Its quite funny how the arab commentators dont even pretend to be objective like ours. No attempt at all to hide their biases.

I was dissapointed with large chunks of that match. We are too brittle defensively. But at least we are creating goal scoring opportunities. Ikon and Mabil have been our tournament revelations so far. And to be fair, this is a pretty inexperienced squad missing a number of players with injury and two notable retirees. We always wondered how we would score goals after Timmy and Jedi left the scene, and several players are stepping up. All things considered, while there's lots to work on, Arnie has laid some good foundations for the WC qualifying campaign, whatever happens in the next match, and the last two matches have shown that we can beat Middle Eastern teams in their backyard!

Ikon and Mabil were good.

Giannou looked dangerous too. He should definitely be starting. He almost scored a goal (hit the woodwork). That was a great shot. deserved to be a goal...

6 months ago Saudi Arabia lost 5-0 to Russia.

Do you honestly think Australia would of lost to Russia 5-0 at that tournament?

Why I am bothering I don't know. You are nothing but a troll and to argue otherwise is a waste of time on your part. 

I think he could.. there's only one way to find out. He's much more of a Milligan than a Jedinak though.

You know what I was about to post Saudi Arabia's underwhelming results pretty much since we have been in asia. Losing to teams at home , not even making it out of the group at the last gulf cup. In this group

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Oman	3	2	0	1	3	1	+2	6
United Arab Emirates	3	1	2	0	1	0	+1	5
Saudi Arabia	3	1	1	1	2	3	−1	4
Kuwait	3	0	1	2	1	3	−2	1

The reality is Saudi Arabia are slightly better than the rest of the middle east but not by much. They've never dominated against the shit teams like oman and kuwait which we have smashed many times playing against them. The last 2 times we've played against kuwait one time at home in the last asian cup we beat them 4-1. In october last year we played kuwait in kuwait beat them 4-0. Even oman we recently beat them 5-0 in the middle east, Saudi Arabia never gets those sorts of results against those sorts of middle eastern teams. Even at home, they lose to shit kickers like bahrain and uae all the time.

We've never lost to a middle eastern team at home unless you include the a-league team that lost to kuwait under pim. 


I don't think mouflon is a troll, I literally think he's made a call that australia will struggle and lose the match. Then we won it and he's too embarassed to admit he's an idiot, and then when I pulled him up on the underwhelming results that japan has had like beating turkmenistan 3-2 he doesn't want to admit that 

A) Australia has always been one of the dominant teams in asia even at our worst 
or
B)  The teams in asia that he says we will struggle against (like saudi arabia) constantly have poor results against teams we usually smash

 

No he is a troll. He bags everything about Australian football.

They would say Bernd Stange. They might be right.

Did lol at the thread title change.

I am feeling optimistic about the tournament now. Sainsbury's suspension turns out to be a positive as he will be fresher for the next games and we tried some different players in different positions giving us more data and experience for the next games.

We have a good chance of winning in the round of 16 against Uzbekistan (ranked 95) then the quarter final against UEA (ranked 79). I don't know the latest but I guess 1 or 2 of Nabbout/Risdon/Leckie could be ready to go again for a semi final which is 2 weeks away.

Fifa handball rules are so fucking complicated and give the refs way too much freedom, so fans will always argue no matter what. Even with VAR. 

They should make the rule simple: Make it always a penalty if the arm is separated from the body, no matter intentional or not. Defenders can adapt to that and fans can stop arguing. 

degenek and sains are pretty decent cb pairing

full backs and DMs are passable though mooy will help in his return. Luongo needs to leave the ecl. He played better for oz in League one than the ecl. It burns players out. In any case Jedi leaves a bit of a hole

wingers and attacking mids look decent. Hope one of our 9s comes good

It was so annoying hearing the Australian commentators (Simon Hill and whats-his-name) saying the Milligan accidental contact between arm and ball was an obvious penalty to Syria. If it's not intentional, it's not hand ball and it was obviously not intentional. That part of the rule is simple, one of them even asks "what is the rule?" yah you should probably look that up!

would be given at the world cup where refereeing of handballs is very harsh

You should read the rule book yourself. Right to the end. "the ref has to take into consideration... "

In Serie A that penalty is given 100 out of 100 times, just saying

you could literally pull out a gun and shoot someone and it would only be a penalty 90 times out of a hundred. There isn't a league in the world that is consistent with pens

That would be sensible.

Well after recent events in Greece that theory might be put to the test someday lol

Given that there is a handball just about every game and one goal makes a huge difference to the final result, I would really welcome more consistency. 

The square up penalty was a disgrace too. Why no VAR until the quarter finals? I don't get that. 

lol

meanwhile how good are syria at getting dodgy pens

remember that one where leckie jumped into the air and it was somehow a pen

It's to save money. 

Haha had we won 2:1 it would have been a different reaction from their fans. 

They actually went for it all and got massively stuffed by our late goal. Palestine could make it through still. 

The 2 Syrian penalties in our history have been atrocious. Their first goal today was good. Those late volleys scared me as the camera angle gave me no idea how wide they were. 

Just checked APOEL and they have so many foreigners. Jordan's best player is there too. 

https://youtu.be/3Ze06QMyDk8

Extended highlights

34min great Luongo tackle then Ikon runs and shoots. Slotting to Maclaren would have been interesting.

35min. Top pass by Rogic and Maclaren gets two weak shots on target.

42min. Mabil and Grant can shut it down and Degenek is poorly positioned for Syria to score. 

60min. The Milligan handball. He stretched his arms and kept them stiff the entire time even lifting a little bit. It was a completely natural body movement and it was 100% ball to hand. It hit quite high up around the tricep and armpit. I can see why it wasn't given but wouldn't really complain if it had been given. Jordan's was more blatant against us.

70min. The poor Ikon pass I missed as stream was down. What a shame. 

Always enjoy the meltdown of some Asian countries when we knock them out. It is hilarious

Geezuz, can't see us beating Japan or Uzbekistan if we play like that :/

-PB

I feel games against these teams will be different. Middle East opponents play wildly and are erratic. Our potential opponents will be more to what we're used to. It'll be open for both to win but whether we deliver is another thing. 

Will Leckie be ready for the next game?