Poppa Out

[Mr Cleansheets]

Obviously waaaay too early and I'm not AT ALL suggesting it... yet... but young Haine Eames (16) at the Mariners is going to be an amazing player. Very classy midfielder who may well be banging on the Socceroos door by the end of the season. Perhaps more realistically... if we do make WC2026, he'd be my dark horse to make the squad.

Yet another CCM won't keep for long.

 

[Decentric]

Obviously waaaay too early and I'm not AT ALL suggesting it... yet... but young Haine Eames (16) at the Mariners is going to be an amazing player. Very classy midfielder who may well be banging on the Socceroos door by the end of the season. Perhaps more realistically... if we do make WC2026, he'd be my dark horse to make the squad.

Yet another CCM won't keep for long.

A lot of composure when he scored.

 

[Decentric]

Lucks an excuse. When you set-up the team the way Popovic has scoring will be difficult. The results are predictable. He needs to find a better defensive/offensive balance.

Our esteemed former IS poster, Arthur, posted an article a few years back, where a renowned football journo/author claimed that in every football game 40% of the game outcome has a 40% luck component, Q.

One that has favoured the Socceroos looking at match replays, is some refs have called offsides against the opposition who've split the Socceroos defence, particularly in home WCQs in Aus, and the replay has shown they were onside. I reckon we were lucky with the disallowed Saudi goal in extra time too.

 

[Quicky]

Our esteemed former IS poster, Arthur, posted an article a few years back, where a renowned football journo/author claimed that in every football game 40% of the game outcome has a 40% luck component, G.

One that has favoured the Socceroos looking at match replays, is some refs have called offsides against the opposition who've split the Socceroos defence, particularly in home WCQs in Aus, and the replay has shown they were onside. I reckon we were lucky with the disallowed Saudi goal in extra time too.

The Saudi offside is a good example of luck favouring us but I'd argue that evens out over time.

My admittedly biased view is that we have been on the receiving end of those calls more often than the beneficiaries. I feel we often get harshly reffed as we aren't liked in Asia.

My point was driving at the teams current set-up which is so heavily defensive. It doesn't provide a lot of room to create scoring opportunities. It doesn't support that mindset. The scoring opportunities to me seem low percentage and low quality.

That isn't surprising with 5 defenders, 2 of which are defensively minded wing backs, 2 defensive mids and a centre forward who is picked as much to press as any scoring qualities he has.

I actually think that is so counter intuitive to the Australian sporting psyche that it's damaging.

I don't mind the defensive posture as it suits our players and has merit against Asian heavy weights, the issues of travel time/jetlag, and the lightening counter attacks from the smaller Asian nations.

I want to see balance though. If we play this way we need to create higher quality opportunities so our strikers have an easier time of it / better chance of finishing. To do that I believe we need to support them with stronger technicians in midfield. We need to counter attack with more conviction when we do decide to go.

We have the players to set-up like that if we want.

 

[Decentric]

The Saudi offside is a good example of luck favouring us but I'd argue that evens out over time.

My admittedly biased view is that we have been on the receiving end of those calls more often than the beneficiaries. I feel we often get harshly reffed as we aren't liked in Asia.

I agree with you, but I wonder if I'm biased?

We've recently had some offside calls going our way, but in general I feel like Middle East refs in particular let players hack our forwards with no sanction, whereas our defenders seem to barely breathe on the opposition attackers and we cede free kicks and cards.

Eas Asian refs are far more impartial - IMO.

It would be interested to hear the views of an experienced ref like Muz?

As I've compiled 1v1 stats v Asian teams, we tend to dominate in any given game, particularly in body on body duels. When it comes to speed over the turf and being dribbled around, the opposition have much more success against Aus. Maybe refs inadvertently favour other teams?