World Cup Qualification Thread for 2026 - Socceroos/Asia

[southmelb]

I'm not saying he will and you're manufacturing an argument that has nothing to do with my point.

You know very well he did what was required to qualify that group (assuming they don't chuck it against the Saudis)... whereas Ange barely scraped through by the width of a goal post with a much stronger squad than this one, however its unlikely he'd have the flexibility to qualify with these donkeys.

To be fair Ange accumulated 19 points and only finished 1 point behind Japan and Saudi Arabia. In any other campaign that gets you through directly.

I agree with you about squad strength, i went to the qualifier in Melbourne where we drew 1-1 with Japan, we had 68% possesion and battered them but could only score via Jedinak penalty.

As we approach a decade on, we are seeing the reality that our focus is shifting on largely being good off the ball, with our current talent levels we dont have much other choice.

 

[JS96]

I don't get it to sometimes when it's not on simple go the safe option.

Same with if you get caught in the danger zone, just kick it out.

 

[JS96]

Don't want to imagine the mood if we'd lost aster this Saudi and Indonesia result. These 3 points are so alleviating.

 

[southmelb]

Don't want to imagine the mood if we'd lost aster this Saudi and Indonesia result. These 3 points are so alleviating.

Doesnt 3rd and 4th go into another easier qualifying group? No way the Saudis arent making it.

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

I'm not saying he will and you're manufacturing an argument that has nothing to do with my point.

You know very well he did what was required to qualify that group (assuming they don't chuck it against the Saudis)... whereas Ange barely scraped through by the width of a goal post with a much stronger squad than this one, however its unlikely he'd have the flexibility to qualify with these donkeys.

You don't call scoring in junk time, on the counter, against a b squad that outplayed us (Im assuming you support Australia - at least for this section of your online battle?) all match NOT scraping through? What do you call our earlier matches against Asia's elite?

Fact is all we really neede was a draw an Popa, rightly, gave them the ball and played narrow enough not to be troubled by inexperienced strikers.... tactical masterclass it wasn't... pretty football (from us) it definitely wasn't .... as to the players... well I put last nights squad up against Ange's "donkeys" pretty evenly actually.

 

[NoMates]

Cant see us beating the Saudis away, I'm expecting them to thrash us. Oh well at least Ill have New Zealand to follow at this world cup.

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

The same thing I wonder about blokes that non-stop find faults with whoever's reffing.

(We've had this discussion before.)

finding fault with the ref, is 40% of what enjoying the game is all about

 

[tsf]

Oh well at least Ill have New Zealand to follow at this world cup.

They still talking down there like they won the world after getting knocked out in the first round in 2010 or whenever it was without winning a game?

 

[tsf]

I don't like Popa much, but he has done a great job. 9 points from his last three, basically at the world cup.

FFS, we have blokes like Miller running about, what's he supposed to do with that?

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

I don't like Popa much, but he has done a great job. 9 points from his last three, basically at the world cup.

FFS, we have blokes like Miller running about, what's he supposed to do with that?

take him to a farkin decent barber for one thing .....

 

[LFC]

It's so ingrained. The back passing and resetting. If unnecessary it's so frustrating. We didn't have too many options forward but I felt we had such an obvious way. Unfortunately many teams do this in training so it's an automatic thing.

The same with the short goal kicks which are very dangerous. I was glad to see more long ones and the Boyle downward header came from a nudge from a long goal kick. We need to do that as we're decent in bouncy transition areas.

Big issue is we can currently only think one pass ahead. We need to get educated where we know someone is always going to be on the left flank or our striker will turn and go the moment a bit of ball is free in midfield. God, these are pros, we mastered such thinking as juniors. These guys are really dumb in a smarts sense.

here here JS.
I don't think educating will help more, factors of the back passing etc.....this has more to do about "abilty" hence passing back for its the safe option due to not having players enough who can recieve in the blink of the eye either control give or one touch angled pass a few times.
We pass back/sideways because we lack skilful enough players and "SLOW" movement.
Look at the Japs last night, they don't even have to "LOOK" where they are going to guide the ball through/sideways/backwards/or switch they KNOW their support will be there MOST times.
One time I watched a nutmeg through one of our fellas legs whilst defending - wasn't spot on but the arrogance doing it.
The ability moving around with 3 defenders around you and still get the pass away, quicker/faster/skill and support says it all.
Why didn't Hans Berger the demi god get us to step up the gas in fitness/ball movement/oh and the BPO we must be kings being Jap had 6bloody9% well we were they didn't score thank christ.

 

[huddo]

No.

I’m evaluating improved skill sets

In an age restricted match.

 

[grazorblade]

It wasn’t pretty but popa did what he had to do. Was anyone really worried Japan could score any moment? For me they had chances but seemed largely toothless when going forward. They weren’t cutting us to pieces like their first team squad obviously would.

To be fair their first team squad didnt cut us to pieces with a home crowd behind the.

 

[huddo]

Don't agree with that had WSW attack force playing some beautiful football.

They're attacks always started deep.
I'm a Mariners supporter, I watched them intently in 12/13. In the big games they sat back, except the GF where that actually tried to play in the middle of the park and were opened up.

 

[JS96]

So many great angles and reels form fans of the goal.

I'll say it again. I know Japan played reserves but the commentary about being weakened doesn't sit with me. I feel every player plays their doctrine well and this Japan team actually threatened more and had better chances than the first game. We're we a a bit stronger then? Probably yet we seemingly had more ball last night than in Saitama.

I feel Japan are in a massive conundrum about positioning and combinations. It may actually come down to a few individual moments.

 

[LFC]

To be fair their first team squad didnt cut us to pieces with a home crowd behind the.

They scored our equaliser.
You can't win them all but they still ran the game, like last night with the glut of possession you need to convert.
Check out Japan home game stats.
Review the stats

 

[huddo]

To be fair their first team squad didnt cut us to pieces with a home crowd behind the.

No team will ever cut a Popa team to pieces to be honest, there's just too much defence.

With the players he's selecting, it's the only way he can play and compete.

 

[grazorblade]

Late to the party but all I can say is "Fuck Yeah".... Ill leave the teeth gnashing and crticism for another day.. All that counts is the 99% certain qualification.

What we do when we get there is another story all together...

We might park the bus but that bus is a mercedes

 

[JS96]

Just reiterating it for those scrolling through, by no means undermining or countering others.

It's more AFC comment trolling that we played teenagers last night. 19/29 caps except Kamada in total? Still their clubs and levels are incredibly high and we saw that.

I think watching a replay may even embellish our performance off the ball. On it? Forget it! Though I'd like to see more strategies implemented in order to hold and spread the ball.

I know they were friendlies but the way we held and moved the ball against Ecuador, England and Mexico was great. Friendlies where the opponent didn't press. We've found out kryptonite, the hard press. Shades of Germany 2017.

I think we need to develop a Hannover 96 2011 strategy where the coach said we can't go slow or be complacent as the opponent can press and unsettle us if they're behind the ball. By using our technical best and swiftest we need to play into space and go forward as quickly as we can.

Just remembered that Borrello keeper interception. An interesting moment.

 

[grazorblade]

They scored our equaliser.
You can't win them all but they still ran the game, like last night with the glut of possession you need to convert.
Check out Japan home game stats.
Review the stats

We also scored their goal too

It was a chanceless encounter really. As much as I want to play more proactively for the entertainment value we arent being controlled or dominated if you concede 70 percent possession but they dont create clear cut chances
If we got 70 percent possession against the opposition and couldnt create anything and only scored an own goal there would be howls of complaints rather than claims we dominated