Ridiculous comment. How many games in a row have we won now under Armie? 10? Due to Covid he can't even pick his strongest squad & we can't play in Australia in front of our fans. We've also increased our FIFA ranking to the highest mark in 10 yrs with Arnie in charge. First 10 mins China played well, but we weathered the storm - after that, we completely dominated. 

Sainsbury was great, he never gave Elkeson a sniff and big Harry was to strong for the Chinese players and dealt with them very easily, its just a pity that the service from the corners for Harry was crap, any decent service for Harry and I reckon he would have scored again.

Have to say I had some concerns with both Harry and Sains, early at least.

Some terrible touches and passing - hopefully it was just a bit of rust.

Sains eventually had a blinder and Harry did pretty well but I don't think he was hard tested.

How much longer were they going to continue that shit show of passing if Sains hadn't lobbed it over top. 

Hate to say it, would have gone on all game.

I just watched the link, we have played on worse grounds but what a great atmosphere.The Vietnamese fans really make some noise. 

 We overcame our disadvantage having to play our home game away but now we get an advantage by not having to play Vietnam at their home ground with their fans getting behind them, cheering them on, making all that noise, it would have given them a massive lift against us.

GA not as stupid as your comment. was it also stupid of GA to cap Mabil, Souttar and Boyle? 3 goals from open play and you’re complaining about the coach 😂

I'm not sure there will be crowds https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/vietnam-pm-warns-long-coronavirus-fight-crisis-deepens-2021-09-02/

watched the replay....I just can't believe how bad China are. The confederation needs them to be better since they surely have the most room to improve, with their resources they could dominate the confederation

I suppose in a way they have improved - they used to fail to make the second round of qualifying

I don't understand though - this isn't the usa which are a big power that doesn't care about football - this is a country that loves the sport and is very very poor

Yep they confirmed during the game that it will be in front of an empty stadium.  

Good for Australia though. 

That coaching is imbecilic , such a boring way to play and so easy to read. Any decent team would kick 7 goals against that shit house team.

Won't matter what player you stick up front. Sainsbury is garbage and Souttar will be pulling the ball out of the net every 5 minutes

Know when to pick you're battles dude. 

If Arnie is as bad as you think he is you'll get you chance to have a whinge. You just sound silly right now.

Watched the replay. Overall, very impressive!!

It looked as if the squad were organised and well-conditioned (despite only 2 days in camp), as well as fairly relaxed. I reckon Arnie deserves credit for that.

I don't remember the thread title saying post your snippet of how we performed compared to last game.

If China was so shit, why was it so evidently hard to break them down. None of those shots were well worked passing buildups. Sains had to chip the defense to Mabil right on the box line.

It's like watching one of those slushy machines swish the ice around, thats our CBs/midfield all game

It sounds like u only watched match up until 1st goal?? Did you see the perfect pass/assist by Rogic to Boyle for 2nd goal?! And if Sainsbury was ‘garbage’ he wouldn’t ever have played in Europe or NT for more than a week 

Mate we must have watched a different game ....

As for how poor Arnold is... 10 straight wins best in years and second longest wins ever .....

9 wins overseas ....

Fractured team with getting players....

No doubt there are better coaches ... but to say he is hopeless .... mate simply wrong... not the worlds best agree ... but no where as bad as you make out...

You're probably right mate. Still.. I'm probably right also. We have different perspectives for sure.

I'm not that interested in the Socceroos of late because the hype of football here in OZ has well and truly died out.

Out of interest what would get you interested gain

The first two goals were a tactical masterstroke by Arnie.

Here’s some tweets which explain it in detail.


First goal : https://twitter.com/tomwilliamspol/status/1433621044246450199?s=21

Second goal: https://twitter.com/tomwilliamspol/status/1433672706059165696?s=21

Not many reasons to be interested. If Arzani never got injured. If Rogic actually played full games. Too many unknowns, and I cant keep track of where they all play anymore

Yeah, I view this kind of analysis on my NBA team. There's no certainty that these are designed plays at all. I think if GA is winning 9-10 on the trott, perhaps these are tactical. 

Big risks playing like that. We'll get hammered if we're playing like this against Brazil or something, that back line ball movement is shite. 

He has won 9 on the trott 😂

LMAO 🤣 

I shouldn't try and change the topic, but yesterday Scott Morrison strongly indicated that once NSW hits 80% double dose which will probably be around end of October or November that international travel could begin again which means overseas Aussies could come back and do home quarantine. 

It got me thinking if we have World Cup qualifiers in November could there possibly be a way our home games could be played in Sydney? Also they could easily do it in a biosecurity bubble so the players can come in without the stress of doing 14 day quarantine.

I dont see why it will still be a risk to do this by November given how high the vaccine rates are in NSW.

You're definitely not right. None of what you've said makes any sense. 

I lost count of the number of times that Taggart was able to come off his line and be unmarked in empty space between the Chinese lines, it was so easy for Taggart to be able to receive the ball and create an overload and pull the Chinese central defender out of position for Mabil to then exploit the empty space in behind. The vertical distance between the Chinese lines and the inability of the Chinese to pick up Australian players or cut out the Australian passing lanes was easily exploited by the Australian team. 

The Chinese central defender was constantly being asked questions and had to decide to go or stay or organize his central Midfielders to pick up Taggart, most of the time the Chinese CD was caught halfway between staying, going or organizing A CDM to pickup Taggart, doing nothing to stop the Australian onslaught. Other times when Taggart was picked up, Rogic was able to get into space and receive the ball all to easily, although Rogic was somewhat marked at times he was often given to much space to be able to receive the ball and turn. The couple of times that Rogic did loose he ball was because he had two or more Chinese defenders close enough to him, putting pressure on him and forcing a mistake but this was the exception rather then the norm. 

You guys are funny. This is China we are playing, should be easy win not a 3-0 struggle. 
And that defense will get shredded by any half decent team in Europe.

Tactics make us vulnerable. All this passing will get eaten up and we'll get flogged.
GA will have us ball watching in the big games. Nuthing happening up front even with these pathetic teams.

Define how that was a "3-0 struggle"?

We best write off Japan, Iran and South Korea too based on their MD 1 results. 

I don't get the impression highkick watched the match.

Did GA cut your lunch years ago?! Or just trolling?