Looking forward to it

                       Ryan
           Degenek     Rowles
                  Sainsbury        
   Atkinson      Mooy         Behich
             Irvine   Hrustic 
             Boyle Taggart

3-3-2-2?

Players will move around where required so these formation numbers don't really matter. It might even be smart to play Atkinson as a wing and start Karacic. We're going to need the coverage.

buying all of the plane tickets to doha a bit of a stretch this time round, but maybe try for all the buses on monday

Does not seem right that by the luck of the draw we are heavy underdogs against Peru but could just as easily have been heavy favorites against New Zealand or about even against Costa Rica. 2 spots from 4 teams it would have been fairer to have a group where everyone plays everyone for points.

Also if FIFA gave North and South America a fair amount of spots South America would have 5 and North America 3, so no intercontinental playoffs and we would be about to beat NZ to go the WC.

all or nothing 

I think everyone is overrating Peru quite a bit. Just because they are Sth American doesn't automatically make them any good.

They are no world beaters themselves if you look at their side, it's very much like ours, a mish mash of players in 3rd rate leagues around the globe without really any stars. Tapia is their best, but as a DM, he's hardly someone we have to worry about on the attacking end of the park.


We won't be playing them in the South American mountains, but in conditions we are now very familiar with and conditions they have barely experienced. I think this is a huge advantage compared to a home and away play off leg.

I'm glad it's Peru and not Columbia/Chille, despite them finishing above them.

I think it's a pretty even contest personally.

i think they smashed us in Russia, and we arguably had a better team, certainly had a better manager. I dont think GA has ever won a game with the socceroos in which we didnt have the better team on paper..... 

i personally think we will probably lose 3-1 or 2-nil but i am hopeful anything can happen in football  - but make no mistake Peru are not 'mugs' they got some decent players 

It's a one off game being played in the Middle East, we'll be thoroughly acclimatised, really, anything is possible.

I think Karacic should play instead of Atkinson who had a poor game.
If Sainsbury is fit he should start ahead of Wright alongside Rowles
If Taggart is fit he should start up front, perhaps Leckie should move to the left instead of Goodwin.
Apart from that the same team should play.

Russia was 4 years ago. It's irrelevant.

Their best players over qualifying:

Christian Cueva - 30 yr old - CM - Al-Fateh
Renato Tapia - 26 yr old - DM - Celta Vigo
Alexander Callens - 30 year old - LC/CB - New York City
Andre Carrillo - 30 year old - RW - Al-Hilal
Paolo Guerrero - 38 year old - ST - No club
Sergio Pena - 26 year old - CM -Malmo FF
Gianluca Lapadula - 32 year old - ST - Benevento (Serie B)
Luis Advíncula - 32 year old - RB - Boca Juniors


Hardly peak Ururguay is it? I'm not saying they are mugs, but they are certainly no bloody world beaters where we aren't a real chance of getting a result.

If you make it into 5th spot in South America playoffs your hardly overrated. The Socceroo's would be dead last in SA.

0-0 shithouse through pens 

If FIFA were giving a fair amount of spots Asia wouldnt have 4.5, works both ways

We got dominated and outplayed by them in a game that was a dead rubber for them and a game we needed to in (and results go our way). We had a better team and better coach then too. This is also a Peru team that in qualification beat Chile, Ecuador (who qualified above them), Colombia and drew with Uruguay. 

When was the last time the Socceroos had a result like that against another nation of that quality? We had a draw against Colombia in a friendly in 2018 (again with our better team), and the last time we actually won was against a team of similar quality to Peru was against Greece in 2016.

So we have every right to be worried about Peru and cannot have any arrogance around this game at all. If we do win it should be put up there right behind Uruguay when you consider that Peru is our hardest opponent we have had to play to get to a World Cup since Uruguay 

No we didn't get dominated and outplayed ( by them or anyone ls in our group for that matter)

They had 3 shots on target and scored twice.  That was the story of that game.

If we were added to SA WC qualifying there would be 11 teams, we would probably finish 9th. Just above Venezuela and Bolivia I recon.

Maybe try learning how to spell Colombia and Chile before talking out of your arse about a NT you have no idea about. Same rubbish was thrown around at 2018 WC and ended up losing. 

LOL. Classic "we didn't get outplayed" dominated possession blah blah blah. At the end of the day we finished bottom of the group with 1 point. 2 goals scored, both penalties. 5 goals conceded. 

the same is said about Saudi Arabia every four years in WCQ. 

We need to focus on ourselves and not the opposition imo 

It will be a upset if we beat Peru, I am not giving up hope, but it is going to be a difficult game.

Arnold needs to learn something. All our best players (Hrustic, Boyle, Mooy, Irvine) were overseas based and our worst (Atkinson, Goodwin. Leckie etc) were A league. Karacic needs to come in for Atkinson, Mcgree for Goodwin and I’d take Wright over Rowles any day. Rowles has a couple caps, a few more in the A league and has never played in anything like the Peru game, whereas Wright has considerable experience in the Championship and will be used to high pace, high stakes encounters. 

The good news is Behich played Ok so that answers the left back question.

Ryan
Karacic Wright Sainsbury Behich
Boyle Mooy Irvine Mcgree
Hrustic 
Taggart (or Mclaren if Taggart is injured)


 

I was at that game mate, we were outplayed and dominated it was our worst performance of the three games.

We should treat Peru with around the same amount of respect than we treat Saudi. They are probably a bit better than us but we have no reason to fear them. They dont really have a recognised striker, they have some ex Bundesliga, Premier League , La Liga players but mostly they are has beens who now play in the oil leagues or South America. We should be grateful we are playing Peru and not Uruguay or Colombia, at least we have a chance.

Sure with losses to a ricochet and non-pen against the World Champions, yeah, and Denmark one if the not highest-rated Europeans going in to the tournament, yeah?

There's nothing to fear from Peru.  Respect.  But not fear.

I pretty much agree that line up......

Hard to believe that the last match the Socceroos played against non-Asian opposition was against Peru in 2018, and here we are again!

One for the stats nerds like me. So far in Arnie's tenure he's played 26 games - 19 WCQ, 5 Asian Cup games and 2 friendlies for a record of 16W, 4D, 6L (GF 53, GA 18). If you look at our record against half decent opposition (which I'm basing off current FIFA ranking of 70 or less) we are 1W, 1D, 5L (GF 3, GA 8) - 2 of those 3 GF being in the game against UAE overnight! Against weak opposition (outside top 70 in rankings), we are 15W, 3D, 1L (GF 50, GA 10). Average FIFA ranking of our opponents throughout those 26 games is 91. For reference, our current ranking is 42 and Peru are 22 (ahead of Serbia, Poland, Czech Republic).

bang on buddy.
Respect yes but give it to them.