So Far

Australia: 0 Pts
Japan: 1 Pt
South Korea: 1 pt
Iran: 1 pt

In 8 matches as a collective we have collected 3 pts, i have to admit i thought Japan at least would of turned out a bit better maybe even Korea.


Iran have got a pt but the football they 're playing is embarrassing at best. I have to admit there is a real possibility that Asia wont have a team in the final 16. Which i think is pretty disappointing.

I know Australia played well but beside that i've watch every team from the AFC and have to admit we have really struggled on the park this world cup (esp in-front of goals).

I wouldn't be surprised if we lost our .5 of a world cup spot next time around due to such a poor showing...



Edited by Davstar: 23/6/2014 11:41:18 AM

Yeah because Australia was never dominant against Chile or the Netherlands, leading the latter, Iran never held Argentina until Messi's 91st minute strike while themselves creating chances, Korea never held one of Europe's best teams with one of Europe's most celebrated coaches to a draw as did Japan.

The story of this World Cup edition is great performances by minnows and giants falling hard and fast. Have you even been watching?

Yea, should have parked the bus.

Japan and South Korea have been very disappointing. They have neat possession in midfield, but they haven't looked genuinely dangerous.

Iran may be boring, but they're playing to their plan pretty well. Not my preferred style, but they have a very good chance to progress now.

This obsession in Australia with 'performances' is embarrassing. Results matter at this level, you dont get bonus points for "holding out Argentina until the 91st minute" or dominating in periods.

The facts are - 3 points in 8 games. 0 wins. 7 GF, 14 GA.

You can paint it any way you want, but at the end of the day it's a very poor result. Out of the 4 sides, 3 are technically still in with a shot of progressing but their chances are slim at best.

Having said that, the European and African sides havent been much better. It's really only the COMNEBOL and CONCACAF confederations who can say that they've performed at a reasonable level as a collective.

If my calculations are correct, European sides have only won about 30% of their games against non-European opposition. They're not doing a good job of putting the "European nations dont perform outside of Europe" stereotype to bed.

Yea i have

Iran parked the bus against Arg and played horrible football!

I saw Japan toothless against a 10 men Greece!!

The South Koreans were down 4-nil last night (against Algeria!) and the only reason they got a pt against Russia was due to a GK error.

I agree we have played well but i think you have to be smoking the pipe if u think Asia has actually done well

Minows have played well Costa Rica, USA etc but none of the Asian teams have preformed. Im proud of Australia but 0 pts is still 0 pts

and in 8 Games the fact is Asia has 3 pts to show for it which imo is pathetic!

I think maybe you should watch some football instead of reading articles and hitting up the highlights on foxsport champ...





Edited by Davstar: 23/6/2014 12:54:56 PM

Further to this, aside from Costa Rica and possibly the US, how many 'minnows' have actually caused the 'giants' to fall?

Portugal's issues were caused by Germany.
England's were caused by Uruguay and Italy.
Spain by Holland and Chile.
Argentina have been troubled but are still on 6 points.

So really, which giants have been knocked off by minnows?

I agree with you but at this moment i n time Australians mindset is fixated on performances. Onwards to Asian Cup and Russia 2018.

But this isnt about just Australia im talking about our confederation. We are part of the ACF we have 'preformed well' dont get me wrong but when you look at the AFC as a whole i would of thought at least 1-2 teams would be on 3-4 pts at this stage...

geez its not over yet and look at the 2006 results*

Iran 1
Japan 1
South Korea 4
Saudi Arabia 1

none of them progressed and still asia kept its .5

for the most part Aisa always do fuck all at the world cup.

*australia didn't qualify through asia and doesn't count imo.

Edited by RDSA: 23/6/2014 02:03:13 PM

Remaining games:

Oz - Spain
Japan - Colombia
BiH - Iran
Algeria - Russia

Finishing on 0 wins isnt completely out of the question. I doubt that any spots will get taken away though. Allocation is just as much about money/audiences as it is about performance.

-PB

Algeria-Russia doesn't really have anything to do with the AFC. :p
and you've missed South Korea vs Belgium. :d

FWIW, I reckon Iran has the best chance of getting anything from the remaining games.

Whoops... time for another coffee :lol:

I think we are doing well enough. No team has really been embarrassingly outclassed the teams like China and Saudi Arabia were 12 years ago. We aren't picking up the points but we are making the other confederations work very hard to take them off us.

Uruguay was beaten by a minnow, as was Italy.
I don't know if you would class Chile as a minnow, but beating Spain was considered an upset.
Portugal struggled against USA and was lucky to walk away with a draw when in reality, Portugal should of won comfortably.

Asian teams haven;t done well because none of the hot weather teams have made it. Iran is at altitude at about 1000m so that keeps things cool there. Australia has tropical areas though no teams there anymore but has players from Europe and are facing tough teams in the cooler south.
Remember Iraq won the Asia cup in 2007 so they would be the best hot weather team, though they also have a history of being bought off by other middle east teams in world cup qualifying. If you remember somehow Iraq beat China and caused Australia problems yet lost twice to Qatar in the same qualifying group. Concacaf all teams there have hot areas, the south of the US, coastal parts of Mexico and Central american teams. African teams are even better placed though they have too many Europeans and not sure whether they utilised a camp in their native countries.
I would have liked to see Australia playing all there games in the North and using Darwin as a training base. Then using McKay,Zadkovich and Murdocca who can run any number of miles in extreme heat. EVen if your only play one game in the north it can drain players remarkbly, so Australia didn;t have that benefit either with no game in the north in the group.

I thought Japan were the better team against Greece and Korea were the better team against Russia.

In terms of Proactive play, we've done quite well.

Iran have set up to play defensive football, which is disappointing.

Only marginally, thought it was quite even.

Watching the replay of Sth Korea/Algeria now, and the Algerians absolutely destroyed the Koreans. Embarrassing.

I said "aside from Costa Rica and the US". I think plenty of minnows have troubled the big sides, but it's hardly been a WC full of giant slaying as some would like to make out.

Upsets happen all the time. Whether Chile beating Spain can be considered an upset is debatable in itself.

The only time AFC teams have done anything is in 2002. And that's because FIFA paid the refs for Korea to get into the knockout stages.
Once the money dried up they got smashed in the semi and 3rd place playoff.

The other way of looking at Japan and Korea, is that many elements to their game are better than the mid ranking Euro nations.

In the future , we are going to have a tough opposition from Japan, Korea and China to qualify for anything. At the same time we're making up ground on Europe. If we qualify for tournaments, we should be more competitive when we get there.




Edited by Decentric: 23/6/2014 05:30:09 PM

Chile beating the back to back European Champion and current World Champion not an upset...

South America are the big winners but North America (3 out of 4 with a strong chance to progress) and Africa (3 out of 5 with a strong chance) have been punching above their weight.

Way too much goalpost moving to keep up with in thread.

Realistically, who expected any of the AFC teams to go out there and be world beaters?

Japan in a group with Ivory Coast and Colombia, they were long odds to qualify.
Iran in a group with Argentina, Nigeria and B&H, they were never really considered a chance to qualify. They at least put up a fight against Argentina and have the easiest game in their group to come still and could sneak through.
South Korea are the weakest they've been in a long time and were never expected to get past Belgium and Russia. Capitulation against Algeria was just salt in the wounds.

And Australia...welp, fuck.

No goalposts have been moved - 9 games, 0 wins, 3 points

I'd call it an upset. Would call Netherlands smashing them 5-1 an upset too, but agree neither Chile nor Netherlands would be considered minnows

The scoreline might be considered a bit of a shock, but this was a WC Final rematch. Netherlands should have probably beaten Spain in 2010 on the balance of play. The Dutch beating Spain shouldn't be considered an upset...

The reason I'd argue that the Chile game might not be considered an upset is because there were already question marks over Spain before the tournament started. Plenty were wondering how motivated the players would be after winning absolutely everything. There were also question marks over their fitness after a lot of football without much rest - Euros, Confeds Cup, Barca and Madrid going deep into all of their competitions etc.

Spain might be defending World and Euro Champions but many people questioned if this was one tournament too far for some of the squad. After the 5-1 crushing at the hands of the Netherlands the 2-0 loss to a highly-rated Chile isn't much of an upset.

You're happy to move the goalposts to show yourself as a scoreboard analyst, so I'll let you speak for yourself.

The Socceroos' performance speaks for itself too, and the whole world knows it.