The team gets around like custard armed dweebs. Do we have anyone with a bit of grunt and venom? 

What did he do wrong this game?
For me he was one of our best

just a comedy of errors, dumb play out the back shit we cant do yet we still persist with it from the Ange days... Mooy gets a yellow in inuury time so he probably wont be available for denmark now. 

Just so many dumb decisions, baccus and degenek with 5 mins to go????? wtf for?

I know the forum wants us to focus on technique but it makes me SO sad to see how piss weak we are physically.

The one thing we had, we gave up.

To give them world cup game time I assume.
Maybe Arnie was trying to be nice coz they aren't in his plans for game 2 or 3 aha

Because there is still a complacency here amongst many. When we weren't qualifying for the WC, the focus was why this wasn't happening and what needed to change in order to take our place every 4 years in the biggest football tournament in the world?

Then we started qualifying, and a complacency has set in since. This sense that "Sure we might be getting beaten/ it's not quite the golden generation but we're good enough to make the WC at least". You see this in other areas too:

If we get soundly beaten by (insert top European/ South American team): Yeah it's disappointing but they are a great side!

Why aren't we a great side and how do we change that?

If we lose to (insert plucky underdog African/ Asian team): Yeah we could've won but we were unlucky!

Why don't we get lucky more often, and how do we change things so we're good enough to negate decisions/ bounces of the ball that go against us more often?

I said 4 years ago during Russia that we were lucky to qualify and the attitude towards our NT needed to change or else we'd be back seeing the same results- and here we are. There are some promising young players in the squad, now is the time to aim higher and place greater expectations on what we can achieve at a national level than simply qualifying. 

It's more post WC I'd like to see a moving on of the predictable older guard. Elder having a niggle every window isn't helpful. Bos and Farrell are interesting prospects.

My thoughts on the game in no particular order.. 

France are the best team in the world... everyone needs to calm tf down on here, we at least put up a good fight the first 25 mins and weren't completely annihilated. 

Idiocy of Arnold not picking our best stopper in langerak to play against the best side in the world let alone not even in the squad. 

We were completely bullied off the ball on so many occasions ... we used to be lauded for being strong physical players and the better nations  used to hate playing us for fear of injury but now we are weak and thrown off the ball easily. Even leckie was being thrown around. 

 Idiocy again of Arnold to not pick our most technical and arguably most physically strong player in midfield in rogic.. ok he skipped the other games and ok didn't have a preseason but has now come off the bench for his team 7 games. Would have been an extremely effective sub. 

Idiocy to not pick Arzani. Chasing a game would have been a great sub. 

Our players were overawed by the occasion ... so many times after winning the ball back they'd crap themselves and just smash the ball forward not even close to any Gold jersey. Was like watching 12 yr olds play 

No clear strategy by Arnold, was bit of everything. In contrast ange and BVMs teams had very clearly strict instructions on how to play and a distinct identity. 

Mitch Duke and Aaron mooy are the 2 that help make this team tick.. not the greatest player in the world duke but his strength, jumping , harrying and hold up seem to lift the team to a higher standard.. when he doesn't play we are noticeably worse as a unit. Mooy helps us keep hold of the ball and construct play. Seemed to get tired in the 2nd half. 

We have probably the tallest cb at the world cup in souttar and rowles isn't short yet we were totally beasted in the air this game . 

not a young kid has played in Serie A playoffs which I would think are tough defensive matches, shouldve started. 

if I was coach I would hooked Riley get Aaron forward and tell Cam Devlin to get foul every midfielder he see's and annoy the hell out of them. He is a fantastic tactical fouler. 

A massive reality check for our team and many of our fans.The huge gulf in class was demonstrated in full today by a very impressive French team.None of our players would make the French squad and remember no Benzema,Kante or Pogba( even though he is overrated)were there.

Behich worked his butt off against Dembele who is incredibly quick.I felt sorry for Atkinson-no joy having to face Mbappe and it will be interesting to see how Denmark and Tunisia handle him.Irvine despite his limitations was gritty and caused a few turnovers.Maybe if his header had crept in and it was 2 all our second half performance would have been more aggressive but still the French had goals in them.

Mooy looked good for first twenty minutes but then his passing fell away and he was not able to dictate play. Souttar and Rowles lacked sharpness and surprisingly were often beaten in the air.However they are our best pairing at present.

Ryan has been criticised for playing out to Irvine for the second goal but that is the way the team plays and Atkinson's heavy touch led to that very soft goal.The other three goals were probably not saveable.Our goalkeeping stocks are low at the moment.

Leckie battled as he usually does and laid on a great pass for Goodwin's goal.However as the game went on his lack of technique was evident on several occasions.Goodwin did very well gor his goal but then went into his shell and did not take his opponent on.

Indeed and It's possible to have both. Look at players like gattuso, or Italian defenders (of past)

I just can't figure out why no change was made for Atkinson. Behich tbf did well enough on his side, atkinson was detrimental if anything

It really is frustrating following this team. FFS I have had 40 years of this crap. 

06, Holman's against Serbia a fleeting moment against chile....There is not many moments of hope with our lot, it's exhausting

Except it's a 48 team tournament and Asia has 8 or so spots. We're never not qualifying again. Mores the pity.

I agree with this summary.

Goodwin seemed to be playing as a second left back a lot of the time and did not push forward enough. Leckie was a bit the same on the other side.

Behich's did brilliantly with the clearance off the line and I thought had a decent game even though Dembele beat him with pure pace a couple of times. Still it is probably time to move on to other LB options after the World Cup. Elder and Gersbach would be good options.

Have to say that was shit house at the game. It's. 2am now and I'm on the metro going to the hotel. Will watch the replay when I wake up and calm the fuck down. 

At least we got to cheer for a few minutes. Other than that of you were going to pick one word to describe that I'd choose timid.

Atkinson is better as a wide midfielder with rb behind him. I actually would have selected Risdon in the squad. 

I understand the disappointment, but 4-1 is realistically where we at.  Considering our attacking stocks, I was dubious we would score a goal throughout the three games this year but Goodwin’s fine strike has at least surpasses those low expectations.  Good reward for a bloke playing in the local league and a great endorsement of picking local players for big tournaments.

But the problems were numerous and ones that have been on display for a long long time.  After the first 15 minutes, we consistently let Griezmann drift into dangerous half spaces to find Mbappe, Giroud and Dembele - we were extremely lucky to go in 2-1 down, and really Mbappe should have finished the ball that flashed across goal.  Admittedly, Irvine’s poster also was one that France can count themselves lucky with.  

Behich and Irvine at moments, and a glorious cross from Leckie .... the rest of the match is already erased (for my own sanity) from memory    :(
At least I got to see a goal from open play for once....... 

Teah as I start to settle down I'm going back to being super proud and happy for Goodwin.
He really does seem like a good guy with a lovely young family and he deserved his moment.

Still would have hooked him on 50 minutes though aha

I don't think you can say it's a reality check when this was on the cards from a long time ago. We barely scraped through the Asia Qualification and then struggled against Peru, todays result was pretty much expected. 

It's quite clear that Australian football has fallen so far and that no one really wants to fix it. 

Harry Kewell was speaking a lot of truths in his commentary, and yet on social media he was getting told off. I'm not a fan of Bozza but he was trying to ask the right questions about our standard and where we are as a football nation, yet Aloisi and the SBS blokes kept just trying to play it off as "oh well". 

Arnie got such easy questions after the game too, wasn't held to any account in any way whatsoever. 

For so long we have lived off this idea that "we gave it our all, and you can help but feel bad for the guys. What a great effort, but unfortunately a loss", and honestly, this is the result of having that mentality for years. 

We have players in this starting line up that can't even make the bench at their clubs. This shouldn't be happening. Players who have barely played all year being selected for a World Cup. 

FFA was so intent on having their mate Arnie in. FFA have been so intent on not actually developing the game. The A-league is piss poor and everytime someone tries to offer insight, they get shut down. 

So, what we saw this morning was no reality check or one off, it's something that's been coming for some time and will continue to happen for some time to come. 

I think Leckie still has plenty of pace, he showed it a few times in this game, however you are right his technique is not great and never has been,

I thought Harry diagnosed our problems really well.

You can thank the National Curriculum for that one. 

Very good summary here. I especially like the last sentence.

Playing out from the back for the sake of it. 

Keeping possession in our back half for the sake of it. 

All hallmarks of the National Curriculum devised by B-Grade Dutch coaches that still live rent free in the minds of Football Australia decision makers.

We were causing chaos with the multiple switches of play. 
The French defence gave McGree and Duke two free shots from just coughing up the ball under no pressure.

They are the best in the world but they were 100% there for the taking. At least for a 2 goal lead we could have maybe eeked out a draw with.

Of course they were going to step up after the goal but we retreated deeper and deeper.

Mooy taking air swings at desperate clearances with nobody around him was when I realised we would be pumped.

Pogba and Benzema may have been out, but there was still Mbappe, Griezmann and Dembele to contend with.
Look, no use beating ourselves up about it, we're playing a team full of blokes playing in the top clubs in the world, even on the bench, blokes who know about the heat of a Champion's League final.
We're putting up blokes playing A-League and Scottish league, I mean, come on, you're pushing shit uphill from the very start - there is zero chance of being competitive for 100+ minutes. Yeh, you might get lucky, catch a good team having an off-day, that happens in the WC, but otherwise, if both teams are at their very best, 4-1 becomes a pretty good result.
Celebrate the opening goal, it was truly magnificent, but that's probably the highlight of this world cup.

Now if we had Jedinak or even  a Milligan, would Griezman have so much room?

I'm sorry. If you lose 4-1 and think to yourself, "pretty good result", then we just give up and stop. Go home and invest the money in another sport.