before the game you said you would celebrate if there was a single clear cut chance and I said I'd hold you to that.
We produced several and converted two so we wildly exceeded your expectations yet here you are talking down the performance and talking up theres making some bizarre claims in the process

why? What motivates you?

good analysis for how we should be defending..

yeah, but last night we were played off the park AND lost.

Result flattered us, but for spells in that match I felt we looked more cohesive than recent matches. Cameroon will be an easier opponent, hopefully we can win a game. 4 straight losses at intercontinental tournaments.

More than matched them???

FFS,, we were given a bath for 60 minutes.

We constructed one shot from open play, which went in from a keeping error (one more chance than I expected), than a set piece which Sainsbury headed wide, then the set piece which also went in via a keeping howler.

They could have scored 6. The penalty was given in an attempt to stop another clear chance, and Germany's 3rd only looked like a Ryan error because the German player took his time. if Ryan came out earlier, he would have finished it well before.

The way you describe it as a pretty much even match after 30 minutes, with 2 goals, caused only by errors, from both teams is such a misrepresentation...

On the positive side, the last half hour was such a different beast, it is hard to believe it was the same side playing. How much of this down to Luongo fucking everything up is hard to tell

You could pause the game at anytime and our defensive shape is awful.
Wasn't Craig Moore a part of the coaching set up?

 

Pippinu it's true that they played a more fluent game of football and created more chances than us...but you've gotta take your hand off the German cock for just a bit

Disagree. Teams instinctively back further and further on the ropes when put under pressure and momentum is lost. 
We changed tactics and pressed their 2 centre backs with 3 players in stead of 1 or 2. This meant when germany did get the ball they looked for a quick release up front but we were there to intercept with a higher line. 

This was all helped by the change made to replace luongo with Kruse. As woeful as Luongo was in his part, Mooy also was woefull as the attacking mid in both pressing / marking as well as keeping the ball under pressure. 
As soon as we put Mooy in a more natural deep role, added Kruse with more pace and runs into channel from deep central areas, and the obvious notion for players to get higher up the ground and press with more numbers we turned the game on its head. 

As well as that it was cleverly stated by Garcia at half time that we welcomed all the Germany raids as we deployed our 3 Centre backs effectively against 1 striker. Second half with the higher press it was more 1v1 or 2 v 1 with the free centerback order to pressure into germanys midfield more.

It worked a treat. We need to play this way from the first whistle. Sure were open to quick decisive and classy attacks but it's no worse to simply allowing quality opposition to attack without even deploying a park the bus mentality.

Re: 3rd Goal

To me watching live it looked like Ryan started to come out to the edge of the 6 to snuff out the ball over the top, but then hesitated when I think he could have easily made it

Just saw the highlights of the goals.

Anybody know if it's possible to watch lengthier highlights?

Go on replaymatches they have extended highlights and the match itself.

Ta Sam!

I dare say the attacker nature of the German side throughout the game would have had him being wary to come off the line too much. Given the amount of shots he had to save you'd suspect a keeper would be on the backfoot a lot, whereas in a game where their team dominates and few chances for the opposition to score the keeper more likely to come off the line.

I personally don't think he would have made it ... he probably would have forced the German to either shoot straight at him or take him on (which may or may not have resulted in a game). In the end it is our opinion ... he has a split second to make the call. The German still had to blast the ball high into the goal at the near post (a low percentage shot). I personally don't think many keepers in top leagues of the world would have come for that ball ... the attacker was always in the prime position. Neur probably would have come, Buffon would have held ... 

I can't be bothered scrolling back the thread to the start of the game but I did watch it live and here's my take on it without complication.
From the start we were like in 2nd gear, slow start.
Obvious Loungo was out of his depth.
Mooy up higher on the pitch was notably slow in this company.
Germans obviously on the gas, their close ball skill was telling and their long ball vision was exceptional at times.
Draxler's 1st half was damn good !
The right flank attack from them was telling and well played. Wish we could play as such :)
Sorry, Leckie annoys me, nothing like working hard (at least he puts in) but the amount of ball he gives away for an attacker is sacrilege.
The amount of ball we gave away period you can't play football this way and it showed.
Good on Rogic, thank goodness he dug in had a go and fortunate it rebounded back and well taken strike ! opportunist goal lovely.
Once again being out of position and slow highlighted Loungo's side on tackle at the death giving the pen.
What a shame ! BUT I was heartened going to HT for as we saw could have been farfar worse.
I was glad seeing the change made by Ange. Had to happen.
I'm no Noddy fan either but he did create a difference thank christ for that !
Mooy was at fault not covering that run for their 3rd, but also where was someone else helping in cover, that was so open 2 trucks could have run through.
I can't blame Ryan not getting his hand to that.
We seemed to finally settle and as mentioned Mooy being deeper gave him that bit more time, then again the Germans backed off no ?
They sure did - every team can't keep on the gas but at least we finally played some ball !
Again Rogic creates the moment - well done Juric, you got to be there to put em away, most times we don't but he's doing the job of late.
Sainsbury improved greatly as the game went on, wish we had 2 of him.
It was a far better performance than the mickey mouse Brazil game.
I could say this and that about others but tbh, we don't have much else for replacements at this stage it is what it is.
If they were on target with half their chances would have been ugly.
A lot more optimistic for the Cameroon game but they are not any slouchs either, should be an interesting contest look forward to it.

In that other thread reDamien Duffs comments of playing out from the back - I'm sure some would disagree but I'm with him much, lets have a go at the good ol long range goal kick and pick up the 2nd ball high on the pitch now and then, well worth the mix.
Against top opponents such as them you can't afford losing ball in your bottom 3rd as we did many times.

I think this happened for two reasons:
1) He wasn't fast enough to beat the defender
2) He knew he wasn't fast enough to beat the defender

I am honoured that you would agree with one of my posts, and here's right back at you with your  closing line:  with the byline in full view, and a fair gap to run through (on a few occasions), to decide to go backwards at that precise moment can only be for safety first reasons, and possession for the sake of possession - but given both our goals came from 2nd balls in the box, and with the keeper having a stinker,  it seems short sighted when you're chasing just the one goal.

Honestly, did you watch a rerun of a different game?

We created one chance in open play, that was a goal, thanks to bumbling keeping. We got into the game only in the last 30 minutes, by which I mean we kept possession for acceptable periods. I'm keen to hear about these other 'chances' you refer to...

"Holding our own", eh? If that means "hanging on grimly", I guess your right...

Yep - there's a bit of looking at the game with rose coloured glasses.  Some even equating the socceroos' two lucky goals with the masterful goals the Germans created.  I mean seriously...

Well we had the penalty which wasn't given, Juric's nice control which lead to Kruse's shot, there was Troisi's couple of chances as well, not to mention the number of times we actually got in behind their defence but a bad pass killed our chances.

Masterful goals give me a break, all goals in the match were due to awful defending.

But seriously, how can you can compare the two sets of goals?

The first was created by a wonderful, incisive pass allowing Brandt to get behind the defence and with all the Australians piled on the goal line, he cut it inside to an unmarked player, with the ball bobbling, he absolutely smacked it into the remaining space in the goal mouth.  The third an incisive through ball, taken cleanly and fluently by the goal scorer without missing a skip, smacked into the tiniest space - it's this sort of touch and ball control at great pace that we do not see from the Socceroos.

In comparison, the two Australian goals were as lucky as you can possibly get, topped off with shocking C-grade goal keeping.

Brandt ran in a straight line and passed it to an unmarked player and the strike was good but the shot was saveable. Sounds familiar to Rogic's goal, fantastic strike but should have been saved, but did you also miss the part in our goal where with excellent pressing we won the ball back and a couple of one touch passes cut through their midfield? Then for the 3rd goal, great ball and shit keeping. Similar to our 2nd goal in which Rogic did sublimely well to win the free kick in the first place.

It's not quite the same as Rogic's goal.

He did well to get into position, but his first attempt was about as wicked a slice as you'll ever see this side of me playing a game of golf. Quite comically, it has ricocheted off an out-of-position defender (with the ball travelling towards the corner flag!), bounced back in his path, he has struck it on target 2nd time round, but if you view the vision, not only does the ball go directly under the keeper in what was a poor attempt to save, it wasn't really a pacey shot, and Rogic had two more metres towards the upright to aim for, but presented the keeper with a pretty easy shot to save (which he failed to do).

I only watched the 2nd half for which i would say we were the better team slightly. Created more chances than the germans and dominated the play. You put 2 more ball paying defenders in place or degenek and wright, get some more match sharpness into Kruse and manage to unearth another quality SS/WF (hoping hrustic, ikon or borello can do this) then we have a team capable of matching it at tournaments ala golden gen. 

People, seriously, we were miles of the quality of the Germans, miles.

Nothing wrong with that, most national teams are, but we have to stop kidding ourselves that our play was somehow in the same ball park - it was chalk and cheese.

Funny that all neutrals and even German fans think we matched the Germans the second half, you are simply downplaying everything that we did.

Hey Pip,

1.  Its not how.  Its how many.  How many did the World Champs concede?  The World Champs copped 2-count em TWO- against to a team 60 places below them.

2.  Show me the goal, and I'll show you the mistake.

Watch Ryan when he leans away from the ball like Matrix bullet time. The keeper is supposed to get big in that situation, yet time and time again he is small as a mouse.

as i said i only watched second half but i actually had to pinch myself at times that this was the socceroos playing that was how good we looked. I literally found myself having a moment of consciousness like "WTF how the fuck is this happening". It was all clicking for about 20 mins. Had that game gone on 10 mins more we would have got the equaliser. The players started to actually believe rather than play within themselves. 

Spot on. He doesn't make himself big, every goal he concedes the space his body is occupying is tiny. I think to myself "i would have scored that" each time