Bolded is spot on, have been saying this myself for the past 5 years.

The delusion by a lot of people is just crazy, didn't anyone actually expect any different? We are just not that good, pure and simple, we are essentially the worst team in the tournament. The French were also without Benzema, Pogba and Kante, could have been much worse. Wouldn't matter if we had Arnie or Hiddink. The fact we actually scored a nice goal from open play with this team should be celebrated. We will be lucky to get a point against the Danes and Tunisia. I think the most disappointing aspect of the game was, having Souttar at the back, is that we conceded 3 headed goals.  

So, 2014 all over again. We had the "group of death" then and that was the official excuse. I wonder what the official excuse will be when our campaign officially ends after the Tunisia game?

What about the first 50 minutes when Italy were not down to 10 men? Italy did have good chances to score and were the better team but it still was much more competitive than the game against France today.

Yes Brazil did out play us.

However the 2006 Socceroos would completely out play the 2022 Socceroos. They had a better goal keeper, a better defence, a much better midfeild and a massively better attack. They were also coached a lot better.

"C'mon lads, we lost 4-1 but that lot are the best in the werld! It's a pretty good result for us when you think about it. And what about that Ramirez aye? Isn't he a hell of a player. Let's all give 3 cheers for Ramirez!"

Australian Football has been held back from day one, by its own people. The old school football supporters were alienated when the A League was setup. Since then, the game was dismantled and the soul was removed from the game in Australia.
Now you see it on the field on the World Stage where the media cannot pretend to hide the shit show that is Australian Football.
The fact is that there are people within our game (and other sporting codes) who fear the beast of world football coming to our doorstep.

no one is delusional nor think we are good, well some may think so possibly, not me.
I feel for the fellas actually, lambs to the slaughter.
I just wanted to see fighting like a dog from start to finish, fight fight fight not roll over (barring the exception now and then) and some of the fundamental errors were club football stuff.
Meak weak challengers, bunted off the ball like a piece of foam, wouldn't matter if Pep or Klopp I actually mentioned this long ago.

Yer nice goal, like an entree and the rest is poop, happy days right.

If I wasn't Australia and my nation qualified for the WC, I'd be crossing my fingers we got the Socceroos in our pool because I could chalk it up as an almost certain 3 points with little struggle over the course of the game.

Bassett, gold.

Here’s the team that Arnie started

Ryan - Copenhagan, Denmark
Atkinson - Hearts, SPL
Souttar - Stoke, Championship
Rowles - Hearts, SPL
Behich - Dundee, SPL
Leckie - Melb City, A league
Mooy - Celtic, SPL
Irvine - St Pauli, Bundesliga 2
Mcgree - Boro, Championship
Goodwin - Adelaide, A league
Duke - J2 league

Here’s team Arnie didnt start

Langerak - Nagoya Grampus, J1 league
Karacic - Brescia, Serie B
Wright - Sunderland, Championship
Sainsbury - Al Walrah. Qatar
Elder - Hull City, Championship
Mabil - Cadiz, La Liga
Rogic - WBA, Championship
Dougall - Blackpool, Championship
Genreau - Toulouse, Ligue 1
Hustic - Hellas Verona, Serie A
Taggart - Cerezo Osaka, J1 league

I would say that the team Arnie didnt start is easily better team on paper. Maybe not good enough to beat France, but expecting to beat France with a bunch of hacks and plodders from the A league , J2 and SPL is the definition of insanity. We never stood a chance with this clown in charge.

Denmark
SPL, Championship, SPL, SPL
SPL, B2, Championship 
Aleague, J2, Aleague.

That says it all really. Out of the SPL 5 SPL players (incl Baccus), only one of them was even OF.
(I’m sure someone will be along soon to tell me about the Saudi league. Let’s just see where they’re at after 3 games).

I can't understand how anyone expected more. We certainly got  exactly what I expected in terms of selection, tactics and performance. I picked 5 nil and 4-1 flattered Australia.

It was like racing an A list Formula 1 car against a DIY Formula 3 built by an amateur mechanic in their back yard. 

All our players do their best. Arnold does his best. But we're only at the World Cup to make up the numbers and the performance of our junior teams suggests that this is what we've got for the foreseeable future, with the occasional exception. The Kuol brothers will not save us. 

I think Tunisia and Denmark will beat us comfortably. Any team that starts a mediocre J2 striker has terminal player quality issues. 

I havnt watched the game but how was our fitness ?
Usually an emphasis on conditioning going into previous WC.
I get the feeling Arnie wanted team spirit above all else.

game suited Sainsbury perfectly, could of clamed us a bit when on the ball at the back and would of cleaned up well. We needed someone with experience at the back when 1-0 up. How we conceded so quickly was so frustrating.

There’s not a coach in the entire world, other than Arnold, who would start a J2 “striker” (he doest even play striker for club). Its not like we are replete with great quality strikers, but we left arguably our best striker at home, even though he plays at a higher level and has scored more goals than our main “striker”.

Additionally sometimes when you have quality issues you need to look to youth to identify players who have that potential to play at a higher level. I would’ve picked Dagostino, Tilio, probably even Arazni over a dolt like Duke. 

THIS. Is what won the Saudi;s game, everytime an Argentinian player got the ball he was fouled, it slowed the game right down and frustrated the south americans. Why we didnt do this after scoring ill never know.... Arnold is so clueless in his tactics during a game, its like he has no idea what he is doing. More useless 85th minute subs, who the fuck is telling him to do this? surely Rene isnt?

The fact that our 10 starting outfield players are all either A League, Scottish League or Division Two leagues speaks volumes of where we are at. I think we have to acknowledge that this is the weakest world cup team we've put out. Add to that all of Arnold's failings as a manager, and I guess we shouldn't be too surprised. 

 Because the ref in the Saudi game was letting them get away with fouls that Australia would not have.   As it was we ended up with 3 soft yellows for things that the full back Saud did more and worse. 

Arnold played a back three in attack but in defense and Leckie and Goodwin were supposed to cover for the full backs against Mbappe and Dembele the world's most lethal wing pairing.   Good luck with that.

I think I saw one strong challenge 3/4 way through.

We need to be on their hammer from the get go. Get in their face, their ear and let them know they're a chance of getting wrecked if they step a foot wrong. Intimidate and make them think twice. 

Our players (besides Duke) all look like the most animation or emotion they'd ever show is if they got beaten on the PS3.

‘Aussie DNA’ was missing in 2nd half. Duke normally presses defenders a bit but he picked up a knock to his hip then just jogged around until Arnold finally subbed him off. Midfield couldn’t get the ball to Roos forwards so no chance for Mabil, Cummings or Kuol really. Mooy, Duke and Irvine were cooked and got yellow cards as well

No time for conditioning before the tournament like usual unfortunately.
that's fine for players from the top leagues mid-season but for guys like ours a mini pre-season would have done a lot of good

Not sure why people were expecting better.  I thought 4-0 before the game. They are the best I've seen at this WC.

Confidence is such an important thing.  Dukes shot goes and its a different game.  As it was Atkinson did that thing he has done multiple times now.  That goal absolutely sucked the life out of us. 

Atkinson and McGree are our next gen World Cup players  They are interesting as evidence of what our coaches are producing for the NT   Both fall far short of a decent first touch, both have poor decision-making and passing skills.  It is also the very thing the NC was supposed to fix.  It has failed.

We can't talk formations and tactics when your most of our players have the first touch of an elephant.  It is the most fundamental of skills. Compare the way the French were so comfortable with the first touch, the one touch stuff, the correct weight and direction of their passing, their movement off the ball. 

 

Ha.  The French all play at the highest level week in week out. You think Duke "getting in their face" will be intimidating to them? No.  They'll just flop, draw the yellow and Duke will be dancing on thin ice for the rest of the game.

Besides you actually need to get close enough to do any of that without having 5 players on yellow by half time  Our players challenges were regularly late because the French were quicker and always moving. 

To think that if we can't win the game we can win the fight as viable strategy is naive.

Our players were regularly late to the ball and so were the resulting tackles. Is that fitness or something else?

This has always been our biggest weakness, I hope & pray one day we will get players who can do this & do this with ease.

clear differences in tactical awareness of Arnie, Nath was getting murdered down the right and was part of the reason Hernandez got forward so much.

Romero made like 3 mistakes for the Argies and was hooked at the 50 min mark. The coach could see he was a liability and they actually looked more composed once martinez got on.

Why the hell he didn't hook Nath for karacic or even degenek Ill never know. It was clear as day. We also needed a proper 6 in there devlin should of come on 2nd half for mcgree. I though Behich did well, Dembele was hugging the touchline but I though Aziz was pretty aware at all times. 

Everyone in the stadium could see this except for Arnie. 

Could have been worse. In an alternative reality we could have been hosting this WC. That result in front of home fans would have been way more embarrassing. 

I dunno I haven't seen Iran torn to bits like that basically ever. That was their second biggest defeat ever and Queiroz is no slouch. I think England can go all the way, having the cup mid season has really meant they are very sharp coming in.

Iran players had other things on their minds, you could see that during the their national anthem, they were not at the game.

Yes, that's exactly why you do it. They are used to high level football and teams a sitting deep on them. 100% physicality can work. 

They're not used to a bunch of aussie karnts kicking ten shades of crap out of them. Play football but play it tough