Cunningstunt
Impact Sub
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2024
- Replies
- 295
A bit of context to the acl win. He did that with a transition side that would go onto finish second last in the A League. The tie against sanfrecce was the final match for Hersi, Ono and that iteration. He beat Evergrande (with Diamanti, Gilardinho, and Lippi), FC Seoul and Al Hilal with the side that finished second last. Only against Al Hilal were we outplayed, and you're correct they should have had multiple penalties and won.Again - that record is outstanding.
However, the big games for me is what I worry about. In both the semi and the final of the ACL there were some very dubious decisions favouring WSW - 2 red cards in the first leg of the semi and then at least six decent penalty claims knocked back in the final. Ante Covic, Anthony Golec and Brendan Santalab all should have had penalties against them appeared to handle the ball in the box in the second leg. This causes me to discount his effort here to some extent (still very impressive though - particularly when you look at the lineups in retrospect)
Yes decisions can always go two ways - but his big game record does not stack up. Is it 5 grand final losses now.
I disregard the record in his Socceroo tenure as being pressured. Firstly he always had at least one more round to make it and secondly there was no pressure on him at all. If he failed it was Arnold's failure.
The World Cup is a different beast and I'm afraid his tactical intransigence will be his (and our) downfall. I will be very happy to be proven wrong. I just fear I won't be.
To me he is the flip side to Ange's naive "I'm going to beat the best in the world playing aggressive football" and to a large extent ignoring defence. Popovic's answer seems to be I'm going to stop the best in the world scoring again us while hoping to scrape a goal.
The achievement was remarkable, that side had no business doing what they did.