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World Cup Qualification Thread for 2026 - Socceroos/Asia

I still find it dull with so many qualifying spots but having said that it's good to see Iraq, Jordan etc having chances to qualify
 
Didn't see any stats from Paramount?

I will go away and do my own and post them in the Socceroo stats thread on G and G.

Live, I thought Villupillay played well, and not much else from teammates. Most of the time Geria defended well and I thought Behich was solid.

In highlights, Ryan made three brilliant saves.

In between the pen boxes I thought the Indonesians, with all their Dutch born players playing in Netherlands, were superb in Full Pressing and intense Squeezing for the whole game.

Indo also possessed the ball well.

Borrello and Goodwin entering the fray was a defensive move by Popa. They put more pressure off the ball in BPO.

Once Indo gets used to playing as a team, they will be an Asian powerhouse. Aus winning 5-1, flattered the Socceroos.

Popa was only pleased with Ryan and Behich. He was also pleased with the composure of the scorers.

Irvine was astonished how hard Indonesia pressed for 90 mins. He said it rarely happened when playing at home in Aus. Indo forced mistakes with so much off the ball pressure.

Wikshire thought Geria struggled playing out. I thought Geria was good as a ball winner -most of the time. He was culpable for the Indo goal though. He also had few viable passing lanes opened frequently enough when he was on the ball.

Wilkshire also thought the defensive unit was poor.

Thought Borrello was great defensively in the attacking half of the pitch, and nearly scored.

I thought Miller struggled, apart from scoring his superb headed goal.

Indo were shocking at defending set pieces.

After Aus accounted for all of Japan, Saudi and Bahrain in 1v1s, I think Indo did well in this area. It seemed they won a lot of heading duels - we missed Souttar.

Thought Arzani was just imposing himself on the game, but ran out of time.

As usual, looking at a replay and compiling stats, will show up surprises.

Apart from against Japan, with stats we should have won all other games, maybe only slightly better than Saudi. We just couldn't convert goals.

Conversely, against Indo, we were clinical around goal, but were probably outplayed by Indo in between the pen boxes.
 
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✅ Australia beats Indonesia
✅ Japan beats Bahrain
❓Saudi Arabia draws China
❓Japan beats Saudi Arabia
❓Australia beats China
❓Indonesia draws Bahrain

So far so good this window. If the above results all happen then, barring a tremendous 9+ goal difference swing against us, we'll be almost certainly into the World Cup on Wednesday morning since we'll have 13 points and everyone below us will be stuck on 7, needing to absolute demolish our superior goal difference.
 
Cunningstunt said:
I think people talked themselves into a bit of a doom spiral with Popa, from when he got the job, compounded by some selections people didn't like.

He has been successful at every club and has absurdly high standards. Give me Ange or Bielsa (the dream) any day, but Popa is a good coach, the squads he has picked have been fine, and a result like this isn't surprising.

Now if he loses in China though... world is ending, sack him, probably going to have to vote for the libs so we can deport him after the match.
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I'm happy with Popa.

Players say he is superbly prepared with individuals' game plans.

In previous games, apart from Japan, the forwards have let him down when shooting for goal.

Whereas Arnie had a first eleven, with little deviation, Popa has played a lot more players. He has also injected youth. Popa has made some good selections.

Geria instead of Geraint Jones at RB, is a vast improvement.

Giving AL players like Villupillay a chance has paid off for Popa.
 
Wolfman said:
✅ Australia beats Indonesia
✅ Japan beats Bahrain
❓Saudi Arabia draws China
❓Japan beats Saudi Arabia
❓Australia beats China
❓Indonesia draws Bahrain

So far so good this window. If the above results all happen then, barring a tremendous 9+ goal difference swing against us, we'll be almost certainly into the World Cup on Wednesday morning since we'll have 13 points and everyone below us will be stuck on 7, needing to absolute demolish our superior goal difference.
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Welcome to the forum, Wolfman.
 
That's a handy point for Oman. Jordan will be interested as they should beat Palestine and go to Korea next. 2 wins and they'll be on 15 points themselves.
 
HappyGuus said:
Nice link. It's still too close for comfort. We're still going to need points from Saudi and/or Japan, even assuming we beat China.

If Saudi and China draw this morning:

View attachment 1467


If Saudi beat China:

View attachment 1468


If China beat Saudi:

View attachment 1469
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If we and japan win all our games and all other games end in draws then that is the best scenario and has us qualified by goal difference after the Chinese game

Curious what the worst results would be?
 
Unpopular opinion noting the Popa love-fest currently taking place.

If not for a Ryan worldly of a save and a shit indo pen takers, this game could have been alot different.

Sitting back and inviting pressure almost blew up in our face again. Great we were so clinical, but its pretty embarrassing we have to concede possession to Indonesia and hit on the counter, as a game plan.
 
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huddo said:
Unpopular opinion noting the Popa love-fest currently taking place.

If not for a Ryan worldly of a save and a shit indo pen takers, this game could have been alot different.

Sitting back and inviting pressure almost blew up in our face again. Great we were so clinical, but its pretty embarrassing we have to concede possession to Indonesia and hit on the counter, as a game plan.
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Yeah I'd really like to know how we may have gotten out of that hole had we conceded. Imagine something like a 1:1 draw.

It's not the first time we've had a goal blitz in games so more of that needed.
 
@grazor, yes should we have 13 and everyone else 7 after this match day then GD is really the thing.

This win today actually smashed my GD predictions for Australia. I'd take a Saudi China draw almost regardless now but maybe a China win to dent Saudi and then we beat China ourselves could be a decent way too. However, a draw lines up our potential draw case.
 
Hypothetical now, but if Triantis played instead of O’Neill perhaps the possession stats would look quite different.

I guess Poppa has his reasons, perhaps Triantis didn’t train well after the jet lag.
 
possession these days is probably a disadvantage

any correlation between posession and results is probably down to the fact that the better team usually has to play possession football as the weaker team usually sits back and is ok with a draw.

40% is probably the optimal amount of posession, usually means you have conceded enough possession to get chances against a defense in transition (which are usually better chances), but haven't conceded enough posession for fatigue to be an issue

If the weaker team wins the possession battle they often get flogged and that's what happened today
 
Honestly Kluivert is a clown. Seriously. He's had such a minimal manager success. He's probably a decent coach or mentor but setting up a whole thing isn't for him.

Talk about sprinting to open a marathon. Indonesia were so poised for the start. Kind of amazing how we nullified it with goals but they were like a boxer who made rookie errors.

First goal definitely a pen. Second way too high but a top assist. 3rd came from some good play and urgency. 4th and 5th were through one of our best assets.
 
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