This has actually made me excited to go to the UAE/Japan quarter final now

And that 100% of batfinks are try hards.

My worry would be Japan use their fresh reserve players to pressure, hoping they play Kagawa and Endo.
We saw in Japan how once they changed their line up and pressured they dominated Australia easily.
McKay was easily dominated by them in Japan once they pressured. Bresiano looks much worse physically has gone downhill at knots.
Ange may well use Milligan alongside Luongo.

So Japan have beaten the UAE already?

Fuck I hope UAE beat Japan..

You can only play the team you are facing . Trying to decide if we can beat Japan based on the China game is pointless.
Simple answer is yes we can beat Japan...but it has zero to do with our game against China.
BTW Japan are no certainties to beat UAE.

thank you...

like they say

"it's better to be a has been than a never was" or "it's better to be a try hard then a lame arse"

Honda picks up a red 2 minutes into the match against UAE. Causing the match to be competitive. Making them more tired. Minor injury to both shinjis. Japan win but head into the semis in a dreadful condition. We could possibly beat that team. Especially if Kawashima picks up a red really early.

milligan was so much better. bresciano was noticeably slow. his worst performance that i can remember.

jedinak needs to refrain from passing beyond 10 m. short passes. give it to sainsbury or spiro to move forward with the tricky shit.

Agree

Bresc has done his dash I'd say. An unbelievable servant for Australia, but his time is up.

I wouldn't even mind seeing Milligan in that advance role. He's been excellent this tournament, and we know he can score goals.

This

I'd say about 30-50% of people here on 442 but agree with the rest.o:)

Edited by AEK Spartan: 23/1/2015 11:49:14 AM

no, china aren't even close to having the sort of cohesive attacking strategy that teams like japan or even s.korea have. Anyone who was worried or nervous about the china game doesn't pay enough attention when they're watching football. China never showed any hint in their other games that they had the tools or method to unlock the socceroos.

Japan are not playing well. Long balls from the keeper, high crosses in the box to short players, not sure what their coach is doing.

Perhaps they're pacing themselves.

OTOH our form as abysmal in yesterday's first half.

Should we play Japan the game will be won and lost in the middle. The refs have been letting things go that they don't usually in Asia. If they stop that I can see Jedinak being sent off. I'd start Milligan Antonis and Luongo.

The other concern is giving up free kicks in and around the box. Unlike us they do have dead ball specialists. Our full backs will be also be under a lot of pressure.

Hard to pick this one if it in fact eventuates.

He'll get better, just needs to find his feet at international level.

It's hard to tell how much the pitch and conditions affected performance. It was impossible to get good first touches in tight spaces. The ball would bobble into the air when trapped. China could counter our game just by rushing us

What does that even mean? Japan is probably the only Premier League quality side here... International level is usually much lower than what he plays.

real shame Antonis couldn't make the Japan trip and get that much needed time in camp.

he and Loungo could be great 8s for us.

Even if we play horrible we have a chance to beat Japan.

They can't put away chances, they can't deal with physicality, they can't deal with crosses.

Anyone forgot the WCQ matches between the socceroos and japan? both finished 1-1 and we were shit :lol: the match in brisbane we were defending in the 6 yard box :lol: A slow oggy spent 90mins pushing, elbowing, pulling the Japanese striker who couldn't do anything with him.

Ange will have to tell the boys to whip in more crosses and play on the counter. This is why Japan has always had a lot of trouble against the Euro sides at the World Cup 2/7 wins against Euro sides at the World Cup. Ivory Coast beat them at the World Cup by countering well and using their physical strength. Greece drew with them at the World Cup playing with 10 men for an hour.

x2

I am really worried about:

Honda and Kagawa vs Davidson and Franjic.

Beacsue his poor touch and wayward passes are a chronic problem, lower standard or not. And there's nothing "just" about it. Having a poor touch and wayward passing are damning for a midfielder. it shouldn't even be a discussion point at this level. We won doesn't mean we ignore it

For whatever reason international level is different to club football

Technique seems even more important. There tends to be a twenty game adjustment period though some take longer, others never adjust

Not sure why

Also I'd argue that most teams in asia are seriously underrated by a lot of Aussies. When we had a strong epl quality side we struggled against even the weaker teams in Asia apart from the occasional game

Two pot screamer?

We can definitely beat Japan, the friendly last year showed that we can match them and we've improved since then
The biggest worry is at each end of the park, making the sure the back 5 don't freak out and put Ryan under constant pressure and then getting the front 3 to convert chances, last night we should have had minimum 4 goals

Underrated to an extent, we should be beating most teams in Asia that's a fact. Asia has a clear separation in class. Our World Cup 2010 qualification was a breeze, unbeaten in the final round, conceded 1 goal etc. We were terrible in World Cup qualifying in 2014, in what was possibly one of our weakest squads in history and what many fans considered to be an inept manager, yet we qualified directly.

South Korea, Japan who have made the last 3 World Cups directly, Iran have made 2 of the last 3 World Cups directly. I feel as though these are the teams at the top of Asia.

There are some ok second tier sides that can be competitive with the top sides but after that there is an enormous drop.

Qualifying is more difficult due to the lack of preparation, travel, playing away etc. Japan and Korea normally separate themselves. In the past 15 years it is quite clear the most consistent sides have been Japan and Korea. Japan have made every world Cup directly and made the Semi Final or better at every Asian Cup since 2000, South Korea is the same and has made the Semi Final or better of every Asian Cup since 2000 except for one. The bigger sides generally, not always find a way to get through in the Asian Cup and WCQ even if they have slip ups on the way.




Edited by jonomv: 23/1/2015 01:43:40 PM

Must have been one hell of a night!!!

they will murder us.. they are better attacking team then Korea