True but the time difference will be a bit prohibitive when it comes to watching live, as always is the case.

Kick-off times being used will be 2:00am, 3:00am, 6:00am, 9:00pm, Midnight. (Local Eastern Australia Time)
The round-of-16 games, quarter-finals and semi-finals are all at either 2:00am or 6:00am.
The cup final is at 2:00am on a Monday morning.

The Australia games are:
Fra vs Aus - Wed 23rd Nov @ 6:00am (I might be late to work that day, but depends on the score at halftime)
Tun vs Aus - Sat 26th Nov @ 9:00pm (Perfect day/time, everyone will be watching)
Den vs Aus - Thu 1st Dec @ 2:00am (If we have zero points from the first two, then I'm staying in bed)

Agreed.

A hell of a lot of fans will come out of the woodwork around November.

I don't mind reading your analysis, it is always interesting to hear someone's POV, whether I agree with it or not (and on a lot of occasions I do agree).

One thing I would say though, you said "Very sadly, now Arnie and other Socceroos state this - that  they realise the majority of  supposed football fans in Australia are critical of the Socceroos and don't support the national team." I would not agree totally with this, I do think that lately many football fans in Australia have been critical of Arnie and the Socceroos, which I think is quite justified, but I would certainly not say that the majority of football fans do not support the national team.

Very detailed is OK  when discussing a coach's strengths and weaknesses.Apart from the late extra time header hitting the post Peru did not really threaten.Arnie had our defence finally tuned including two inexperienced players at this level( Atkinson and Rowles) and Wright who has been on the periphery for quite a few years. The fluid movement of Mooy,Irvine and Hrustic in the midfield was the factor that puzzled the Peruvian players and coaching staff as you pointed out.

Peru did not press high enough especially when Mooy had the ball and he was able to control the tempo of the game( I believe Peruvian fans and press were appreciative of Mooy's performance).

The benefits of the longer time in camp showed in that our team were disciplined in keeping their shape and following the game plan as they had time to work on it and understand their roles.All credit to Arnie and his staff and I think they learned something about themselves as well as about the players.

D2, FYI I have no worries of your detailed posts at times, its your POV and time spent assessing games - its informative to me and at the same time weather I agree or not it no matter mostly I keep it to myself.......
Gareca's record is 50/50 overall, have they punched above their weight ? some games probably for as mentioned they sure are in a formidable competition.
To me he screwed up despite how good our our tactics were as explained they had enough chances by mm's that weren't taken plan and simple.
Thats football just ask Klopp the recent loss's.
Looking at the Roo/Peru stats near on everyone it was that close tbh.

you quoted below :
 A majority of fans  in Australia  are  very harsh on our own players and coaches.  They appear to suffer  from an innate inferiority complex compared to Europe and South America. I find this weird.  Nevertheless,  I see it apply to other sports and film/TV/drama industry too.

We're not the only ones "harsh" - just ask the pommy fanatics re Southgate and the 3Lions despite making the Euro Final last year.
Many Euro/Latinos are just as harsh and more.
We on the other hand have such high expectations its ridiculous to me for a long time, even during the GG tenure your biting your nails till FT where are these expectations coming from.....
The arrogance inbred in us since those golden 50/60/70's Olympic days, Tennis golden era back then, the wonderful cricket cycle its like, look at us punching above our weight but my has so much changed since those glory times yet - oh we're better than them still we should be flogging them, yes definately a complex.
Football people here expect us to beat every ME/Asian with a plumb barring Jap/Sth Korea for eg - like I just think wtf.
The tall poppy syndrome is rife here, like with Ange and GA even more.
I've sat quiet re GA - grew up watching him play, same as Ange, funnily GA got the NT gig because Ange walked.
Despite that occurring imo its always a poison chalice especially for one of our own, oh Ange was a BR and MV coach, I hate him, GA was CCM walked out to a better gig to the hated SFC, can never like him, plus he screwed this up screwed that up before yaddayaddayadda.
.
I'm so so glad he got that monkey off his back and we qualied and many here ate their poop.
Sure he'll get found out come the WC imo BUT so did every single one of our past coachs in games let alone depending the cattle capable.
I really had concerns making it BUT you only had to win that last game, even at the very last moments in pens, heck that'll do me.

Gareca's record may be modest - in a strong football Confederation. However, from what I've read recently, Gareca has had  considerable  success with Peru in the latter half of the CONMEBOL WCQ campaign.

I've been accused of going into too much detail about formations and game plans. Hence, in order to defend Arnie's coaching prowess using football specific performance  criteria, I will go into more detail, briefly, to elucidate  the two coaches' game plans.

 A majority of fans  in Australia  are  very harsh on our own players and coaches.  They appear to suffer  from an innate inferiority complex compared to Europe and South America. I find this weird.  Nevertheless,  I see it apply to other sports and film/TV/drama industry too.

Very sadly, now Arnie and other Socceroos state this - that  they realise the majority of  supposed football fans in Australia are critical of the Socceroos and don't support the national team.

*Gareca got Peru to play with a 4-3-3 attacking midfield triangle in Ball Possession.

Then in Ball Possession Opposition he dropped the two wingers back in a line with the  two attacking midfielders.

This manifested as a 4-5-1, with a 1:4 midfield shape.

Gareca essentially used two formations, which the Socceroos negated a lot of the time. Peruvian sustained periods of possession often amounted to sterile domination.



* Meanwhile Arnie used a 4-4-2 flat midfield in Ball Possession Opposition.

Then when they regained the ball in the Attacking Transition, in the defensive half the formation in Ball Possession manifested as a 4-2-3-1.

As the build up moved  higher up the pitch, it manifested as a 4-3-3 attacking midfield triangle, with Irvine moving up into a line with Hrustic.  Meanwhile, Mooy sat and moved into  a more central position screening the defensive line.  At the same time Duke was up top in a three player line  with Leckie and Boyle. There were four lines in this Australian formation when the Socceroos deployed it.

At other times, to confuse Peru, Australia kept Irvine sitting in a line with Mooy, but pushed Hrustic up high in  a line with Duke. This manifested as a three line 4-2-4. We did not play a 4-2-2-2 with a false 9, as some pundits claimed, because the wingers, Boyle and Leckie, would have to have played in a higher line than the one with Duke and Hrustic.


Australia held effective  shape  in all four of  these permutations. This requires good coaching. It also confused Peru as they could not work out how Hrustic and Irvine changed their roles, particularly in the first half.

Also the 4-4-2 flat midfield  in BPO was compact. Ideal distancing of 10-15 mates was managed most of the time - between and within the lines. It had improved immeasurably from a few games back. Peru found it hard to penetrate, particularly in the first half.

Let us give some credit to Arnie. 

Yep, that was my point.

Remember Scooter? "We were beaten by the best, boy!" 

Huh?  Isn't he admitting he was out-coached?

D2, I wouldn't rate that highly being he's been their NT coach for 7yrs with a 40% win ratio.......GA is at 61% right now so I see.
What else could he say as mentioned above by a losing coach, he should have said my tactics we're all wrong, I screwed up my boys heads, we had the ability to win in 90mins but my game plan was poop and I couldn't change the course of the game.

Mind you, the losing coach has a massive vested interest in praising the winners.

Otherwise he's admitting he lost to a worse team.

Yet acclaimed Peruvian  master coach, Argentine national, Ricardo Gareca, said in Peruvian media that it was very difficult to play football against the Socceroos, because of the sophisticated tactical and game plan. 

Gareca did not mentioned Arnie by name, but gave him a huge compliment.

If our coach is lauded by someone with  Gareca's stature, reputed in South America to have formed a terrific Peruvian   team unit out of moderate playing cattle, then this is exactly what we want in a national team coach isn't it?

Times have changed. Australian coaches are well-trained in Football Austrlaia coach education courses now.   

yep no matter what we need a step up after GA.
For all the best outcome that finally occurred we need a more open minded progressive gaffa with euro/latin background influence for me.

I think it's time for Arnie to move on.  Nothing personal but I think a refreshing every few years is a good thing & it keeps the players on their toes in terms of being guranteed a starting position due to being a 'favourite' of the coach. I'm not saying that has occurred per se in the Socceroos the past few years but I'm personally excited to see what a different approach with these group of players will do.    

Really like to suck the fun out of football don't you?

After having another celebratory viewing  of the game, Arnie also probably had a 4-2-4 at times in Ball Possessio, with Hrustic moving up alongside Duke. The  formation condensed into  three lines when attacking at times. I suppose when the Aus fullbacks pushed up it appeared as a 2-4-4 as well.

Atkinson........Wright.......Rowles........Behich

................Mooy.......................Irvine

Boyle..........Hrustic..........Duke..........Leckie


For a 4-2-2-2 with a  false 9, the wingers would have had to play as the highest line. It didn't happen.

The formational nuances definitely worried Peruvian coach, Ricardo Gareca.  They really struggled to get anywhere near our goals - apart from one cross that was headed over, in the first half. Peru improved after half time.

 

The other side of the equation is if we do perform well above expectations, then there could be some good offers on the table for Arnie. A lucrative offer could be too good for him to turn down. 

Been thinking about what the probability of us getting through to the second round actually is.  The most likely pathway is Lose to France, draw to Denmark and beat Tunisia.  My (optimistic) estimate is that against France we have an 80% chance of losing, 15% of a draw and 5% win.  Against Denmark  about 50% lose, 30% draw, and 20% win.  Tunisia its 40% win, 40% lose and 20% draw as both sides will be gong out to win this one. 

So our chance of getting through with the most likely pathway is around 9.5%, optimistically.  If Arnold does it, then he'd be the greatest ever Australian World Cup coach.

Unless we go really deep (highly unlikely but I'm an incurable optimist) I suspect Arnie will want to go back to clubland, maybe overseas.

If we made the quarters, or even (god forbid) the semis, I suspect he might feel honour bound to stay with the younger team on their journey. Very unlikely to happen but, if it did, he would clearly deserve to stay longer.

Way to read just the first sentence of my post.

Without going into your detail (which I saw also) that was exactly my point. Arnie has changed his shape and system and it worked a treat.

Mind you, no-one at the WC will underestimate us the way Peru did.

If we make round of 16 good chance he will stay and definitely if we made the QFs.Terrible results in group stage  such 3 or 4 nil he goes.One win,one draw and one narrow loss in group stage might get us through but if not stay on.
If he wants to go back to club coaching-WSW or MacArthur would be good ones who need a coach with experience and willing to give young players a go

What does everyone reckon? 
Will (or should) Arnie remain as NT coach after the cup?
Obviously, if we somehow manage to make it pretty far, it would make the decision to keep him on easier.
However if we repeat the results of last cup and bow out at the group stage with only a pair of goals to our name, should he be moved on?
Or is the WC result meaningless, and it's more about the ability to get the best result with the players that we have, in which case he's done ok and deserves the chance to develop the squad further?
Or will he be the one to make the move back to club coaching?

Nothing 'bland' about Arnie's system. I researched a bit last night, trying to find  some  recounts of the game in the Peruvian media.

Their coach Ricardo Gareca, was confused a bit  by the sophisticated Australian system, which was far from 'bland.'  His players also struggled to combat it, particularly in the first half.

*In  Ball Possession Opposition Australia played a 4-4-2  flat midfield of three distinct lines.

Atkinson...........Wright........Rowles.......Behich

Boyle..............Mooy............Irvine.......Leckie

................Hrustic......................Duke

*In Ball Possession in the back half of the pitch, after the Attacking Transition phase of play,  Australia played a 4-2-3-1. In the ensuing 4-3-3 delineated, there were four lines where Boyle and Leckie moved into a  line with Hrustic. 

*Then in the attacking  half of the pitch it evolved to a 4-3-3 attacking midfield triangle, with four lines . Irvine's  irregular role, confused Peru. Although coach Gareco, didn't specify how in the Peruvian media.

It was likely to be the following manifestation of the 4-3-3 attacking midfield triangle devised by Arnie, not using the expected 4-3-3 defensive  midfield triangle with Irvine staying more in a line with Mooy. It was hard for  Peru to decipher and track  Irvine's changing role/position.

Atkinson.............Wright..........Rowles.............Behich

......................................Mooy
............Hrustic...............................Irvine

Boyle.....................  Duke.........................Leckie

Of course  when in the attacking third, if both full backs play high and overlap, it almost becomes a 2-1-4-3. Atkinson and Behich moved closer into a line with Hrustic and Irvine.

Arnie had  time to coach this on  the training track.

Could not figure out why they would give such an underdone and slow player so much time on the ball. 

Agree with points two and three, but not the first.

Mooy was given a lot of space, by Peru who most  time played languid three quarter and half presses in BPO. Mooy had time and  space to operate. Peru made a mistake giving him that space.

BofHacks , I disagree. As a Roar fan I saw a Taggart that was worse than any Centre Forward player for that whole ALeague season that he played for us. Absolutely blew a couple of sitters for every game.. Needless to say the Roar quickly dispatched him after a relatively short spell with us. 

I rate Mclaren, Goodwin and Boyle heaps more.

I'm a big fan of JMac in the AL but we don't know how to use him in teh Socceroos. Because we play with one striker, he always seems to have two markers, so is personally ineffectual, but maybe his contribution is that he draws attention away from other players. I note that Irvine and Hrustic scored against UAE from open play - it might be interesting to review those and see where JMac's markers were.

A point against him... if Hrustic's shot had gone in against Peru, JMac jumped over the ball and looked well offside. If that had gone in, it very likely would have been chalked off. 

From just noting how well boyle gets behind the defence sometimes on that right side I'd think Jmac has the positioning sense to take advantage of those breaks. 

Super happy we qualified, but no he isn't a legend. We snuck in on a poorly taken penalty after a dour 120 minute in which I think the Peru keeper had to make one save. I think people have got so used to Arnie playing players out of position, picking his mates, making late or odd substitutions, so that when he doesn't everyone thinks he is a genius. So, no I won't bag him out for the last two games, we've improved and shown improved cohesion and communication. I actually have no problem with bringing back some long ball as it destabilized the opposition's expectations, destabilizing their BPO. Also, as much as mooy frustrates me his holding midfield role worked because Peru played a deep defense, maybe because they were worried about a quick long ball counter. Against a team that doesn't and goes 1v1 with him I suspect we will be in trouble. There are some good signs, but a 'legend' in my opinion isn't made from a pk win after dropping easy points against Oman etc, but there are signs he is improving. You never know maybe he has taken to lurking on this forum to get tips....nah..

I think the only way we can get out of this group is we need rogic and hrustic further up the field in dangerous positions. I'd love to see them played as inside fowards and play a no 9 with the intention of simply holding up the ball and getting it to one of them. We don't really have any genuine wingers who can do ay damage at the WC maybe boyle but i wouldnt mind seeing him play as WB same with leckie. I just cant see the goals coming from our strikers.

For me that's Taggart if he's fit. Has a decent touch on him and can bring players into the game