harry Kewell's goal in the 40th minute and accidently hit the chapter back button, you're back at the start again which is very annoying. I would have like to have seen more effort put into placing some chapter marks at key moments throughout the event, as in the goals themselves, yes even the one that the young English players scored that showed their experienced counterparts how to actually play the game. Another feature that could be looked into is to have the scores stored in a subtitle track that can be enabled when necessary as the usual top left score board is not present on this transfer.

For those fans starved of quality REAL football product locally among the multitude of AFL material being dished out, then this is a must have for the collection.

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!


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  •   And I quote...
    "This DVD will be a fresh and permanent bookmark in your football sporting catalogue..."
    - Steve Koukoulas
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DV-505 Gold
    • TV:
          Hitachi CMT2979 68cm
    • Receiver:
          Onkyo TX-DS777 THX Select
    • Speakers:
          VAF Signature I-91
    • Centre Speaker:
          VAF Signature I-91
    • Surrounds:
          VAF Signature I-91
    • Subwoofer:
          VAF LFE-07
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard Optical
    • Video Cables:
          standard s-video
      Recent Reviews:
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