Skimmed last few pages, bloody hell I didn't even realise the ref was Iranian at the time.
The AFC can get fucked.

Even without outright actual corruption/money changing hands/threats there is no way the officials and ref doesn't get into "the story" here with Syria and want them to beat us.

I really find it hard to believe an Iranian referee can be truly impartial here. You wouldn't want a Lazio fan refereeing a Roma game for the same reason. Even if they think they are impartial, they aren't.

Not sure how much these guys think they are impartial though let's be honest. The face of the ref after he gave it told half the story

It is just sad that we are unable to close a game out, Ange really needs to have a good think to allow us to effectively close out a game before it is too late. One thing is certain though subbing off Risdon for a striker was a ridiculous sub

Jesus christ the complaints about the ethnicity of the referee. 

We played like dog shit. Drew against a country that doesn't even exist right now lol. 

Saw the equalizer coming a mile away. 

I past out before the 2nd half. Woke up right before the penalty. The few minutes before Australia was really on the back foot. After pen we had that one good chance. But we never look like scoring. 

Pen was a typical AFC type. The biggest problem with us is still we haven't kept a clean sheet we where always needing more than 1 goal to win games. Given Ange time at the Roar 1 nil win was the order of the day.

I think the biggest problem is the mentality in the team. It's not just the roos but all major Aussie sports cricket, rugby, swimming. There is no one in the team that really leads, only Cahill does this. 

We are producing better technical players that have poor leadership and game knowledge. 

Oh well got the away goal, so kind of on track.

my guess is he was worried about risdon's defense and saw leckie as a more solid rwb option

We deserved nothing. Playing like this does not warrant competing at a world cup.

Also a lot of players seem to take playing for the NT for granted. If you go to south American or Euro countries, getting one cap is a massive deal and seen as special and sacred. We on the other hand, will cap anybody who has any affiliation with Australia. There is no warrant, there is no pride. No wonder we play like shit.

because war in iraq made them so much easier to play in 07......

United States v Panama is going to be a good game to watch tomorrow

Its not an excuse. We played terribly... but weve also had some terrible luck. 
The choice of the referee however is poor, surely a smart confederation wouldn't take the risk of it panning out the way it almost always seems to.
Just don't take the risk and then theres no issue, considering there are better refs in uzbekistan, japan, korea.. even china.

Yeah sick. We have no business playing like this against poor opposition. Sorry. Excuses were coming out before the match. Complaining about the pitch pre game  now referees post game. Fuck me. Country full of whingers. We played terrible. Draw was a fair result. Great we will pump them at home.. but I fear the matches to come in the intercontinental play off. So many excuses during this campaign sick of it. No wonder we are struggling.

What does any of that have to do with a dodgy penalty being awarded?

I saw the equaliser coming too but it didn't come. The defence made some desperate blocks and Ryan a great save. That means we didn't deserve to concede just like they didn't when Juric hit the post twice in 3 seconds. That's football.

"oh but on the balance of play a draw was fair" gimme a break. Nothing fair about that pen and without it it's 1-0 not 1-1 no matter how you feel we played (which for an hour I actually thought was as dangerous as we have looked for a while).

Sound like the Uruguay coach in 2005 complaining about the Belgian referee saying he will side with hiddink because he is Dutch. I get what you are saying mate but we shouldn't be putting ourselves in the position to complain about referees.

Right so we should be so good we can afford to have the opposition in an away game. Keep dreaming. If we had the golden gen at its peak we couldn't afford that

Exactly we played well enough to not concede because apart from the corrupt pen we didn't concede.
This wasn't a bad luck and good luck evening out situation this was an intervention, albeit one that isn't big enough to take us out of the drivers seat.

Afc pens are harsh but consistent usually which is all you can ask for. This wasn't a harsh pen, he literatally jumped straight up into the air. It was his space, he can't disappear and he has every right to head that ball

Did we show any signs of improvement from a few weeks ago - No we didn't .
Did we play to our potential - Yer probably.
Are we worthy of qualification - Barely
Are these Asians teams underestimated - You bet they are.

Fair
The players are good enough to make the world cup and we have a good tournament coach who might  pull a rabbit out of a hat but if want more than that it will take better players which means requires better infrastructure - 2nd division, youth coaches etc...

I often wonder if the people who constantly underestimate these teams and the conditions etc have watched much international football outside the Socceroos/world cups.

I grew up watching Italy and saw MANY a hard slog or horrible draws and shock losses against teams "they should smash". 

It's not like watching Barca/Chelsea/Bayern/Blah play against minnows in the champions league. International football is a fight and a slog. As a side note, I was pleased to see us pick up some professional foul yellows to stop counter attacks for once instead of just letting them past.

That last half hour from Syria was as much sheer willpower as it was tactics (we did lose all shape with subs though).

Rogic when subbed on, played like he didn't want to win. There was a moment where he lost the ball and didn't even back track to recover.

He's usually quite decent for the Socceroos though

Yeah it was body language like that that suggests Ange has lost the dressing room and hasnt had it for a while.

Not blaming the ref in this instance (even though it was as dodgy as a 3 dollar bill) but this shit does go down.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/sep/06/south-africa-senegal-world-cup-qualifier-replayed 
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/2017/09/07/unfair-for-fifa-to-annul-wcup-qualifier-over-crooked-ref/105357144/

Probably more often than we realise and/or they catch them.

The standard piss poor argument assuming anyone who disagrees with you doesn't watch football lol. I know how hard qualifying can be. I have followed it long enough but also recognize this is the weakest confederstion. I also know not to make piss poor excuses when shit doesn't go my teams way lol. I guess that is why australia is so garbage at sport now days. Always the same bull shit "referees, pitch, food poisoning"  we was robbed fuck out of here. It balances out.. to think a draw against fucken syria on a neutral venue and the performance isn't even questioned lol. 

Also Birighitti in Vukovic out

Felt a lot of players couldn't be bothered playing. You would think they would come out wanting to grab this tie by the balls. Looking as if the squad think they can go through the motions and qualify. 

To be fair I think we played well in the first half and for about half to 2/3rds of the second.

If Juric had snuck that goal all oxygen would have been sucked out of them and we would have won 2-0.

Then Syria changed formation and started pressing in MF and we lost all composure.

It was just that last part of the game and a dodgy decision that made us look like gimps.

Sometimes it is a game of millimetres and dodgy decisions.

Seemed that way last night and not shit poor formation, playing etc.

If I could have jumped through the tele I would have slid in studs up on him for that.
He was pathetic. I like him but f**k me he has "no ticker" sometimes.

Only watched the pen a couple of times and thought it was a bit rough but understandable to give the way Leckie put his hip in the other guy's back. The Syrian guy was making a genuine attempt to win the ball and got pushed while in the air. No dive. Don't think Leckie meant it but was a foul anywhere else on the field so ref can sleep at night giving it.
I think it is a real shame that a lot of the analysis, particularly coming out in statements from the team, seem to be laying the blame on the ref rather than the play.

I genuinely didn't mean you in this instance and I half agree with you but we are not a top 10 or even a top 20 footballing nation. We just aren't. We never have been even with our 4 points and honourable loss golden generation who FIFA ranked as 16th for a fleeting moment.

A lot of good euro teams outside the big names would struggle in a lot of these away games. I really do believe that.

End of the day we did give the game the chance to go that way by again failing to finish a team off. It could have easily been 2 or 3 nil and game over befor that last half hour.

They subbed on a guy who came on and threw himself around and started dictating play and getting in faces. We brought on players who looked lost and put a tired Leckie back in a position he has never looked comfortable in. I honestly feel sorry for Leckie as Ange asks way too much of him physically sometimes I think.

We lost the games from the time the substitutions started

Which points to the coach. Not motivating his players to be hungry, not reading the game and not using his cattle correctly in their best role.

Pretty much the same as the past 24 months. Large amounts of being the dominant team with very little output then as soon as the pressure is put up on us we crumble. It only takes 20 minutes of good football to beat us at the moment. Did they show the reply of kruse's goal from side on? Hint of offside i thought.