spewing I missed this one as it was before my time here... hahahahahah

I havent seen the Oman game yet but noticed the Vietnamese players having a better ball reception and passing technique than our lads in that game... What you call comfortable in possession I call hoofing around sideways and backwards in defence under no pressure..... I don't think things are as rosy as you see them.... Academies producing Aleague ready players is a fail mark in my eyes.... 

you need to look at this more positively

this is an indication of the growing strength of football in our region

Oman are a quality side with many technically adept players.  Even decimated by COVID they provided stiff competition.  This is good for Australian football which is still moving in the right direction.   Channel 10 coverage is excellent by the way.  The quality of post match analysis is second to none.  Tara is a great host.  Very knowledgeable.

Sick of Irvine in midfield. Seems like GA keeps on using him despite the obvious.

Sick of Behich, I think I've watched him have one or two good games at LB for the Roos.

Maclaren is not a potent force up front he's too small. The idea of placing Rogic that far up the park too, its never worked once.

I know how GA wants to play, I've seen this pathetic shit at Sydney FC and it relys on confident skilled midfielders to be really composed in defense and forward play.

IS THAT JACKSON IRVINE? fuck no. guy flys around the pitch bashing into ppl and jumping in the air heading balls out of play.

How we will ever win shit is beyond me. We need Jeggo on DM and Rogic collecting from the back. Also, MABIL. 

Wing backs that can barely dribble or kick goals also , how is that going to help when we have wingers like Leckie who wouldn't know what to do on any angle in front of goal. lol good luck 

Also Arnie builds a solid defensive structure utalizing an actually DM, something I'm yet to see with the current team.

Spot ON !
We need players to move on to better leagues that have pressure on everyday at training and the concerns of relegation and the highs from hard work gaining promotion !
Not this cushy pro life here.
There are many here who have paid out on the GG, belittled them, they had it easier, the Africans weren't prominent back then etcetc....
Every excuse under the sun !
Don't forget all this....last WC quali was bad enough what Ange put us through, this one is following the same path via the long route but likely not make it.
Check mate.
The last 15/16yrs local players have had the luxury of a lot more resource, better conditions, living at home.
Arnold isn't the blame in the big picture its for all to see.
We have not developed the quality of players like those before barring 1 or 2 exceptions.
Most are in average leagues, let alone here.
The developing Asian minnows that most expect us to exploit is long gone, are hungrier, desparate to succeed.
Some are starting to press Japan as were seeing and we struggle every single time against them let alone lucky to snag a win back in the day.

If Arnold tries on this "our destiny is in our hands" shit I will vom

Haven't look liked it to be honest all campaign don't have the cattle or coach  , but Asia is leaving us behind that's a fact. It's about time we face reality and admit we have big issues from junior paths , the local league and international.

Wow haven’t logged in here for years…

Looks like the National Curriculum has been working wonders 😆  

But, seriously, how are the Suites at FFA going to collect their bonus without WC money?

hi guys.

i would say at this stage socceroos will finish third in group B. :blush:

My heart is bleeding at the thought already 

welcome!

Sadly it looks likely

Really you believe that?
The current upcoming national youth players haven't qualified for anything and struggle against low tier teams.
When was the last time our Youth teams travelled to Europe to meet World class opposition?
No budget for that.
When ever I read the press and they praise some player for leaving Australian shores it's to some obscure club playing some league in the Tundra.
Producing A league ready players is a fail.
The system should be looking at producing players ready to play in the top leagues instead.
That was what the AIS was for.But hey that got closed down so we reap what we sow.

anyone remember? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGw7oDI5mis

Haha that's awesome. Exactly how I felt this morning!!! 

Watched a replay this afternoon.

Didn't get up in the night - thank goodness.

This might be the kick up the ass the game needs and if we are honest we don't deserve to go to the WC.
We've noted the structural issues the game has had for over a decade yet no-one has bothered to put any attention to them.
We've riden our luck with previous WC campaigns and while the other Asian nations have invested significantly at improving we've seriously stagnated and could arguably say we've gone backwards.

We have a manager at the helm whose horribly underperformed at x2 Asian Cups and expected a different result in a challenging group?
You reap what you sow and this one has been bottling up underneath the surface for sometime and I don't think anyone here is too shocked of where we are currently at

For the person that asked me off  forum, when I  did not have access to a keyboard.

Would you recommend our coach focus on A League  players and have frequent camps with frequent friendlies against A/K/J league opposition?


Ironically, current coach Graham Arnold extolled the advantage of having so many local players domestically based in the late 1980s. He  claimed the Socceroos were like Club Australia, because they had so many camps together, and played so many games together.

In terms of football specific performance criteria, it would probably not be unfair to state that most  Euroroos and Asiaroos playing overseas, are no better than the domestic players if we appraise:

*Technique - running with the ball, first touch, striking the ball, handling speed, and, 1v1 attacking and defensive skills.

*Game sense

*Communication

*Football conditioning

*Mental strength

To have players always travelling so far, compared to most of our opponents who have domestically based squads, who train together a lot, play more games as a national team, and are usually well prepared for any opponents, and our Euroroos and Asiaroos nearly always playing away games (in Australia as most of our players are northern hemisphere based, where they play in Asia or Australia, condostiosn are unfamiliar and they are jet lagged ), players travelling need to be significantly better in the aforementioned aspects of play, to warrant  selection  ahead of  locals.

In all honesty, from what  I've seen recently, only Ryan, Sains, Degenek, Boyle, Souttar, Rogic, and probably Irvine, are better  than domestic players plying  their trade in Australia - based on last A L season.  I don't  have the same access to the HAL as I  have had in previous seasons.

Hrustic -is superior technically, but he really lacks game sense,  particularly in the defensive  half of the pitch.

Mooy - in the last two games  seems decidedly  weaker in breaking up attacks,

 reading tackles and winning them,

 recovering quickly enough when losing the ball in our Defensive Transitions,

and even making handling mistakes more than he did, when in the past he has probably been better suited to playing further forwards, or as a twin DM with  Milligan or  Jedi, to do the clean up work.

 Jeggo, another overseas  Euroroo, made a stupid defensive mistake that resulted in a needless Chinese penalty. This really derailed our WCQ campaign. China had given up at that stage  of the game. Mark Milligan, who played most of his football in the A L, was a far better  DM than any current overseas DM, in  terms of all being an all rounder in the  criteria I've  outlined.

He might not quite have Mooy's distribution, but Milligan was a much better ball winner, interceptor, and more  effective  defending running towards our own goal. Milligan  was still  decidedly superior to Irvine, in that he had quick feet, was  capable of  rapidfire passing and moving in tight spaces, and made the timely intercepts  that Irvine and Mooy don't with their inferior reading of play . Having said this  of the  current midfield triangle, Irvine is the best defensively,  when the other  team has the ball. And Jackson is a senior player who has kept improving  as an international footballer.

Karacic  - is a much worse RB that Grant or Risdon ( certainly based  on Josh's 2018 WC form, who were based in the A L). Karacic  made some awful defensive mistakes today, which lost us the game. Last time I saw Nathaniel Atkinson, an AL player until recently, he is far better going forwards than Karacic, and could not have been any  worse defensively than against Oman.

Behich - may be another better than any domestic  LBs, but as opposed to having King in camp a lot, and being a very cohesive  part in a Socceroo team unit playing  a lot, I'm not sure  Behich is worth a spot travelling from afar? I also think that Matt Leckie could have been a decent Left Back, and more effective than as a winger. Behich was covered about t10 years ago.  Leckie should have been  been too.

Riley McGree looks to have made quite a  lot of recent progress playing overseas, but he isn't  deemed a starter.

A lot of young players in Australia in the Covid seasons made rapid progress in the domestic league.

Just some food for thought. Just because a player plays in Europe or Asia, apart  from playing a longer season, close  to ideal, their  circumstances change quickly.  And, they play all WCQers, in scenarios akin to away games. They are always travelling long distances to games in Aus and in Asia (apart from  Asian based players like Duke). 

Never been so glad I slept through a Socceroo game.

let’s hear about your 11 in a row now, Arnie!

In previous cycles I absolutely hated the idea of missing out on a World Cup to instigate change, thinking any tangible long term benefit would be  greatly outweighed by the negative ie financial losses/decline of spectator interest etc. 

I think you are right now though. Something has to change and only missing out on a World Cup is likely to generate enough heat.  My fear is though, with the increase in teams to 48 from 2026 onward, mediocrity will be rewarded and even a Socceroos side weaker than the current squad will qualify in a cakewalk. 

 so depressing. Nothing has changed in nearly a decade. 

Matthew Leckie 

Why haven't Holger, Ange, Bert or Arnie converted him to a RB? Like Kruse, he is a terrific runner off the ball, in  opening offensive passing lanes, but Leckie has had 10 years of missing goal after goal after goal for the national team. 

70 games for 13 goals!

This must be the worst  goal scoring  conversion record of any player in the front three for Australia since we were admitted to Asian Confed in 2005!  Even worse, Matt has played some games as a central striker!

This is approx 1 goal scored for every 7 games - simply appalling! If he had a terrific number of assists, or assists that could have a probability for scoring goals, it would compensate a lot. I doubt he has though? At best he may have created some decoy dummy runs.

All Socceroo coaches have collectively responsibility for playing Leckie as a forward. If he is a  terrific  team person, or leader, and the team operates better with him around it, with the rest  of his skill set, he is a Right Back - not a Winger or Central Striker.

To have one player in a team's attacking  front three, who has such a low conversion rate in scoring goals,  puts massive pressure on  the  Socceroos when we dominate periods of play and we don't score. Against Oman, he wasn't as guilty as usual, and played a  few potential assists. However, if he had a strike rate of Maclaren, Duke, Mabil, Boyle, etc, we would have already qualified by now!

 Notwithstanding, despite all his talents, converting goals is not one of them. The stats  don't  lie. Goodwin playing as a winger, Leckie's sub, in  hardly any minutes  for the Socceroos, scored a classy goal against Vietnam.   Matt has never scored a goal like this in 10 years. Running hard at the keeper at high speed, Goodwin chipped it over his head .

Maybe Bert can be excused, but how has coach after coach played  Leckie in the front  three for Australia? I'd surmise he would be one of the greatest RBs Australia has had, if someone had copied Guus, or  Pim, and swapped Emerton and Wilkshire as RB and RW.  

Leckie has very little composure around goal, particularly against better opposition . At age 30 - 31,  Leckie is not going  to improve his scoring ability. He might score the odd goal against minnows, but he has been really found wanting against tougher option in converting goals. That is despite  him having a better  game today, not missing as many chances as usual.

I always said I was gonna boycott Qatar for human rights abuse...

About Bosnich vs Oman all those years ago. It's the slow play that kills me. There's not even a hint of going fast and trying to outstretch the opponent. Most goals come from their set play errors or the better ones are when we go for it when space allows.

Boyle's goal vs China, Mooy's last night to a smaller extent. The quicker movement against Japan saw some chances. I think I'd be more bitterly disappointed if we'd let many chances go begging but we hardly create them.

I've been fantasising about having Atkinson, Elder, McGree, Hrustic and even potentially Juric on the pitch with some quick bite. Brook had the right idea in his recent games. Piscopo seems to be fading. Just of Leckie stumbling when others regularly beat the man like Ikon. 

There is too much  being made of Hrustic. 

I'm sorry but he  does not have a football brain at all, particularly in the defensive half.

His technique on the ball is very good in attack, but he makes awful decisions. It  is not as decisive in the attacking third, where players can afford to make mistakes.

At best he is a  candidate to replace Leckie as a winger.

I know I loathe the FFA and APL and blah blah plastic franchises and whatever  but NEVER in my life have I hoped we wouldn't qualify for a world cup......However this time round I agree with you  both...  not because I believe any change will be made to the game here, they'll make their money off the Catalina Wine Mixer ( oooops meant WWC)  and back to selling franchises licenses they'll go.. No I hope we don't go to Qatar because we will be absolutely humiliated....cricket scores .... has anyone been watching Sth American and European qualifiers? 

And this is why we can't have nice things....... This stubborn insistence (nothing personal 
 Decentric  as I gather this is a coaching philosophy of the NC?) on the high push, the defensive duties of the creative AM,.... We just don't have the technical ability OR the players to  pull it off... Whats wrong with the simple ways, a false 9 or even a "heaven forbid" playmaking #10 that starts the attack from the centre circle? Look at Vietnam in the China game.... simple. Simple football, no pressing for 90 minutes, possession is everything.... just simple build up play......

kruse had 5 from 75!

Agree that Oman, like many Asian teams have improved their defensive organisation and last line defending.

A further issue, is that most Asian teams, with our introduction into Asia, have become far more adept and organised   in defending crosses. Most Asian opposition struggled  to defend crosses when we joined the AFC in 2005.