good points. 

meanwhile as a queensland state of origin fan I'm baffled by comments that "we should focus on our performance rather than the ref"

queensland fans focus on the ref after every loss.....like every single time. And they have always played like champs

I guess ange changed to a 3-6-1 because our wingers weren't scoring and our fullbacks kept being beaten on the counter

it actually fixed those problems. We stopped conceding from counter attacks and started scoring from open play again

but it created just as many problems as it solved

If you complain about a single refereeing decision, it comes across as  poor sportsmanship. Sometimes the referee makes the wrong call and sometimes he makes a rough call (the latter being the case here, imo).

Particularly if you play poorly and that happens, then it just comes across as making excuses. It's more becoming of a gentleman to silently pissed off and not to make a fuss. Ricky Ponting style (barring the occasional outburst) and to praise the opponent if they deserve it.

By and large, there's no conspiracy.

The annoying thing is that we, Aussies, have a bit of a reputation for whinging.The reputation is largely unfair (we're no worse, or better, than anybody else). But if people go about making a fuss, particularly when this isn't exactly Graham Poll at the World Cup and we just play average for too much of the match, it really worsens that reputation.

who cares.
It was a terrible decision and probably corrupt so I'm calling it out. In the low scoring sport of football single decisions matter a lot

I just chatted with some Syrian fans who say they have next to no chance of winning in Sydney because 3 of their best players are suspended after yellow cards last night. I had not heard anything about it and can't find any mention of suspensions in the english language media.

Does anyone know who is suspended from the Australian and Syran team for the next match?

feel bad for them (assuming they arent involved in ref corruption)
which they werent playing us so i could cheer for them to qualify

Seriously, you're making a comparison between a mob who play against the same adversaries year in year out? A sport whose head honcho thinks the "world" has 10 countries (or whatever the number is) and to qualify all you have to do is play the game? 
Champs? I know sfa about the game but I'm going to guess that the other mob have won a few as well.
Every code needs a bloke running around blowing a whistle, I'm just surprised that the Confeds cup & the Bundesliga use VAR, yet WCQ don't.
Personally I hate VAR but it looks like it works OK even if it does add 4-5 minutes.

When did we ever have good squad, even Hiddink said of the golden generation team, that they had heart but were lacking the basic skills.

syria has very strong mental strength perhaps because of their troubled national situation

I know this team would lift so much more with a new manager. There's so much complacency and they're too comfortable. I think there's also a lack of leadership. Milligan is alright but I think we muss Jedinak's presence. He wouldn't be an automatic starter though. 

Just here because of heavy traffic. Japan vs NZ on in two hours. 

Watched the replay. That Juric chance just defies belief. It was all there. 1st half was solid and really the Syria chances were quite poor. Ryan made a good save early on and then Syria came well but with mostly offsides. 

The post rebound saw the ball was already out and the penalty, well... If only we'd held on we'd be much more buoyant. The squad appear more optimistic than we do. Sainsbury got a good header at the death. This stuff bodes well. 

The mention of 3 Syrians with suspensions. I can't find any info but would imagine some have hit their card limit. 

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/statistics/asia/player/disciplinary.html

I trust this has been updated. Wright had 3 and was suspended. This would mean  Kharbin is out. Al Masri got a yellow but that might only be his 2nd?

Concerning is Mooy Rogic and Leckie are on two yellows and if they carry over, they'd miss the away leg. 

Has it been confirmed we are playing away (if we win) in the inter-continental playoff first leg?

credit to ange when with the right formation and mission accomplished, could have been even better if not for very soft penalty award. never felt syria were likely to score otherwise

Asia has the home leg last. All confirmed I believe. The Wikipedia has been set up like that convincingly for quiet a while. 

?

They were all over us second half? 

For some reason we reverted to this pass-through-the-lines rubbish when we were being pressed, when really we should've kept bombing long balls in behind for our quick players. It beggars belief why we persisted with passing out from the back into midfielders with 2 Syrians at their back, when instead we should've done what we did in the first half and play on the break. 

they tried hard after going behind, but i felt there was no fear we were going to lose the match, I could see syria just didnt have the belief

I have more info on the suspension situation . This is from online research so could be wong.

2 yellow cards = suspention

The card count does not reset between rounds

Mark Milligan had 2 yellow cards and served a suspension, he then got another yellow card last night. This does not result in another suspension, the card count resets after a player serves a suspension.

Australia have no players suspended for game 2 of this tie.

Syria have 3 top players that got a 2nd card last night and are suspended for the next game.

Hadi Al Masri
Khaled Mobayed
Omar Khribin

They are all regular first team starters who play their club football abroad. I dont think the Syrian team is known for its depth.

Ok so it's two yellows then? I saw Mooy, Leckie and Rogic on 2 each. Mooy missed the UAE home game right? I can't recall the other two missing out. 

Wright is currently on 3 and that brought about his suspension. I thought it was 3? Milligan is now on 4 yellows. Would that mean another suspension after serving a ban for the first 2?

Syria are a very competitive side to say the least, and many teams would have struggled to beat them last night. I felt sure we would win up until the Juric misses..mid way through the second half we should have brought on defensive players to kill the game off and make sure of the win. Instead, Ange puts on Rukavitsya and Luongo- useless!

All to play for at home now, and at least we have an away goal. If it is true about the suspended Syrian players, surely we can be confident of winning.

The card counts on that link go back to 2015. I guess there was a re-set some time, like between round 2 and round 3? But no rest between round 3 and this playoff tie.

If that is the case the 1st of Wright's cards would have been reset and the suspension was due to the 2 yellow cards in round 3.

That's my best guess, not sure though. I recon the Arabic language Syrian media and fan forums would be talking about the suspensions if I am correct.

Yeah and they'd probably be in the know. I recall Mooy being suspended for the UAE match. He got yellows in both Iraq games in round 3.

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/statistics/asia/player/disciplinary.html

This table here counts all rounds. The suspension quantity looks to have been reset after round 2

NZ lose 2:1 in Japan after an 88th min winner. Wood scored on 50 and Ried played. They achieved something we couldn't. Japan with a fairly good side out. 

Costa Rica vs Honduras has been pushed back to Saturday due to a storm. 

Is this real?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a3IHcM1Ywak

hmm

I guess we should be rooting for Honduras to win and move up 1 spot as they are our prefered opponent for the intercontinental playoff (between them, Panama and USA).

I wouldn't mind the US or Honduras, i'd like to avoid Panama though.

Might be why Rogic isn't getting minutes at the moment.