Ah... The sliding door moment that was not signing Gerard Houllier. And getting Arnold instead... And then we get him again a second time. What might have been. :crying:

The fixtures played do need to be examined in these stats.
Gutendorf's Socceroos, while not excusing his record, did play a number of friendlies against ~better~ teams.
1980's "A" fixtures can be found here for example -
http://www.ozfootball.net/ark/Socceroo/1980A.html
Although a loss to Hong Kong and a draw with Indonesia doesn't look good...

The   old   FFA  qualified   us   EVERY   time,  4   out   of   4.

Let's bring back Steven Lowy..... He'll fix things.... Someone pull Gallop out of that lady boy brothel in Bangkok he's been hiding in for the last few years and bring him back as well. Lets get the band back together, I'm sure dopey Greg misses them.

A 0-2 loss at home to New Zealand that put us out of WC Qualifying was the last straw and saw Gutendorf fall on his sword.

The old FFA benefited from players developed from the Soccer Australia/NSL era.
Arnold is now failing with players developed from Lowy's A League era.

So  we  failed  to  qualify  for  32  years.

Then  in  comes  the  old  FFA, and  suddenly  we  qualify  for  4  in  a  row  under   them.

I  guess   it  was  all  just   a  massive   coincidence...

Holger

forgetting we changed confederations at exactly the time we started qualifying for WCs?

2006 squad was super strong compared to ALL other Socceroos squads - Cahill, Viduka, Kewell, Aloisi, Bresciano, Neill, Schwarzer, etc. Then change from Oceania to Asia made things slightly easier. Not much to do with old FFA

Qualified  via   Oceania  /  Inter-confed   playoff   against  Uruguay  for  WC2006 under  the   old   FFA.

And   then  who  got  us   into   Asia?

all should resist replying to remote.

B T, hit the nail on the head period for me and what I'm going on about, the cattle !
06 been the best to date period and since, our struggles getting harder and harder, though quali was just as hard in 06 finally got through by pens breaking the dry years camels back but once there, they really stood up to Rof16 to lose in the 90+5min.

That is literally every team out of AFC.

The Venables squad that traumatically drew 2-2 at the MCG was pretty good. I would have loved to see that team make it. 

> Falling for Remote Control's bait

I think it was better than the 2006 team, a young kewell and viduka dominating for leeds, we still had vidmar and moore at rangers in their peaks. Bosnich at Man utd, Zelic still kicking it around in germany, lazza ripping it up in England and you had Aloisi and Skoko off the bench. Everyone of the was playing regularly in top leagues in Europe. It would of been good to watch.

EVERYONE would have loved to see that team make it mate...... still can't believe those last 25 mins....... 

If we had taken our chances in the first 60minutes the last 25 minutes would have made no difference.  We would have qualified.

So what's with the hold up here? Why can't they make changes now? No wonder nothing gets done in the game...

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/arnold-safe-but-fa-says-change-needed-or-socceroos-will-continue-to-suffer-20220209-p59v5m.html

I know Gyfox, you are 100% right... still hurts like buggery though, would have loved to see that squad in France....

Yep, while the cattle are of course not as good as those from the Golden Generation, I strongly believe a better coach could definitely have achieved more with the current group that is available. A good coach will produce a team that is better than the sum of its parts, I think the teams Arnold selects are worse than the sum of its parts. And I think Arnold's selections have often been poor as well.

In the first 5 minutes alone we had 4 golden chances.

100%. Look what Bert Van M did with Roos in 2018 - only 1-2 loss to France. If Arnold coached that game would have been 0-3+ loss. 1-1 Denmark - again BVM made Roos competitive against 2 classy European sides

My issue is the key reform stuff JJ and the FA want to implement, but whether it’s just the lack of interest from the stakeholders or not it’s simply not good enough.
We compete in a very competitive global game especially in Asia and we need to be doing a lot better if we want better results. 

That Venables side was decent...I can still see Bosnich sitting in the ground thinking what the f..k just happened, much like the rest of us.
We got carried away thinking 2-0 was gonna do it....Iran did not tho....Still focussed on the game while we were in dreamland.

All the Mid East countries have risen up and are now like Iran Were then, focussed, skilled, and importantly fight for a result.

As for Arnold, I don’t know if the worst ever but he really is not up to it regardless of the cattle.
After every game he says “ look..we fought hard...and bla bla bla...I have every faith in these boys.”

never has any analysis or constructive comments...come on Arnie give us something to makes us believe you know what your doing.

hes to wrapped up in the emotion of the game, cussing and yelling and pacing up and down.

Get that shit out of your head and focus on the game and what we need to do, what’s working, what’s not, do opponents have a weakness, how can we exploit it, are we in control of the middle of the park etc etc.

thats the stuff I want to hear him talk about and sort out.

@ Barca4Life

So,  according   to  that   article ,  FA   won't  even  consider   replacing   Arnie   until   after   there   is   no  chance   of  us  qualifying ??

so   proactive ...

Holger Osiek team beats the Saudi away 3-1 and 4-2 in Melbourne. Also drew a very strong Japan 1-1 away and 1-1 at home.

I was 10 at the time and it was the first game I remember watching live on TV with my friends. Even at that age it was gutting.

Honestly though it made 2006 that much sweeter

Was twenty-something and flew to Melbourne from Perth for that one. How depressing. Really thought it was our time. Venables had us undefeated for so long - a long list of qualifiers and friendlies - and we didn't lose that game either - just the unfairness of being part of OFC (good riddance!).

You're right though, 2006 was an unexpected surprise - and having suffered not just Iran, but Argentina, Scotland and the previous Uruguay experience - it was sweet.

Was also at the MCG in 2001 for the win against Uruguay. Everyone was so excited after the game but I was despondent because I knew 1 - 0  wasn't enough. I stupidly booked my Ansett flight home timed with when the return game was in progress. Had my parents taping the game for me but the Captain announced the score when we touched down in Perth. Obviously didn't bother watching.