World Cup Qualification Thread for 2026 - Socceroos/Asia

[Muz]

Don't think so,,, On the replay Gauci was nowhere near it anyway.... Lets just chalk it down to a "gift" from the football gods and move on...

For that sort of thing it's only important if he was impeded. Whether or not he could have saved it has nothing to do with it.

 

[jas88]

I though the intelligent pressing was really good. I wonder if we could do the same with 2 up front? Irankunda playing off Yengi? The key would be getting Nestory to press well and have Yengi drop back? I feel like this is the best way we can score goals. Hopefully Bayern are working on Nestory's pressing ability.

Just cant seem to see where the goals will come from without Goodwin there.

 

[FeedTheBrox]

I was there last night. It was a pretty poor game until the last 20 or so minutes.

I felt we did enough to win the game, we had 3 incredibly good chances to score and the lack of quality showed.

Watching Popa coach the Socceroos live last night was a real eye opener. I was happy that he started Hrustic and McGree as we have lacked creativity throughout the whole campaign.

But I felt the midfield 4 were way to narrow and there was too much expectation on the wingbacks to provide width. Miller is trash. The fact that he started shows the lack of depth on the flanks.

I’ll probably be labelled biased, but I thought Nish was the only player to provide any semblance of creativity. He would have buried that chance Borello fluffed late in the game, and I hope his injury isn’t serious.

I still don’t understand how Mitch Duke gets a game. He is dogshit. Yengi did more in 5 minutes than Duke did in 90.

Results fell our way again overnight with Bahrain losing to China and we are still second in the group. But not beating the Saudis at home means we are going to have to get a result against them away if we’re going to qualify directly.

 

[LFC]

matey it will upset the many here and me for I'm just as passionate as everyone here but I'll put the neck out for it is what it is.
Got to stop sugar coating things, we're in a hole and for sometime as we've seen.
Poppa is just a change of the scenery so to speak.
We are a minnow to a degree today, maybe not the right description, others have caught up others have us worked out, we are behind on many fronts, we lack killer, we lack a outlier, we lack goals, we lack pace on and with the ball, we pass and pass, reset reset more back into our own half or around halfway.
We are structured no doubt and mature after all the years of learning to cover our arse, good at parking the bus in the hope of the successful counter but how many counters do we create per game AND how many times do we HIT the target/the GK even...let alone score a few.
Without Goodwin who is the most consistant seasoned flanker who can provide a consistant great cross in the mixer he our main old weapon barring the exceptions.
Souttar and Irvine are on our top scorers list to date.
The Japan away game was amazing getting that stubborn point and they were not on song - amazing and as we know they are the bar.
65 to 35% possession.
17 shots to 3.
5 on target to 2.
9 corners to 0.
1.89 xG to 0.49

In saying that I expect we will and should beat Saudi at home you'd think ??? but BUT I won't be surprised once they have settled in they snag that unexpected goal followed by their niggling terrible tactics expect the unexpected for we are blunt unless our fellas prove it wrong.
Happy to be proven as such.

jas88, yep Mabil is blank for me, how many more chances do you give ? only pick IF we are desparate need ahead.
Yengi I'm still on the fence, he's trying to be too aggressive/braun like as if he's been nutured by Duke, he has alot to learn but - 8 caps early days, 4 goals better than many though pretty light opponents but got to start somewhere.
Max Balard, another hopeful, lets not get ahead of ourselves, we have been through similar countless times, hope he kicks on.
Enjoy fellas and the following banter/posts I'll look in sooner or later, peace.

I had to avoid saying my peace since watching last nights game in utter misery and frustration and my post from days back confirms my feelings and again the outlook where my/our Roos are and have been for years now !
I'm going to go back and say kudos to GA even though he cops/copped so much flak he got that far in Qatar with average cattle and no wonder after all those years he got run down mentally - it confirms our plight right now.
It no matter who Poppa should have picked by your opinions the same would have happenned till its PROVEN not just once but 2/3/4 times ahead.
You only had to watch that play the whole 1st half and ask yourself is this a NT game I'm watching ! Lucky MSC was supporting his daughter at ballet

I'm so angry/gutted its not funny and with some of you carrying on about such and such is better etcetc ahead, seriously the last 4 games or so have been abysmal viewing ! some your talking about played those games.
I'm sorry for Duke he has served well and then I'll read, oh he'll play better with Yengi off him, christ throw Suarez next to him - well how about playing well regardless as a lone striker anyway, time is up lets see Yengi.
Hrustic was woeful.
Miller ? seriously even Grant would do better ffs.
Irvine has the feet of an elephant, his time is done ! stay with St Pauli thanks for your service.
Souttar even looked a mess.
Gauci, FFS he reprieved himself with some good saves but how a GK of his level and where he plays for Club doesn't realise to put the boot through it instead of looking - hey no one is available to play from the back just fuckin killed me and was embarrassing !
The chances that we created, Hrustic ! FFS Borello that was the winning moment full stop shut the bloody gate ! but no - HTF a so called forward who's meant to be selfish worse pass's it to a player who already had 2 near on 3 defenders on him
A utter joke !
At home we have less possession !
They made 132 more pass's than us, maybe not in great zones but more ball nonetheless.
We had some minor inspiring moments, Velupillay, wish Caceras got more ball but we were chasing the game, one time he was wondering where/who he could pass to.
No one gets more than a 5 out of 10 and thats shocking for a home game.

Back to the drawing board but I don't think Poppa has it (ffs he throws on Behich).....maybe I'm over reactive but thats what I watched, rubbish.

 

[RIMB]

I am not a keeper, but surely Gauci has to wait and see if the offside player deflects the ball. He cannot commit to the path of the ball until then. Clearly having the ball head towards an offside player so he has to move his leg out of the way to avoid being hit is being involved in the play. The keeper has to be in two minds about any decision.

Clear offside call to me if his back foot was off.

Last year, if a shot was directly at goal or contact as deemed instinctive/reflex then an opponent making contact did not reset offside players. Have I remembered that wrong or has it changed? Both can be argued for the offside player to still be offside.

 

[Kitwally]

To be fair, Bos - who is usually excellent - had a bit of an off game last night, and after Behich came on he did provide that ball into the area which was dangerous. Though I’m not a fan of him.

 

[Cunningstunt]

I thought we were fine, and deserved to win the match based on the chances created. Which is a step forward compared to the first Bahrain game where we had all the possession but didn't really create anything clear cut.
Some thoughts:
Gauci is a good keeper, but he needs to improve his passing. This is an area I think he is clearly a worse option compared to Matt Ryan. KSA probably noted this and hence the high press and pressure on him. A few scary moments. If he is going to be number one is isn't enough to be a good shot stopper, if there is a high press, this means there is space further up the pitch and he needs to be able to find these passes.

RB remains a problem. Granted Miller had to deal with maybe their best player. He got caught out defensively twice in quick succession at the end, once leading to the Geria foul and free kick with the offside goal.

Bos was a little disappointing. The potential seems great, but at the moment there is a reason Behich is hanging around. I feel like he could be one of our best but it just hasn't translated yet.

The midfield base of Irvine and O'Neil. They seem to be occupying very similar areas, particularly in the first half. A Luongo or Robertson would probably be quite useful in one of these spots.

Velupillay looked pretty great for his short spell.

Chances we created:

• Two from our pressing (which Duke was a big part of all night). One to Hrustic and the other to Irvine.
• One from the set piece where Souttar shot over.
• Four from open play. Duke was blocked on the half turn. Borello passing slightly behind McGree. Burgess cross to McGree. Vilupillay with the run into the box and he was clipped from behind before the covering defender came across. You've seen them given.
• Of these four were really strong chances that should have been scored - Hrustic, Irvine, Borello and Souttar.
• The Duke and McGree chances and the Vilupillay pen shout were good openings.

KSA:

• Turnover from Geria, shot from a tight angle probably missing but Gauci covered. Probably a half chance.
• Scramble in the box following a cross after a Miller error (I think). Burgess cleared. Their best chance.
• I suppose you can count the offside goal, close one, seemed to be the right call. Even that was after a bit of a scramble following the free kick, hardly a chance from them opening us up.

We opened them up on numerous occasions for good chances, they were not able to, despite how poor we were for the first half (particularly the first 30 minutes). I think there was an adjustment made with Irvine and O'Neil after 25 mins or so.

While they did have more possession than us, and that is something we should improve, I don't think you could argue it was effective possession. Also that was much worse in the first half. The second half was much closer and we still created the better opportunities throughout.

First half

Second half


So I think this is fine and we are building. On another day those chances are taken and we win comfortably. The first 30 minutes does hang over the match because we were so poor in possession, and I think LFC is right in his post, if you apply it to this period of the match or to the finishing. But taking the match as a whole, there is a lot of positives, with a lot of areas to improve.

 

[Cunningstunt]

Some extra context to what I wrote above. Shots in the match. I think it is fair to say we created the better opportunities.


One thing Harper was talking about in the commentary was how KSA were winning the one on ones. This does seem to have been a pretty fair observation.


Stats from fotmob

Australia vs Saudi Arabia - live score, predicted lineups and H2H stats

Australia vs Saudi Arabia on Thu, Nov 14, 2024, 09:10 UTC. Check live results, H2H, match stats, lineups, player ratings, insights, team forms, shotmap, and highlights.

www.fotmob.com

 

[Cunningstunt]

Last one - I should really do some of my actual work haha
If Indonesia somehow pull an all timer upset tonight and beat Japan, we will have four teams on six points and one team on 5 points.

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

Cameron Burgess (directly in front of the shot), and then to the offside attacker.
View attachment 246
View attachment 247

Yeah OK I see it, offside, fair call..... thanks bud.

 

[Villa Dan]

Get Balard in that starting 11 playing week in week out in Holland and getting good reviews and the aleague players come on puzzling

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

I was there last night. It was a pretty poor game until the last 20 or so minutes.

I felt we did enough to win the game, we had 3 incredibly good chances to score and the lack of quality showed.

Watching Popa coach the Socceroos live last night was a real eye opener. I was happy that he started Hrustic and McGree as we have lacked creativity throughout the whole campaign.

But I felt the midfield 4 were way to narrow and there was too much expectation on the wingbacks to provide width. Miller is trash. The fact that he started shows the lack of depth on the flanks.

I’ll probably be labelled biased, but I thought Nish was the only player to provide any semblance of creativity. He would have buried that chance Borello fluffed late in the game, and I hope his injury isn’t serious.

I still don’t understand how Mitch Duke gets a game. He is dogshit. Yengi did more in 5 minutes than Duke did in 90.

Results fell our way again overnight with Bahrain losing to China and we are still second in the group. But not beating the Saudis at home means we are going to have to get a result against them away if we’re going to qualify directly.

Hey mate, why was the crowd booing the Saudi Keeper? The guy came out for a clearance and bumped heads with a Socceroo, it didnt look malicious on TV?

 

[footballnoob]

hi guys pretty disappointing performance, not a fan of poppas formation at all, souttar, burgess and geria once again all very steady but besides that quite poor, just wondering for bahrain game what people would like to see for a starting 11, then what it is predicted under poppas formation. There is a obvious lack of quality transition between the midfield and forwards, some more technical and class is needed in midfield, and would love to see a more dangerous 3 up front just lacked any x factor last night exempt (mcgree's hail mary).

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

I had to avoid saying my peace since watching last nights game in utter misery and frustration and my post from days back confirms my feelings and again the outlook where my/our Roos are and have been for years now !
I'm going to go back and say kudos to GA even though he cops/copped so much flak he got that far in Qatar with average cattle and no wonder after all those years he got run down mentally - it confirms our plight right now.
It no matter who Poppa should have picked by your opinions the same would have happenned till its PROVEN not just once but 2/3/4 times ahead.
You only had to watch that play the whole 1st half and ask yourself is this a NT game I'm watching ! Lucky MSC was supporting his daughter at ballet

I'm so angry/gutted its not funny and with some of you carrying on about such and such is better etcetc ahead, seriously the last 4 games or so have been abysmal viewing ! some your talking about played those games.
I'm sorry for Duke he has served well and then I'll read, oh he'll play better with Yengi off him, christ throw Suarez next to him - well how about playing well regardless as a lone striker anyway, time is up lets see Yengi.
Hrustic was woeful.
Miller ? seriously even Grant would do better ffs.
Irvine has the feet of an elephant, his time is done ! stay with St Pauli thanks for your service.
Souttar even looked a mess.
Gauci, FFS he reprieved himself with some good saves but how a GK of his level and where he plays for Club doesn't realise to put the boot through it instead of looking - hey no one is available to play from the back just fuckin killed me and was embarrassing !
The chances that we created, Hrustic ! FFS Borello that was the winning moment full stop shut the bloody gate ! but no - HTF a so called forward who's meant to be selfish worse pass's it to a player who already had 2 near on 3 defenders on him
A utter joke !
At home we have less possession !
They made 132 more pass's than us, maybe not in great zones but more ball nonetheless.
We had some minor inspiring moments, Velupillay, wish Caceras got more ball but we were chasing the game, one time he was wondering where/who he could pass to.
No one gets more than a 5 out of 10 and thats shocking for a home game.

Back to the drawing board but I don't think Poppa has it (ffs he throws on Behich).....maybe I'm over reactive but thats what I watched, rubbish.

Yeah Im with ya mate... Luckily (or unluckily) got home half way intothe frist half ... wasn't impressed. As for Soutter..... holy shit garbage game... the guy is 8 foot tall and the looped the ball over his head and around him half a dozen times...

Worst "shot" for me was that bullshit attempt at a scissor by McGree.... Jesus Christ he had 3 mins to himself, 3 square kilometers of space to set up for a header and he goes for the Puskas Award FFS....

 

[LFC]

Yeah Im with ya mate... Luckily (or unluckily) got home half way intothe frist half ... wasn't impressed. As for Soutter..... holy shit garbage game... the guy is 8 foot tall and the looped the ball over his head and around him half a dozen times...

Worst "shot" for me was that bullshit attempt at a scissor by McGree.... Jesus Christ he had 3 mins to himself, 3 square kilometers of space to set up for a header and he goes for the Puskas Award FFS....

Mate I'm at a loss with comments here looking at the brightside.
Souttar was stressing most of the game and I don't blame him.
Also he had a chance in front of goal skied it - now I know he's a CB BUT at NT you got to deliver the moment !
Irvine couple of breaks towards the box, most of his goals have been taps ins he's a flukey shot maker at best, that one where he leans back wrong shape looking for the top RH corner whereas he had Hrustic or someone free off his right, again wrong option.
I give McGree benefit of the doubt on the chance of thousand scorpian/Puskas, sure looked like he could have made time to control the ball but I reckon they would have swarmed him quick enough for they scrambled well as did we under the pump.

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

Mate I'm at a loss with comments here looking at the brightside.
Souttar was stressing most of the game and I don't blame him.
Also he had a chance in front of goal skied it - now I know he's a CB BUT at NT you got to deliver the moment !
Irvine couple of breaks towards the box, most of his goals have been taps ins he's a flukey shot maker at best, that one where he leans back wrong shape looking for the top RH corner whereas he had Hrustic or someone free off his right, again wrong option.
I give McGree bebefit of the doubt on the chance of thousand scorpian/Puskas, sure looked like he could have made time to control the ball but I reckon they would have swarmed him quick enough for they scrambled well as did we under the pump.

Yeah but he had time to head the ball on goal, why the acobatic???

Anyway, it is what it is... Irvine, weve said it before a thousand times, one pass goes to a team mate one pass goes to an opponent and one pass goes straight out ... hahahah at least he is consistent

 

[LFC]

Some extra context to what I wrote above. Shots in the match. I think it is fair to say we created the better opportunities.
View attachment 250

One thing Harper was talking about in the commentary was how KSA were winning the one on ones. This does seem to have been a pretty fair observation.
View attachment 251

Stats from fotmob

Australia vs Saudi Arabia - live score, predicted lineups and H2H stats

Australia vs Saudi Arabia on Thu, Nov 14, 2024, 09:10 UTC. Check live results, H2H, match stats, lineups, player ratings, insights, team forms, shotmap, and highlights.

www.fotmob.com

Stats paint a prettier always C S, hence why I have clash's with fellow forumers here and back the other site.
Like my team mates after games in the sheds - its all about, mate IF ONLY I could get that touch, OR damn we dominated we deserved more, how many shots did they have compared to us ?
On the day it didn't happen, all the stats in the world going our way isn't going to improve making more shots hit the back of net when you lack consistant marksmen next games, they are just figures.
It was a end to end game that a win could have gone either way, messy, desperate both sides but for a away game the Saudis missing players they won no matter the stats and might I add hit the back of the net even though disallowed.
This is fine and we are building C S ?
Mate I'm not going after you believe me just convo.
It takes alot of time together to build a NT team and worse when your trying to find players who click together and do the job as Poppa is trying to find, this is what is the bigger challenge, next game bet we will have 4/5/6 dropped and others back in.
You know what that means (barring injuries) ?? cattle quality, nuff said.

 

[patjennings]

Best that can be said is that Popovic could have been in real trouble if the offside wasn't called out the Saudis and the Bahrainis. We live to fight another day - but stop stuffing round when you have better players not selected or sitting on the bench.

 

[jas88]

Anyway, it is what it is... Irvine, weve said it before a thousand times, one pass goes to a team mate one pass goes to an opponent and one pass goes straight out ... hahahah at least he is consistent

The amount of first time passes to no one is insane... he just donkey kicks it and wherever it goes who knows... even backwards sometimes...maybe he thinks he has less time? So many times a simple shimmy or foot on the ball would of sufficed. So he could then actually lookup and pick a pass.

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

Best that can be said is that Popovic could have been in real trouble if the offside wasn't called out the Saudis and the Bahrainis. We live to fight another day - but stop stuffing round when you have better players not selected or sitting on the bench.

Playing them away is going to be tricky.... as is Bahrain next week.... WC is, by no stretch of the imagination, a sure thing .....