Despite losing, I enjoyed the game immensely.

Can't believe that Japan have accrued so few points in this WCQ campaign?

The entire Japanese team's technique on the ball - both footedness, both sides of the body proficiency,  first touch and quick handing speed - was admirable. In general this inferiority of technique, resulted in Aus moving the ball too slowly. This resulted in Japan frequently disturbing our build ups. They anticipated and read our predictable play, where our ball circulation was often too slow higher up the pitch.

Most Aussie players were way  below the Japanese technical standard,  apart from Mooy, and possibly Rogic, Hrustic and Boyle.

Quite a few new players who have looked good against inferior apportion, struggled to play against a calibre of players they would have rarely, if ever, met in club football. Souttar, Karacic and Boyle - had mediocre games by their own standards. Grant has played a lot better, when match fit, against higher calibre opposition  than  Karacic did last night.

 Irvine  showed up his lack of tight ball control, which led to the first goal. I have not had a good look at replays yet, but Jackson was culpable  for losing possession  and not blocking off supply, whilst Behich made two mistakes that led to the concession of both goals - a  poor touch for the  first , then inadequate body shape to defend the second goal .  

I haven't  seen Deng play recently, but his  on the ground performance,  definitely exceeds Souttar's in terms of jockeying, delaying, showing against quicker nimble players. Degenek is also better than Harry in this facet of the game.

Harry also struggled on the ball, like many of his teammates. In less time and space with intensive Squeezing, in the  first 6 seconds of Japan's Defensive Transition, when we regained the ball in our Attacking Transition, most of the back outfield  six struggled.

Rogic certainly had some good moments, but missed two  good chances to score, or even work the keeper.

Despite not scoring, Taggart, had a reasonable game. Shame his shot against the post, didn't  go in. 

Finally, apart from Ryan, who was brilliant, our back outfield four and back six, including the two DMs are not functioning as  cohesively as a unit, since Degenek, Milligan, Jedi, have not been playing.

Higher calibre opposition, Japan, expose more weaknesses of Aussie players who excel against weaker opposition.

I thought Duke and Jeggo, were effective subs. I also thought Arnie should have brought Ikon on earlier. 

I don't  think he is a solution, Pala.

His athletic prowess really  exceeds his technical qualities.

Unfortunately, Aziz is still the best LB we have.

Without the two horrific mistakes that led to Japanese goals, he would have been serviceable.

He should have been goal side of the Japanese player earlier.

Sains was caught ball watching, but may have been the best of our back six outfield players.

He and Souttar's distancing and communication could be better than it is. To Sains' credit, I thought his and Spira's cohesion, with Ryan, probably contributed greatly to us winning the Asian Cup in 2015.

Totally agree with you, Huddo. Russia was a reasonable campaign.

Our main prob in Russia was not converting the chances we created.

Both BVM and Arnie are good coaches. Bert got Holland to a World Cup Final in 2015. Very few coaches achieve that.

The midfield  shape changed depending on which part of the pitch the ball was.

On issue was our players not moving quickly enough to open effective passing lanes to support the ball carrier before he received the ball. Japan did this better.

I also thought there were a  few good long range diagonal passes played by us over the game .

There are two aspects of first touch  - stopping the ball dead - and - moving it slightly away from the receiver, and away from the marker.

A number of times the Aussie receiver needed to move more quickly towards the passer, in order to stop an Japanese interception.

Our best at this were Mooy, Hrustic Rogic and Boyle.

It must be very frustrating for Ikon to spend two weeks in quarantine for five minutes of football. I imagine he won't make himself available for the next window with the A-League starting afterwards unless things are different by then.

Disagree re Behich’s game. As well as the two goals, he was given a bath throughout the match by his direct opponent.

What about Elder as an option at LB. I haven’t seen much of him but is playing (apparently well) in the Championship.

Hard to take but that’s the world Of international sport with covid, and if you want to wear the jersey, as I’m sure he does, he and everyone else must accept it and I’m sure he does. Better chanced will come most likely.
Higher vax rates will soften this problem.

On the game I was disappointed with Australia’s play. 

Exactly how I saw it, the difference was not in tactics, it was the individual brilliance of the Japanese players ability with their first touch & the speed to transit the ball.
Even Harper said that in his commentary last night, the Japanese pounced even if our 1st touch being 1/2 ball rotation too hard, but they never attacked Mooy, his first touch very high.
I wasn't as displeased with Souttar as you, thought he did alright, Sainsbury needs to be leader here & show Souttar the way. However defence unit struggled.
Irvine has all the attributes of an Aussie player, high work rate, strength, pace, never gives up but a very poor first touch.
I thought Taggart was good too, we created a few chances.

We just don't produce players with quality 1st touch, that is our biggest issue, we never have outside a handful.

If we are ever serious in not only matching countries like Japan or in general the higher countries we have to improve the technical level of our players otherwise Australian football will always have a ceiling in how it far it could go on an international level.

The tactics, the physical power and mental could do so much but without a high technical level it would be difficult to execute under pressure and therefore we continue to push up hill with 'spirited performances' we always come upon.

To be fair we could have written this in 2009 too so has anything has changed?

Elder playing regularly in ECL even Gersbach now in France L2 should be given starts over Behich now

Apart from the obvious skills of the Japanese players,it was clear they were far more mobile and there pressing meant there were constantly two players harassing Aussie players and forcing turnovers.
Socceroos on the other hand had no real press up front and were generally chasing  the ball in midfield .How many turnovers did we force compared to Japan?
Doesnt this come down to the coach ,the way he sets up the team and the  players picked?
When the opponents in midfield can outpace their Australian  counterparts quite easily after turnovers , you really need to have a plan in response or choose faster players.

In defence of youth coaches, something I have been for 3 decades along with senior coaching. Good coaches are undervalued and remuneration hardly exists, too much focus on winning by parents, clubs and some coaches. 

Maybe I shouldn’t say it, but I’d be really interested to see what Ange could do as national coach of Japan. They have the skills to provide multiple players at each position who would match his preferred style and I think he could turn them into an amazing team to watch.

Yeah but if you don't have the cattle (see overseas ring-ins playing for us) then what do you do?

We're just not good enough and whatever coach or system or players we used last night would have made fuck all difference.

The gulf was huge. Yes if it didn't hit the post and went in we'd be talking about how good Arnold is and our players are but I'd bet my left nut if we played Japan 20 times in a row we might win 2 of those games.

Agree with this.

correct points buddy and I feel for you.....
Having been all around YL/Snr football for a long time thats all Clubs worry about, winning at all costs and the internal politics keep keeping the real message down.
Doesn't help our whole top from the bottom can't be as one more than anything else.

Isn't it ironic, once again when there is hope its torn down in 90mins :)
We supporters are tragics, I try so hard to be optimistic and even counter posted to someone (sorry escapes me who in advance) be more positive and what does it get you.
Is it ever gonna change.
I get sic of the GA bashing for I don't care who's coach, you can't turn or expect players lacking ability to contest far better ones eh, I mean you can perform the amazing park the bus kind of scenario but that kind of play can't occur every game, you have to create search to score, not wait and wait, even that type of game you still need the players with ability to pounce on that counter moment.
We have hardly had that type of scenario the last 30yrs. OK maybe here/there but know what I mean.
Cahill had that knack of individual nouse and brilliance after many of the GG retired for eg.....

I always want to be optimistic for our Roos and the 11 game run was a good achievement no matter who we faced but we all knew this was our first acid test coming again......
My reflection since,  we lack leadership/the general and support straightening the ship when in times of adversity.
GA or whoever else is coach is not on the pitch contesting and playing thats up to the individual at hand.
Jedi stood up when the chips we're down (Milli another) - you need the mongrel when we're soft being over run.
Being first to the ball, reading play, beating your opposing player, control hold/support making yourself available/give and go and above all intensity.
This was the game to show we are improving and stepping up for I was expecting as such.
We failed miserably from the get go doesn't matter GA should have picked such and such in the big picture, we were 2nd best so many times and the forced errors was for all to see.
I didn't see alot of desperation 1st half, it was like, REFF he took the ball of me and the tackle was worth a free, like come on the ticker period at times was embarrassing.
Maybe I/we expect too much.

Enzo bangs on about this current Jap group is not a patch on previous gens - thats true they lack the X player like Honda/Kagowa etc BUT this current crop still showed they are a cut above ours period being most play in good leagues above most if not all of ours.
Some of our fundamental errors was sickenning to see, its not about GA in alot of this its about the player.
The room Behich left Ito at times was Jnr levels, sure he was probably told to be compressed more but Ito had a canyon of room.
Give them the sideline but shut the play down ! given they knew Behich was not going to cover Ito's pass and go by him with pace how many times BUT  who was there to cover him at times.
One time Behich pressed up too high hardly trotted back ball gets wide for Ito with all the time in the world to attack the flank and cross with no pressure whatsoever.

All this type of play set the level of the 1st half and their confidence, their pressing on our ball reciever's was like watching pluck a duck, as a player you know you got to do better than the last time you got robbed of the ball or out smarted.
Rogic yes he did some good things and they smothered him by 2 tacklers at times, yet he tried to twinkle around them and then complain of rough play, mate those few times you wanted to touch the ball 2 more times than was needed.

D2, correct re moving towards the ball, mind you many times we had too large a gap between our lines, hence trying to feed the long low ball (the impossible) through but easy to cut off.
No, more so they forced that play and read to cut it off.
Stupid is stupid and on the pitch they know this and someone didn't lead to change it.
You need someone to show, hey this is how we do it and the rest follow with the talk on the pitch.
We couldn't cope with their ferocity simple as that.

Sains at one time read to win the ball and was driving through the middle for then to force something nearing their box - pity it broke down BUT thats more what was needed all game for me.
You either want it or your left behind.

Hrustic/Boyle are players with lots to improve and show they can, they need players with more zip around them and more ticker.
Duke just for the ticker he brings hands down should utilised more.
Our midfielders needs to wake up and lift their intensity, they need to improve their skillset (little they can at their age now) - we need a sound 6 period.
We do not have the ability to play like top flight euro teams let alone Jap/Sth Korea who have pace to burn coupled with skill.
Mooy unfit - he's slow when fit but good on the ball, bench player, he is not creating like he did in break through years (nice floating curved balls across the box or low) and now against fresh legs he pass's sideways and back, he'll only benefit more for us whenever comes the time we dominate play and or off the bench.
Gersbach I hope this kid can get it together we need one like him at LB or even try as one mentioned earlier King some more.
No matter what people say about Sains, he's our experienced CB, Souttar may grow into it but I don't rate him alot (slow as), as someone said people go on about EPL clubs considering him ? you have got to be kidding.
Deng showed the ability at CB earlier on, I'd persist even though I don't rate him much as well but we haven't got the richs.
MOTM Ryan, thank christ we have him mind you again his distribution judgement went astray but he made up for it overall and despite people quoting he was too far off his line for the 2nd goal.

Japan with its excellent coaching national system, football being close to  the major sport and with a big population of 130 million, are always going to stay in front of us whilst league, AFL etc, dominate the sporting landscape in Aus. They take up too much money and player talent pool.

I'm not hard on players. They did the best they could, but it was  a huge jump in standard for some of the less experienced Socceroos.

I accessed a replay via Youtube last game against Oman. I'll have another look at Behich if I access a replay. In most recent games he has been a solid payer for us.

From what Aussies who've played in Turkey, say technically, it  is/was a similar level to the   EPL.

However, tactically it is supposedly quite naive.

But still even that its still not a real excuse in trying to improve the technical level of the average Australian player.

This where we have to improve going forward regardless of where football sits in Australia.

It can also depend on the cardiovascular qualities and the speed of the players a coach has at his disposal.

In   6 seconds of Japan losing the ball, their Defensive Transition, the Japanese players swarmed in a Full Press in our half. After the 6 seconds elapsed, they defended deeper in a Half Press, with the players reducing the Squeezing intensity. Hence, saving energy.

Unfortunately, they won the ball back quickly, too often, in those 6 seconds. We were not technically good enough to  maintain possession in our Attacking Transition phase of play, which should then convert to our Ball Possession phase.

WE are improving, but so are much of our Asan  opposition, with Japan being in another class.

Duke is playing J League 2 and thinks it is a high enough standard. 

Ryan was brilliant!

Ryan may have been forced in no man's land, because of Sains' mistake ball watching.

More than that, it's their cultural influence of brawn over brains & skill/guts & determination and precious-little-else that has *always* seeped into ⚽ in this country to no small degree; the glaring symptoms of which are our technical & tactical deficiencies on the whole.

100%. This "we had a go" menality needs to be left in 2006 when simply making the WC was seen as a novel thing. We should be expecting more from our NT by this stage than simply failing to make it out of the group stages but doing so bravely or some shit. 

Consider this- in the 2018 WC, we didn't just finish on the bottom of our group. If you tallied up every single nation that took part, we finished dead last. Stone motherless, not a single point salvaged. For a nation that prides itself on sporting achievements, this is inexcusable. 

Oh I agree with all of that. I simply meant that, as a team, the Japanese aren’t as good as they used to be. As individual footballers, they’re outstanding. Ito, for example, looked brilliant.

As you say (and as I did, too) - the difference in quality of first touch is phenomenal when you contrast Japan and Australia.