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World Cup Qualification Thread for 2026 - Socceroos/Asia

I've followed him so he's decent but Diks really off it today. Again his CV makes him desirable for a Bundesliga club but he's not better than players we have.

I think Australia's experience really pulled through tonight. Despite those defensive errors there was something across the team that kept it together.
 


Watching ME teams away to Japan make for some of the most fascinating viewing about how they line up. Remember that UAE and Oman have won there the past cycles.

I have a cold shiver that Japan being qualified may open the door for KSA and Indonesia to get something there but surely Japan's players know the WC squad is limited and everyone needs to impress.
 
My 11 for China

Ryan
Karacic Geria Burgess Rowles Davidson
Triantis Irvine
Arzani Yengi Goodwin
 
Karacic looks poised. Miller won't be dropped and shouldn't be but I think this game needs that little bit more and Karacic brings that.

I still don't like the formation as we need more in midfield.
 
Half an hour into the replay and I think we are completely dominant to be honest

don't look at possession stats. Without the ball we rarely press high and we seem content to sit back unless there is a pressing trigger. I think the pressing trigger is if the goal keeper touches it - poppa must have identified that indonesia's goal keeper isn't safe with his feet or something. Then we will rush with a 5 man press and the other five denfending in our own half. We weren't even pressing up to the half way line, we were content to sit back in a deep block as they passed the ball round the back four

We also are very fast and positive with the ball. This means more mistakes and turnovers but also more chances

Despite Irvine's comments this is not a game plan where you get 70% possession, it is a game plan where you concede possession.

Miller and Geria very strong so far for different reasons. A lot of attacks start through geria and millers mobility and strength off the ball blunting indonesia is blunting them. Despite all indonesia's possession they are looking toothless whereas we look constantly dangerous.

Since they missed a penalty maybe a 5-2 score is fair, but it definitely looks like a flogging on the replay

I also missed on first viewing that taggart got the assist for vellupilay's goal with a very nice chip
 
grazorblade said:
Half an hour into the replay and I think we are completely dominant to be honest

don't look at possession stats. Without the ball we rarely press high and we seem content to sit back unless there is a pressing trigger. I think the pressing trigger is if the goal keeper touches it - poppa must have identified that indonesia's goal keeper isn't safe with his feet or something. Then we will rush with a 5 man press and the other five denfending in our own half. We weren't even pressing up to the half way line, we were content to sit back in a deep block as they passed the ball round the back four

We also are very fast and positive with the ball. This means more mistakes and turnovers but also more chances

Despite Irvine's comments this is not a game plan where you get 70% possession, it is a game plan where you concede possession.

Miller and Geria very strong so far for different reasons. A lot of attacks start through geria and millers mobility and strength off the ball blunting indonesia is blunting them. Despite all indonesia's possession they are looking toothless whereas we look constantly dangerous.

Since they missed a penalty maybe a 5-2 score is fair, but it definitely looks like a flogging on the replay

I also missed on first viewing that taggart got the assist for vellupilay's goal with a very nice chip
Click to expand...

So a few things:

It's great to use a low defensive block if we can stop chances being created. We didn't. In the first 18 minutes, they had 2 high probability chances, we had none. You think more clinical teams won't take advantage of those situations?

To say it would be 5-2 takes away the knock on effects of a goal. They score, they park the bus, and were essentially trying to play 11 defenders. With only Caceres providing a playmakers option off the bench, so we wouldn't see him until atleast the second half

At the end of the day, I'm glad we got the win, but you'd be foolish to not look at the first 15 and not come to the conclusion we may have an issue if we go behind.
 
Could write an essay on everything poppa did tactically, though I need to watch more than 1 replay to figure out the rationale. Here are all the strange things I noticed

1) We defending deep in the first half we were asymmetric. If the ball went out to behich's side we would have 3 defenders in the channel. If the ball went to millers side we would only have miller and occasionally irvine helping late. This was true even if miller was out numbered. We seemed to be baiting them to attack down that side
2) When defending in a deep block we often had 10 men in the block and really clogging zone 14. Normally you see an 8 man block with 2 pressing, occasionally you see 9 men with a 1 man press, this was a crazy 10 man block
3) we seemed to have a pressing trigger because 3 times in the first half we would have 5 pressing like crazy all the way up to the opposition goal keeper, while most of the time not pressing them at all even in our own half. I think the slow ball to the left center back might have been a trigger, a slow pass to the gk another. Will have to watch again to keep an eye out for this
4) We created a lot of chances and dangerous situations but their only dangerous situations in the first half was from defensive lapses. Unfortunately we were pretty generous in the first ten minutes but after that it was really one sided.
5) When we went 4-0 up we seemed to change to a more possession based strategy, possibly to conserve energy for the game against china? We were defending regularly in their half, though not spending a lot of energy with a high press (aka a high press with no squeezing). We were also recycling possession a lot more rather than going for the kill with every possession. When we went into energy saver mode the quality of chances evened up. The last 25 minutes was a 1-1 draw
6) similar to the game against china, when playing out they would not just press the ball carrier, they would often crowd irvine and oniell with a 4v2. Our front 3 would then occupy the space that left and we would pass straight past that congested area with 6 bodies
 
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huddo said:
So a few things:

It's great to use a low defensive block if we can stop chances being created. We didn't. In the first 18 minutes, they had 2 high probability chances, we had none. You think more clinical teams won't take advantage of those situations?

To say it would be 5-2 takes away the knock on effects of a goal. They score, they park the bus, and were essentially trying to play 11 defenders. With only Caceres providing a playmakers option off the bench, so we wouldn't see him until atleast the second half

At the end of the day, I'm glad we got the win, but you'd be foolish to not look at the first 15 and not come to the conclusion we may have an issue if we go behind.
Click to expand...
not necessarily, we conceded early against china. I also get the impression that their new coach is a tikki takka idealogue so probably they keep playing the same way if they take the lead

after a couple of defensive lapses early it was one way traffic in terms of genuine danger

I'd be curious to see how others feel after watching the replay. Definitely looked different on replay
 
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Well when was the last time we scored that many goals?
Couldn’t believe we took the chances well for a change for obviously this helped us for at times we didn’t anywhere near as convincing being a home game.
Geria scares me !
Imagine against better opponents.
Result is great and points now the big test away next week.
 
Saudi score but he's used his hand. Taken back by VAR. Qatar making light work of NK while Kuwait lead in Iraq.
 
still not showing the replay of the red here...live it didn't look like much in it, just a high foot
 
in the 12th minute of injury time here in the 1st half

china would be excused for feeling aggreived
 
Saudi take the lead. Inevitable really. They've been poor but will be buoyed on by this.
 
saudi so good at creating chances but are profligerate so fortunately there is still a slim chance for china
 
Jordan cruising in Palestine while Kuwait lead 2.0 in Iraq flipping the group.
 
now that saudi are defending a lead there is just 4 minutes injury time
gotta love afc
 
ah that's a shame, Saudi win 1-0
We have just a 1 point lead now over saudi

mind you, australia finishing 5th looking very unlikely now
 
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