Now I've gone back and had a second look at the game in terms of Ball Possession, by both teams, it was one of the worst games the Socceroos have played for some time.

We got the result, but apart from the goal, from a team perspective and individual perspective which was brilliant, and a few other short passages of play, we were pretty awful in Possession.

Denmark were worse than I thought in their Possession watching the game for a second time, dispassionately, compared  to viewing the game the first time as well. Their long diagonal passes to the wingers, were superb in their accuracy and the receiving of the balls, but Denmark played a lot of hoofball, particularly at the end.

Their  intensive  Squeezing within their modes of Pressing in their BPO, was superb though. It forced us to turn the ball over far too quickly for too much of the game. We were barely able to string sequences of three passes  in the middle third and  our attacking third of the pitch.

Denmark even closed down our playing out from our   defensive third, forcing us to play longer diagonal balls. Maybe they used too much energy when we had the ball, that it negated their efficacy when they had  the ball?

We played heaps of long, high, speculative straight balls when our defenders, Souttar in particular, had time on the ball. We were forced to make a lot of  desperate clearances, but I'd surmise a  much greater percentage of play was in the Transitions or contested Ball Phases - when both teams were battling  for  the ball.

Brilliant defensive effort in Ball Possession Opposition by us, except we didn't Squeeze intensively enough  in the first half. We focused on maintaining a compact, optimum, defensive  shape in Ball Possession Opposition. It was possibly our greatest defensive effort ever from a Socceroo team, but when we had the ball it was pretty poor, even though faced with superb off the ball play from Denmark.

Thankfully, though we won.

I hope Argentina are too tired to close us down as effectively as Denmark did.   

It has been very uplifting.

Die hard fans, like most of us on this forum, have seen the Socceroos  incur an incredible  volume  of criticism. This has been from the public in general, Eurosnobs, media pundits, our opponents outside Asia, and even from players in the GG, who've been quite  spiteful towards Arnie in particular, and to a lesser extent, the current  Socceroo players.

Most of us have stuck by the Socceroos.

It is amazing the Johnny Come Latelies I know, who are suddenly interested in football and the WC, who  tend to be outside the Aus football milieu, since we've progressed out of the group!

It's times like this I become envious

Wrote this huge post about the rollercoaster of emotions I had from when I got up until I came home at 4am but then clicked between browser pages and accidentally closed it.

Long story short I burst into tears about 10 minutes after the game finished. Just an amazing day.

Amazing match!!!

I was just stunned. So proud of the guys

Can see now that it was sorry

Has anyone posted this?!
It's not just Redders who fucks with team notes aha

https://twitter.com/gerard_laws/status/1598163264562946048?s=20&t=Tcjljp7NaEqRMu3dHDfONA

https://youtu.be/pXmlPzvvI3w

Great set of player interviews in the library. 

https://youtu.be/1fWI8NzbmJk

Rene Meulensteen interview. 

https://www.foxsports.com.au/football/world-cup/fifa-world-cup-2022-denmark-note-mitch-duke-picks-up-note-video-latest/news-story/c44d43a186be9495db1dff09e7fe2943

https://youtu.be/WHdtIGv4vQY

Here's the next commentary reaction compilation for Leckie's goal. 

got to admit my concern when the lachie rose look alike started warming up on the touchline for dennark

The joy in everyone's faces in photos. Green and gold army has some great ones of Lawrie McKinna, John Kosmina and Simon Hill who've all contributed to Australian football in some shape or form. 

Good insight. Cheers

I'd heard it mooted like  teams do in cricket.

As you probably  know from refereeing,  and being a lines-person, so many mistakes are made - usually to favour the defensive team on those hard to adjudicate decisions.

Osieck digressed from a mandated national style. His appointment was predicated on the belief that most of the  national team players in that era were so unfamiliar with the new curriculum, that it did not matter as much that the coach wasn't a product of the Spanish/French/Dutch/ revamped German style that we aspired to play.Holger was a product of old school German football  - not revamped German - Klinsmann, Loew, Klopp.

Pim was very much the  style of coach Australia wanted to develop.  Triangles and diamonds were inherent in his  formations 4-3-3 and its variations and derivatives. Pim had preference for the 4-4-2 midfield diamond for  when  he wanted to attack in his game plans. Once he used a 4-3-2-1 as a more  defensive measure  against Japan. I've watched the Socceroos train under Pim. I was a big fan of him as coach. It was our most decisive WCQing campaign. We were one of the first three teams to qualify for South Africa, with the Netherlands, Japan and us - all qualifying on the same night. 

Holger didn't use these systems  much, really only using a 4-2-3-1 on occasions amongst his other formations that didn't fit with the direction Aus coaches were being trained in.   

The teams don’t, and never have had, the right to call for reviews of decisions by VAR. Ths only party with the ability to decide to review decisions is VAR.

With VAR is seems  to be oriented to disallowing goals, more than  playing an advantage to the attacking team.

I thought teams could have two reviews - so they can review dodgy lines-person decisions that incorrectly  call offside, when goals scored are legal. 

So...pragmatism then?  Verbeek was pilloried for it, yet he qualified undefeated ( apart from a meaningless game against China), second in the world to do so, and got 4 points at the WC.  Osieck took us to the Asian Cup Final (and lost 0-1 in extra time to Japan), and qualified directly for the WC with a win % of 60% in competitive fixtures. Yet his football style was also heavily criticized.

Ange does not work as hard on defensive structure as a coach as Arnie. 

Looking at their World Cups, Arnie has had more success results wise, although Ange had a really tough group in Brazil. The two gallant defeats, where we played some good football against Chile and the Netherlands in Brazil, were not as good as the victories over Tunisia and  Denmark in Qatar, based on a solid defensive  structure and a game plan  focused on Ball Possession Opposition and the Defensive Transitions.

It  does not  fit with the objective  of the National Curriculum coaching objective to control the  game, by dominating   possession  and territory, but we played against superior teams (France and Denmark) at playing this type football. They are better than us at it. 

They've been doing it for a lot longer. We strive to emulate them.

We had to focus on an organised, cohesive defence as the foundation against them.

It is no coincidence that Australia is able to play pragmatic football that wins games.

In the early part of the   Lowy FFA tenure, there was some money. We recruited world renowned KNVB trained Dutch Coaches, Rob  Baan, recommended by Guus, and then Han Berger, as Tech Directors for Aus football.

 The mild mannered Baan  didn't have the stomach to take on all the naysayers, recalcitrants and doubters in Aus football  who did not want to change coaching practices. Thankfully, Berger, a much more forceful character, totally dismissed the recalcitrants and steamrolled them. It was his  way or the highway. His biggest mistake was appointing Holger, as one of a panel of five to make the decision.

 I'm one of those coaches who trained in the old Soccer Australia coach  education and then later undertook the original Dutch KNVB methodology used in Aus in 2007, 2008 and 2009, which with Berger's recommendation became an amalgam of Dutch, Spanish, German and French methodology. I learnt a lot  about defence and organisation from the Dutch ( which is what Arnie bases his teams on) and later the Football Fed Aus, now Football Aus, National Curriculum ( which is more of Ange's coaching practice). 

It has also been a system  based on  the Van Gaal School of Dutch KNVB practice  ( team being paramount) as opposed to the Cruyff School of Dutch KNVB practice, which relies on technical superiority over opponents ( Barca Academy).

From all the courses I had attended prior, I learnt more in 2 hours of the KNVB Youth Coaching Course than  the days and days of the old practices. Then A L coaches were forced to adopt all the new methodology to gain an advantage over other A L coaches, or lose games. Frank Farina was a recalcitrant, and John Kosmina was too, but not to the same extent as FF.

So we can thank Guus, for recommending Baan, then FFA recruiting  Berger, who rewrote , with help, our coaching methodology in Australia, for progressing into the last 16 in Qatar. 

Now Football Aus has  a former  teacher,  Trevor Morgan as National Tech Dir, and Ron Smith is his assistant.

Ron is a worry. He was the former Soccer Aus TD prior to 2006. He saw no need to  update the Aus football curriculum  and establish a contemporary uniform, holistic system in Aus during this tenure as National Tech Dir.  I'm not sure what Ernie Merrick's current  role entails with Football Aus? He was also one of the old guard coaches before Berger's coach education  metamorphosis. 

We need some more  foreign  powerhouse coaching consultancy in Aus, to oversee constant updates, or one of our current successful  coaches trained in contemporary football methodology ( the Vidmars, Ange, Arnie, John Aloisi, Muscat, Popa, Stajic, Kisnorbo, Ante Milicic, Ante Jukic, Mike Edwards, et al),  to have a national  coaching role, although Morgan could be doing a decent job.

The new coaching methodology pathway has improved us immeasurably - tactically. That is how we have been able to match it with technically superior teams. It takes a long time to improve technique. It needs to be done at an early age. A much more tactically astute Socceroo team has progressed to the knockout stages of the Qatar WC - thanks to Han Berger.

Interesting. 

Looks like Dollberg just ran into the back of Souttar and flopped. It's so terrible how quickly the ref blew that penalty. He won't be officiating at the WC again I think.

Have always said this. 

Hear, hear.

Nope. The game is about results. Supporters only worry about style and entertainment when their team is not winning. I’ll take that 1-0 win over Tunisia over a 3-2 loss to the Netherlands Every.Single.Time.

Congratulations to the players, staff, fans & the true believers of Australian football.  This one is for you, for all of us.   :)

Yes, lucky there was no dodgy business with trying to override the offside or something once he saw the flag.

Yes, I agree, apparently the conversation of why it was denied is what's considered a 'deliberate play at the ball'.
Good write up on that is here: https://www.espn.com.au/football/fifa-world-cup/story/4820758/why-var-disallowed-griezmanns-goal-for-france-for-offside
Basically, because the defender didn't perform a 'controlled header', it seems they're considering it as a deflection, and not a 'deliberate play at the ball.' Which, is weird in itself, because in that situation, we're taught to look at "player to ball" and "ball to player"