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World Cup Qualification Thread for 2026 - Socceroos/Asia

Muz said:
Just finished watching the replay.

Random thoughts.

We are a shit football team that somehow manages to scrape out results.

We cannot string 3 passes together in the oppositions half.

We never dominate any team we play.

The Saudis were gypped a penalty in around the 18th minute when our bloke completely blocked his run. Literally ran across him. Stone cold penalty. 2 nil at that point would have made that interesting.

Boyle is a wanker and should have been sent off for diving. What a tool. He was through on goal and decided to flop like a fish on a jetty. Not sure of VAR protocols and ref's decisions there and whether he could've received a YC retrospectively but if he could have he's lucky to have stayed on the pitch.

Popa is also wanker. They need to score 7 goals to win and we're making subs with 15 to go? For fucks sake.

Good goal by Duke and peach of a pass to Metcalfe for the first.

Did not think Ryan would save that penalty but well done Matty and, in his 100th game.
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Yeah is saw that peno in the 18th may have changed the game... They were hell bent on getting a bag though so not sure how they would have approached the game otherwise.... Funny seeing a Saudi team NOT time manage :)
 
Muz said:
Just finished watching the replay.

Random thoughts.

We are a shit football team that somehow manages to scrape out results.

We cannot string 3 passes together in the oppositions half.

We never dominate any team we play.

The Saudis were gypped a penalty in around the 18th minute when our bloke completely blocked his run. Literally ran across him. Stone cold penalty. 2 nil at that point would have made that interesting.

Boyle is a wanker and should have been sent off for diving. What a tool. He was through on goal and decided to flop like a fish on a jetty. Not sure of VAR protocols and ref's decisions there and whether he could've received a YC retrospectively but if he could have he's lucky to have stayed on the pitch.

Popa is also wanker. They need to score 7 goals to win and we're making subs with 15 to go? For fucks sake.

Good goal by Duke and peach of a pass to Metcalfe for the first.

Did not think Ryan would save that penalty but well done Matty and, in his 100th game.
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It's an interesting one as the ref blew a foul on Burgess quickly. The Saudi player made no effort to by pass or battle and Burgess used a pretty standard shield movement. Hip on hip.

Boyle needs an internal reprimand for that. It doesn't matter if your shoulder is grabbed you just can't fall forward like that.

Guarantee the ref does it differently had we gotten a red card. The Geria penalty was a joke too. Clear ball then a natural tangle of no foul play.
 
johnsmith said:
A.I., please put this into simple language that a 6 year old can understand

"Sure! Here's a simple version for a 6-year-old: Using big, fancy words and long sentences can make someone sound very smart. It can hide simple ideas and make it hard for others to say they are wrong. Sometimes, people do this to show off or to make sure others don’t argue with them."
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A.I Please explain humour ..... lighten up johnnieboy, it was a witty remark.
 
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The reason we're not stringing passes together? We're still playing our more indept players. Add Triantis, Balard, Robertson, Goodwin, McGree and you'll see much better link up and direct play.

It is irrefutable we score off set plays but also a lot of our goals come from moving quick when the opponent dozes off or in transition.

The Ecuador, Mexico and England games demonstrate we can do things when forced to go fast. Otherwise we suffer from slowness and indecision.

We've got to adapt a 10 second strategy for transition. The moment we get it we need to go forward.
 
JS96 said:
It's an interesting one as the ref blew a foul on Burgess quickly. The Saudi player made no effort to by pass or battle and Burgess used a pretty standard shield movement. Hip on hip.

Boyle needs an internal reprimand for that. It doesn't matter if your shoulder is grabbed you just can't fall forward like that.

Guarantee the ref does it differently had we gotten a red card. The Geria penalty was a joke too. Clear ball then a natural tangle of no foul play.
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Don't know if I agree.. Sure I dont think the intent was there by Geria but tangled legs did make the attacker go down in the box..... would have been cursing if not given against us....
 
johnsmith said:
At the end of the last World Cup, I heard someone say, if come the next World Cup (in US/CA/MX) if we're still relying on Mitch Duke -- at his age, he'll be 35 at the next World Cup -- it'll mean we're in trouble in terms of firepower for scoring goals.

BTW, why wasn't Arzani selected even for the bench? My guess is, he wasn't among those who arrived a week earlier to receive conditioning for the high temperatures?
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Acclimatisation doesn't really hold up when you have Yazbek crossing millions of time zones or Behich starting both games.

No idea though about Arzani.
 
These are the questions journalists should ask Popovic directly:

Why can't we string 3 passes together in the final 3rd?

How are you going to address players making stupid decisions in dangerous areas?
 
Muz said:
Utilising sesquipedalian verbiage and prolix syntactical constructions may engender an ostensible augmentation of intellectual gravitas, thereby obfuscating simplistic assertions beneath a veneer of erudition. Such lexical ostentation may also function as a rhetorical stratagem to preclude facile repudiation by less lexically fortified interlocutors.
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No need to explain the offside rule like that....
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
C'mon mate, when the ancient Greeks were sitting around the agora discussing phenomena, the Italians were in caves rubbing sticks together trying to discover fire... hahahahahah
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whilst my train of thought was taking the piss of our forums dutch influenced theasaraus magga gaffa analist may I advise you we sure worked out your ancestors lacking moving forward :)
while the Greeks were pioneers in many areas, the Romans were more focused on practical application and military power, making significant advancements in law, government, engineering, and military tactics, ultimately expanding their influence and power across a vast empire.
Also JS96's recent posts confirm this regards to our fore fathers football progress ie string 3 pass's together - actually we won 4 WC's - sometime back but the stars are for all to see hahaha
 
Decentric said:
As a few mentioned there are plenty of fans on this forum, and elsewhere on forums and social media in Aus, who need to eat some humble pie!

Many have been critical of Popa, his tactics, his selections, etc.

18 points from 8 games, 5 wins and 3 draws, against the toughest Asian opposition we’ve ever played in WCQs, is astonishing!

We now have a year where hopefully more of the younger whiz kids with more technical prowess can kick on, and enable the current team to play better with the ball by the next WC.
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I agree with you but he still deserves a bit of stick for losing triantis
 

Decentric said:
Who would you select instead, and drop from the current team?

Why?

Which formation/game plan would you use instead of Popa's, with the inherent strengths of the players we have?

Why?

The Poparoos have 18 points from 8 games - no losses.

In excessive heat, in an away fixture, 75% passing accuracy is low against Saudi, but it has been much higher in some other games we've drawn and lost.
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I would select players who can hold the ball.

I'm not just talking about this morning - I'm talking about all Popa's matches (or nearly all). Yes, his defensive system has been outstanding but we never have any outlets. In the last two games we were constantly clearing the ball anywhere (or missing passes under pressure) so wave after wave kept coming back at us.

O'Neill, Metcalfe, Miller, Geria, Behich, Yazbek, Boyle... none of them could hold possession and their passing was diabolical. I don't blame the strikers so much as they had no support (although Toure did set up Tilio with a lovely ball - if only he'd been more ready for it...). Duke's ball to Metcalfe also was a peach.

I'm aware of the Robertson/Triantis issues and desperately hope they are resolved, especially now qualification is done. But I also want to see Balard, Nisbet, Arzani, Irankunda get a go. Even Okon E is an infinitely better ball retainer than the lot I've mentioned (albeit at a lower level). If he can get 1st team football somewhere I'd say he's a strong chance of a call-up.
 
LFC said:
whilst my train of thought was taking the piss of our forums dutch influenced theasaraus magga gaffa analist may I advise you we sure worked out your ancestors lacking moving forward :)
while the Greeks were pioneers in many areas, the Romans were more focused on practical application and military power, making significant advancements in law, government, engineering, and military tactics, ultimately expanding their influence and power across a vast empire.
Also JS96's recent posts confirm this regards to our fore fathers football progress ie string 3 pass's together - actually we won 4 WC's - sometime back but the stars are for all to see hahaha
Click to expand...
and now, just like us, its ALL ancient history..... hahahahahahaahah
 
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Muz said:
Utilising sesquipedalian verbiage and prolix syntactical constructions may engender an ostensible augmentation of intellectual gravitas, thereby obfuscating simplistic assertions beneath a veneer of erudition. Such lexical ostentation may also function as a rhetorical stratagem to preclude facile repudiation by less lexically fortified interlocutors.
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Here, here!!! But one must use the correct word, not an incorrect word which is a homophone of the correct word 😉.
 
johnsmith said:
At the end of the last World Cup, I heard someone say, if come the next World Cup (in US/CA/MX) if we're still relying on Mitch Duke -- at his age, he'll be 35 at the next World Cup -- it'll mean we're in trouble in terms of firepower for scoring goals.

BTW, why wasn't Arzani selected even for the bench? My guess is, he wasn't among those who arrived a week earlier to receive conditioning for the high temperatures?
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Your guess is wrong. He arrived in Saudi at the same time as everyone else.
 
Muz said:
Utilising sesquipedalian verbiage and prolix syntactical constructions may engender an ostensible augmentation of intellectual gravitas, thereby obfuscating simplistic assertions beneath a veneer of erudition. Such lexical ostentation may also function as a rhetorical stratagem to preclude facile repudiation by less lexically fortified interlocutors.
Click to expand...
Or not...
 
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