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World Cup Qualification Thread for 2026 - Socceroos/Asia

Cunningstunt said:
A smaller club beating or even finishing higher than a big club happens all the time. It is also true that the big clubs have access to the most talent, so playing first team for these sides is harder than playing first team at a smaller club.

I like Nisbet, would have been happy with his selection and agree with what you say about him. Also worth adding he is probably even more unfairly underrated because of his stature. But he is playing for Ross County who are fourth from bottom in Scotland in roughly the same position they finish every season.
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Did you watch any Aleague over the last 3 years?

"We are no more or less likely to qualify with him in or out of the squad".

Nationally we have been missing creativity, and the ability to break down staunch defence. the bloke won JWM because of his ability to create. We recently played Metcalfe at the Asian cup, a DM in an AM role.
 
Barca4life said:
The biggest drawback by playing in the aleague is the amount of games per season compared to the eredivisie that or the Scottish premier league where they play more games, I think the aleague is a good standard but comparing standards is difficult.
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The funny thing is last year CCM played 40 odd games because of continental games.
 
Cunningstunt said:
There is a difference between getting picked every week for Ajax or Celtic compared to NAC or Hibs. Culina and Rogic being first team players is a much better confirmation of their quality compared to starting at smaller clubs. They have a lot more quality and competition within the squads, style of play is different as they are expected to win, they have continental football every year.

I considered the best players in Aliga to be around the equivalent of those European leagues (outside the really big clubs). This is a pool of probably 20 odd players. These guys go to the mid tier european leagues and do well (Balard, Nisbet, Triantis, O'Neill, Bos etc), while others come back home and do the same (Borello, Teague, Leckie, Thomas).

If we subbed out Arzani, Tilio, Velupillay for Balard, Irankunda and Nisbet I think the squad is slightly better, but it isn't changing the game. The problem I have is less about the individual selection arguments, and more about the unwarranted outrage. Because the outrage has consumed most of the discussion rather than anything interesting / useful about the different qualities players bring, experience of the squad, structure etc.

The squad has 5 players with 0 caps and 16 players with less than 15 caps. There are only 6 guys who have more than 30 caps (this feels very low historically). On paper he looks to be trying to bring through a new generation. To the point where, with only 6 veterans, I am worried about about the level of experience going into must win qualifiers. But I don't think I have seen this talked about anywhere, and it seems a lot of that is to do with the outrage over 2 or 3 selections / general dislike of Popa.
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I think part of the outrage is for those who watched the U20 Asian Cup, they would have noticed a far more skilful set of players than the U23 who failed to qualify for the Olympics and in some ways are more technically capable than some of the senior players. Further, Poppas comments have come back to bite him. Would Irankunda improve the side over Arzani? Most likely.
 
I guess most coaches do but I think Arnold and Popovic absolutely hate being told what to do or being shown to be wrong.

These silly selections risk a big riff amongst the group. You've got to remember the older guard are there as part of a leadership group which automatically sees them selected. Leadership groups are important but also problematic that there is a sense of immunity.
 
I’m glad others had the same thoughts as me regarding all those who missed out on the squad. I’m glad that they have made a statement this round with some big performances. I’d throw Milanovic in there as well. The cheeky phone call celebration is a good reminder of what we’re missing, but I’m also curious to see how it goes down with Popa. As said above, he doesn’t like being told what to do. I feel like this kind of celebration, while warranted, could come across as a bit naïve and possibly put them offside with him.
Regardless, I’m glad that some of these guys are putting their hand up and making some noise. We need a change.
 
It's been doing the rounds on twitter. Irankunda posted 'They will ignore you until they can't'

This is a bit like the political game. There are lots of conversations we don't eavesdrop on. Hopefully they're on good terms. We're not in the age of Fergie anymore and I hope all of these players are really hungry to succeed for Australia. At the same time I fear they might be reluctant to play for such a coach.
 
JS96 said:
It's been doing the rounds on twitter. Irankunda posted 'They will ignore you until they can't'

This is a bit like the political game. There are lots of conversations we don't eavesdrop on. Hopefully they're on good terms. We're not in the age of Fergie anymore and I hope all of these players are really hungry to succeed for Australia. At the same time I fear they might be reluctant to play for such a coach.
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He was also left out of the u23 as well, so something is up.
 
I'm pretty happy with the squad selected.

Even if he is difficult at training, or hard to coach, in terms of pure technique, flair and skill, Arzani is one of the greatest Aussies ever, bar none, in any era.

Recently I've started watching a lot of football in Scotland and Serie A. The style of football in the AL is far closer in style to Serie A ( Atalanta, Roma, Lazio, Inter, Empoli, Bologna) than Scotland (Dundee, Dundee United, Queen Of South, Hearts, Aberdeen, St Mirren).

The latter is a second ball league. The fact Hearts select Devlin over Nieuw, the latter having a better skill set for international football, says it all.

Haven't seen Triantis - yet. But will watch a Hibernian/Rangers game soon. He had one awful game as a CB for the Aus U 23s, where he was sent off.

Teague - is a solid selection. Far more talent and more complete skill set than most other older Aussie DMs, like Yazbek, Baccus, Devlin, Genreau, et al, but there is still better in the younger gen - his teammate Valadon ( still needs more games and experience), Aus u20s Paul Okon junior and Deli - and I think Thurgate is better this season.

Grant was an old fashioned CB, when with Glory. Not a ball distributor. He has apparently won and Asian Champ league title though. Impressive!

Surprised Irankunda isn't there.

Popa said Ballard was very unlucky, and only just missed out.
 
WhatAmIWatching said:
I think part of the outrage is for those who watched the U20 Asian Cup, they would have noticed a far more skilful set of players than the U23 who failed to qualify for the Olympics and in some ways are more technically capable than some of the senior players. Further, Poppas comments have come back to bite him. Would Irankunda improve the side over Arzani? Most likely.
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Under 23s lost their composure in the three games in the Olympic qualifying tournament.

They dominated the games , apart from scoring.
 
Decentric said:
I'm pretty happy with the squad selected.

Even if he is difficult at training, or hard to coach, in terms of pure technique, flair and skill, Arzani is one of the greatest Aussies ever, bar none, in any era.

Recently I've started watching a lot of football in Scotland and Serie A. The style of football in the AL is far closer in style to Serie A ( Atalanta, Roma, Lazio, Inter, Empoli, Bologna) than Scotland (Dundee, Dundee United, Queen Of South, Hearts, Aberdeen, St Mirren).

The latter is a second ball league. The fact Hearts select Devlin over Nieuw, the latter having a better skill set for international football, says it all.

Haven't seen Triantis - yet. But will watch a Hibernian/Rangers game soon. He had one awful game as a CB for the Aus U 23s, where he was sent off.

Teague - is a solid selection. Far more talent and more complete skill set than most other older Aussie DMs, like Yazbek, Baccus, Devlin, Genreau, et al, but there is still better in the younger gen - his teammate Valadon ( still needs more games and experience), Aus u20s Paul Okon junior and Deli - and I think Thurgate is better this season.

Grant was an old fashioned CB, when with Glory. Not a ball distributor. He has apparently won and Asian Champ league title though. Impressive!

Surprised Irankunda isn't there.

Popa said Ballard was very unlucky, and only just missed out.
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Queen of (the) South????

You watch Scotland League One?
 
JS96 said:
Keeper66 said:
Queen of (the) South????

You watch Scotland League One?
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I've watched Scottish Cup games.

The standard is appalling.

Why?

A player receives under time and space pressure - they hoof it. There is little proactive movement of teammates - short, long, left and right - at diagonal angles, to open passing lanes for the ball carrier to pass to.

In Serie A, and watching City v Jets, and most other AL games, this was apparent. There were long stanzas of teams possessing the ball, whilst building up slowly, interspersed with quicker stanzas of play.

Arnie rated Scotland higher, but Popa doesn't.

In terms of players going to Scotland their improvement is slow comparatively in ;

first touch,

handling speed,

game sense,

tactics,

1v1 attacking skills.

In the AL and Serie A, players touch th e ball twice as much per game with the team in clear possession.

In Scotland, in the aforementioned teams, the ball is in Contested Ball Phase, or in football specific terms, Defensive and Attacking Transitions. Players are constantly fighting for the ball.
 
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