Short highlights on the three matches Syria played in Malacca:

That sounds good for us

I'm feeling pretty confident but also have little excitement for some reason. It's a weird situation. The group stage took so much out of me that I'm glad qualification will be over soon whatever the result. Come tomorrow it'll be match day. 

It was? I'm all over the place. That's positive that it won't be a pig sty at least. 

Oh I can't say it won't be a mud wrestling venue, all I can say for sure is that it's a different venue and that two separate Malaysians I spoke to said words paraphrased to the effect of "I guess early October is not as rainy as later on normally".

They definitely prefer to keep it on the floor and score with the foot. The comments of their training to protect the flanks shows they're concerned about conceding from a wide pass. They conceded a couple from square balls

Yeah and other posts suggest we won't be having anything like Dubai. Perhaps similar to Bangkok? Has Ange got his white shirt? 

We need to be ruthless. Put ourselves ahead and command the game. 

As to the contitions all I can say I'm sure the FFA had everything already prepared well in advance.

Actually no that is as true as any fake new.

Chartered flights vs players paying for their own airfares is quite satisfactory in my books.

Sack Ange LOL, ill get in early

I have a theory why Ange has picked Goodwin, ruka.
He's going to play his traditional 5-4-1( or however you want to put it) with a bit of a twist.
I think he will deploy a style similar to Chelsea, 5-2-3.
The five at the back will be the 3 CB's plus the 2 wing backs.
Then he will play two holding midfielders in the middle.
Then he will play a front three with two wide guys instead of two narrow no 10's if you like.
It will still allow lecks and smith to be the WB and Goodwin and kruse the wingers.

So my side looks like this.
Ryan
Milligan Sainsbury Jurman
Leckie Smith
Luongo Mooy
Kruse Juric Goodwin



Thoughts?

would like an excuse to get leckie forward. Could you explain more about the chelsea system?
before our lack of fullbacks and goal scoring wingers required a voodoo formation without either really
now we have goal scoring wingers and no fullbacks (except gersbach when fit) it would be nice to have a formation that voids the need for traditional fullbacks but has wingers
Does chelsea's system achieve this?

Socceroos' World Cup hopes face test of Syria's in-form strikers and Malaysia cow paddock pitch

Updated 16 minutes ago

They may not be household names, but Syria has two in-the-zone strikers that could give the Socceroos a world of problems in tonight's World Cup qualifying play-off, with hot conditions and a choppy, cow-paddock pitch adding to the challenge.

Australia fronts up to a pressure test in tonight's critical first leg of the World Cup qualifying Asian play-off against Syria, needing an aggregate win over two legs to advance to another two-legged play-off, this time against North America's fourth placed team in November.

With Syria having never qualified for a World Cup before, you would be forgiven for thinking it's a David v Goliath battle. Syria is ranked a surprising 75th in the world — below 50th-ranked Australia — but is on a run that has seen that FIFA ranking skyrocket from a lowly 151 in 2014.

The Syrians, who have been forced to play all of their home games in neutral Malaysia due to the security situation at home, come into the game boasting one of the most in-form strike forces in Asia.

Al Hilal's Omar Khrbin scored a hat-trick in the first leg of his club's Asian Champions League semi-final meeting with Persepolis last week, leading his side to a 4-0 demolition of the Iranian opponents, all but putting his team into the continental club final.

Meanwhile, Omar al Somah, who recently returned to the national team after a self-imposed exile, was on target in Syria's 2-2 draw with Iran.

Against a Socceroos defence that has made a habit of regularly conceding goals, Syria's threat is genuine and worrying.

At stake for both teams is a place in a play-off against the fourth-placed team in qualifying from the CONCACAF (North America) region in November, with the winner of that clash advancing to the World Cup finals.

"I've never experienced anything like this," Socceroos midfielder Massimo Luongo told reporters.

"It'll probably be a little bit tense. A little bit more nerve-wracking knowing there's a lot riding on these games.

"We're not playing for points, you can't make up the points later on. So it's do-or-die stuff."

The stifling conditions in Melaka should also present little barrier to Syria's performance given Ayman Hakeem's team has won two and drawn three of its five games played there so far in qualifying for Russia 2018.

"It's a critical match on Thursday and it's important for our ambitions and the dreams of millions of Syrians," said Syria team manager Fadi al Dabbas.

"The result will be important ahead of the second leg. We have got past the first rounds of qualifying and we have two decisive matches, but we have a lot of confidence in our players."

Spongy cow grass another challenge for Socceroos

Yet Syria's greatest advantage over the Socceroos might be the bobbly turf at the Malaysian venue.

Hang Jebat Stadium promises to pose a significant challenge to Australia's hopes of beating Syria and taking the edge into Tuesday's second leg at Sydney's Olympic stadium.

The pitch is made of cow grass, a variety viewed locally as lower maintenance and more durable than its more regularly used counterparts, especially in Malaysia's climate.

But it's also bushier and bumpier than the more-often used carpet grass or state-of-the-art hybrid surfaces installed at famed stadiums like the Camp Nou, San Siro and many English Premier League grounds.

Rain could render the turf even choppier should overnight showers continue into today.

The inconsistencies are set to give Syria a greater 'home-ground advantage' than at an alternative neutral venue such as the United Arab Emirates, a guaranteed supplier of pristine pitches.

Conditions have been likened to those at Bangkok's Rajamangala Stadium, where the Socceroos laboured to a 2-2 draw in November against last-placed group opponents Thailand.

The same issues were obvious this week at Australia's training facility, Hang Tuah Stadium, as routine passing drills sent the ball bouncing erratically on the uneven surface.

The grass at Hang Jebat, while shorter and in slightly better shape, will still hinder the passing game on which Australia thrives.

Coach Ange Postecoglou played down the issue as just another challenge.

"Having been through the rigours of a campaign now, all the players know that whatever we face on Thursday is nothing we haven't faced before — whether that's the weather conditions, pitch conditions or opposition tactics," Postecoglou said last night.

"That's the beauty of having had that experience at least once - you can talk about these things.

"I'm very confident this group of players have seen the whole gamut of challenges.

"They've faced it all, so I don't think anything will be a surprise on Thursday."

It's going to be hot, sunny and not-raining all day. The pitch will be dry so "fast" by its standard, which is slow-medium by most standards.

I think it will be as good a pitch as you could possibly get given the type of cow grass they use.

It's a hot one but late kick off so no excuses. 

I am worried we are vulnerable to the counter attack and lack depth in defence. Which means the Syrians might get scoring opportunities, but so will we so it comes down to finishing and a bit of luck. 

Spongy grass, 3ATB, humid weather.

Expecting no better than a draw against these plebs, won't be surprised with a loss.

With 3ATB a 2 goal loss would be disaster.

If Ange had half a brain cell he would play 4ATB, put the cue in the rack and not concede any goals and come out blasting at home on Tuesday.

Does anyone know what settings I need to tweak to get Youtubes to show up?

All I see is a blank white page where there should be videos...

It's exactly 10 years ago we played another war-torn middle eastern country, losing 3-1.

The wingbacks in the Chelsea system which would actually benefit us is they are purely engines who just run up and down the pitch. But further up the pitch they also have inside forwards like Hazard who look to get behind the defence and are a constant goal threat, that'd perfectly suit someone like Leckie. However there is no way Ange would ever utilise a system which by nature doesn't control the match, it is a typical Italian formation where they soak up the pressure and kill you on the counter attack.

brad smith would be ideal for a wingback that doesn't have to do much but be a human engine. His speed and engine are insane, better than brett emerton.

Leckie would be another candidate though you lose his goalscoring ability if you use him for that purpose. Kruse is a perfect inside forwad that likes to get in behind the defence, maclaren (if he was getting game time) excels in that role too.

Problem with any reactive formation is it requires cbs with good concentration which we dont have

usually by now some journo leaks the formation and starting 11......

Having flashbacks to the away match against Iraq, which we played in Iran.

Chopped up pitch causing us to turn over the ball to fast strikers playing on the break against a high backline of 3 CBs spread right across the pitch. Langerak made two super saves in the first half to stop us going in 0-2 at halftime.

I've not been his biggest fan but hopefully Maty will come into this with confidence after a good performance against Arsenal. If he makes the difference for us in the away leg it might get the doubters off his back.

It's exactly what we need to do tonight, but we won't. We'll plod out from the back, turning the ball over from unforced errors and be vulnerable on the break. 

Lets just pray we somehow don't concede more than one. 

That's rather what I've been driving at. Or 4-2-3-1 and fairly flat back four.

But what you describe, I think, best plays to Australia's current strengths and minimises risks from our weaknesses.

What irritates me is that too often we play a style of football which I think does the exact opposite.

Play off games are a whole different kettle of fish, especially H&A with the away goal rule.

Not sure Ange has even thought about that or even penalties on Tuesday night.

sitting deep defensively wouldn't be to our strengths since you need a back four that can concentrate for long periods of time. We don't have that

Our strength is we have a midfield of a top 20 nation. Strong wingers apart from finishing until recently and a decent goal keeper whose strength is in sweeping and distribution. 

Our weaknesses are the positional awareness and concentration of our back four in particular our fullbacks though our cbs are ok in 1v1s and good in distribution. We also (until recently) had wingers and strikers that couldn't finish

There isn't a formation in the world that plays to those strengths so I can see why ange has tried to be inventive

We now have wingers who can finish and a striker that is improving in this area but this has been a recent change so maybe we see improvement

To be fair i don't think we actually have a good enough holding mid and box to box midfielder for the Chelsea formation either, Jedinak isn't good enough on the ball to start a counter attack although he would protect the defence and Mooy would be next to useless in the system as well.

defensively our holding mids are in formidable form for their clubs

luogno generates 6 turnovers a game and mooy 5. A good player will get 4 turnovers a game so they are doing well

however they both are slow over the 5m which means defensively we have a tactical weakness (which got exploited at the confeds)

Luongo would be a good box to box for it but i see Mooy struggling majorly, there is a major difference in winning the ball in a team which presses high compared to a team which is camped in their half and have far more defensive duties. But ultimately we'd weaken where we are strongest at.