Global media rate ‘positive’ Socceroos

​A media study has shown the Socceroos were perceived positively during their Brazil 2014 campaign, in stark contrast to some other AFC nations.

A Cambridge University Press study surveyed a range of media sources to reveal the words most frequently used to describe countries at the World Cup.

The multi-billion word database of written and spoken English language was designed to give an indication of how each team was perceived by media and fans.

In Australia’s case, the words ‘positive, effort and spirited’ were the most used.

However, fellow Asian Confederation nations didn’t fare as well.

South Korea’s three most popular descriptions were ‘woeful, failure and embarrassing’.

Similarly Japan were described ‘possession, disappointing, frustrated’ while Iran’s dour campaign was termed as ‘defend, hope, drought’.

The Socceroos group opponents Chile were, unsurprisingly, tagged as ‘attacking, tactical, thrilling’.

Meanwhile, a review by a UK newspaper gave the Socceroos a high score for entertainment value.

www.telegraph.co.uk wrote of the Socceroos, ‘lost all three games but leave far from empty hearted. Gave us the best goal of the tournament so far in Tim Cahill’s left-footed volley…’.

They went on to rate the team as a 7/10 for entertainment value but only 4/10 for skill.

The travelling Socceroo fans however were rated a 4/5.