Aside from Cahill's goals, was the Socceroos performance good enough to beat Japan?

Well I think nerves at the start could have lost us the game and ability for nobody else to score toward sthe end of the game. Probably won't help our course. This team is learning to slow, but at least they're learning.

My guess no. Some sloppy incident will beat us , and there were a shit tonne.

Definitely not whilst Bresc was on. The team performance once he left would have at least been competitive

Yeah I agree. I love the guy so much for all he's done in the past but looking forwards he's not really up to it anymore.

Iran would be a far bigger issue for us than Japan

Based on the first half, no not even close. The second half we were better but we need to be at the top of our game to hang with Japan. They are a classy side with a lot of weapons to contain. To do it for 90 minutes will be difficult.

Need to play our strongest 11 on the park. I have a feeling we might revert to 2 holding midfielders in Jedi and Milligan but I think that would be a mistake. I thought Sainsbury was awesome tonight and with Spira coming back our central defence should be rock solid. I prefer Behich to Davidson on the left fullback. NO BRESIANO at all anywhere. Everyone else coming in can do the business. I can see Juric coming off the bench last 30-35 minutes especially if we are a goal down but I wouldnt start him. Should be a cracker of a game.

If Jedinak pulls his finger out like we know he's capable of and Bresc doesn't start than yes.

Anything can happen. Japan have problems of their own and maybe UAE will exploit them. You should never peak too early in a tournament so the next game is when we have to hit everything to perfection and play our best 11. Should Wilkinson retain his spot?

God no.

Japan would have scored a goal every time Bresc had hold of the ball.

-PB

Not scored but missed 100% clear goal scoring oppurtunities.

Stop posting.

Did we play Japan? No. How can you draw a comparison between how we set up and played against China and how we set up and play against Japan. It's such a stupid fucking question. And obviously, by the way you set up the question, you are fishing for negative reactions.

Fuck off.

This. It's a whole new ball game.

Huh, Chill dude, question is legit. I see no problem with it.

TSF has had a few tonight :lol:

I'll try the more toned down version. People thought we were going to beat South Korea because of our performances against Kuwait/Oman in comparison to their performances.

People thought we were going to get battered against the Dutch after they put 5 passed Spain at the WC.

These comparisons are illogical and don't make any sense as football has too many permutations during a game to try and draw such a linear comparisons. It just doesn't work.

Let's just be happy we made it to the Semi's. =d>

Free beer for every goal at the pub. \:d/

Coach against oman the same way you coach against japan.

Get back to me with the results and see how the comparisons stack up.

Thank you. Another Sainsbury believer understands. No surprise.

Wouldn't have a clue atm. Utterly pissed and it's a miracle i'm on 442, let alone made it home. Keen to watch the replay in the morning for a full decentric style breakdown.

:lol:

Tbf his breakdowns are class

Fixed. That first half by Mile must be the worst half of football ever played by an Australian captain.

If you weren't in swan st you missed out.

Nah im not THAT into the national team.

Lets go UAE

Pretty sure Bresc turned it over more.

Mile just had a poor touch and flung some wayward passes.

-PB

Assuming Japan win tonight of course, Id say they'd go in as favourites. They're not playing their usual style of football and I think that hurts them a bit, but they have still looked quite sharp. If they can be more ruthless up front we could be in a bit of trouble, especially with our slow starts.

For me, we'll need to remove the slow start and hopefully score an early goal so we can get into our rhythm.

Edited by gk99: 23/1/2015 07:34:00 AM

1st half no. 2nd half possibly.

I'll be really interested to see how Japan play against us. Worst Korea & China decided that we were too lethal against Oman & Kuwait, so sat a lot of men behind the ball with the aim to make it hard for us to break them down + attempt to counter. Japan I don't think will play as "negatively".

I thought, as many have said, Bresc looked not up to it last night. What I think we were missing was McKay - his mobility gives us so much. If we have that same lineup but with McKay in place of Bresc (and the obvious exclusion of Wilkinson, who is dreadful at this level), I think we should be good. Japan know how to play the ball around, but with that potential lineup we'll be so mobile that we'll close the ball down all night, and I feel like we'll be tough to break down because of how much pressure we'll be putting on the ball.

If we start Troisi, I'll be less confident.

I have faith Jedi will be sweet vs Japan. Needed that tonight to get some confidence back in the ankle. Also thought getting that slice of cheese early made him hold back a bit.

All this thread confirms is the about 99% of people on football forums

1. have no idea about football
2. have never played football
3. have never coached football
4. have no understanding about shape or setting up a team to play against certain opposition.....

lock thread please........