https://twitter.com/havolinedeport/status/1625908697590378513?s=20

Socceroos to play Ecuador in Sydney and Melbourne in the March window.

Awesome stuff imo

Excellent. 

Nah surely not. It's jut wikipedia. Asian Cup Jan 12 onwards in Qatar and the U23 Asian Cup Jan 10 onwards in Qatar. What a feast that'd be to follow both Australian teams around.

So it appears FIFA have made an official decision on the next world cup. 12 groups of 4 with 40 extra games. Look, 32 is ideal yet I think each confederation has a few unlucky to miss out. At least the 3 team group is gone.

I think alone that more teams are actually there will be buoyed on by the opportunity to play good football. 

For one I'd like to see UEFA have to actually have playoffs against other confederations. 

The Central Asian Football Association (CAFA) has invited the Russian national team and an Asean team to participate in the CAFA Championship from June 9 to 21 this year.

The tournament has eight participating teams. 7 teams confirmed to participate include:

🇹🇯 Tajikistan (108)
🇮🇷 Iran (24)
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan (77)
🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan (94)
🇹🇲 Turkmenistan (135)
🇦🇫 Afghanistan(155)
🇷🇺 Russia (37)

📨The Central Asian Football Association has invited one of the Asian teams to participate. It is known that this country has "friendly" relations with Russia.

To date, Russian football teams are still banned from participating in European tournaments. However, FIFA and UEFA still give the "green light" for this country's team to participate in friendly tournaments.

In March, Russia will play 2 friendlies against Iran and Iraq.

At the end of the ALM season, I'd love some friendlies featuring an ALM based team, or even with a few more experienced players playing in Japan or Korea.

Usually I only get to see  about 1-2 ALM games a weekend, so I can't pontificate too much on the composition of a team. These players have stood out for me though in the matches I've seen. 


................................Gauci

Grant..........Deng..............Delbridge..........Bos

...............O'Neill...................Nieuwenhof
.........................Piscopo

Irakunda.............Maclaren..................Goodwin


Subs:
Borrello - or could he start?
Arzani?
Danny Da Silva
Redmayne
Good



Gauci, Irakunda, O'Neill, Nieuwenhof and Bos are those young project players who need some game time to accelerate their international careers.

Rather than play the Kiwis, who will be overly physical and desperate to beat Aus, I'd suggest Malaysia, Indonesia or Singapore as opponents over three games.


I haven't watched  enough ALM to suggest a young CB, but Deng and Delbridge have  had recent Socceroo game time and are experienced enough to maintain the team shape and organise others, as is Grant at RB.

I've only seen Arzani play one game as a number Ten. Is he anywhere near good enough in his old role as a winger?

Arzani just not consistent enough atm with only 1 goal, 5 assists- compared to other wingers like Tilio, Borello, Leckie, Irankunda, Goodwin 

it's so sad watching his old videos of him tearing up the league. What could of been... hopefully he can get back to that level.

Wouldn't mind us playing a thailand or vietnam. Good technical teams we need to learn to beat.

FT: 🇳🇿 New Zealand 0️⃣-0️⃣ China PR 🇨🇳

China are held to a goalless draw against 10-man New Zealand in a friendly match at Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland!

It's all close together in CONCACAF. It's fantastic to see their Nations league underway.

West and East Asia need one each. It'd be pretty complicated. The World cup qualifying already doubled as Asian cup qualifying so there's a leaner sense there.

The Nations league is good for the second chance lower teams can have to qualifying for tournaments. There's a bit of a flaw though. I think Germany once had such a high rank that they could've lost every qualifying game but still had their nations league rank for the playoff. 

Argentina 2 Panama 0
Japan 1 Uruguay 1
South Korea 2 Colombia 2

Saudi Arabia 1 Venezuela 2

Looks like the top ranked teams in Asia are good enough for some South American teams now.

Uzbekistan 1 Bolivia 0
Iran 1 Russia 1
Malaysia 1 Turkmenistan 0
Singapore 1 Hong Kong 1
New Zealand 0 China 0

https://youtu.be/8dnsDhfTB30

South Korea Colombia

https://youtu.be/o4xeiIj4110

Japan Uruguay 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PImtlKZkT_M

Massive Arnold interview pre  WC. Hadn't come across this yet. Definitely looks worth listening to.

Germany Peru friendly. A real treat to see how both are post WC 2022 phase. Plenty of Peru fans in Mainz. Credit to them.

In an Australian contest,  Iran drawing with Russia is a good result, unless they had those huge 128 000 home crowds in Teheran.

China are a woeful, underachieving  national  team with the domestic league they have. A draw with the Kiwis is appalling!

Great to see the Uzbeks beat Bolivia.

NZ beat China 2:1 today. I'm fond of NZ and wish them well. They've got a lot of interesting players and were so close to making WC 22

Morocco 2 Brazil 1 in a homecoming game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44Rrc416VAI

Germany 2 Peru 0
Indonesia 3 Burundi 1
Georgia 6 Mongolia 1
Myanmar 1 Kyrgyzstan 1
Bangladesh 1 Seychelles 0
UAE 0 Tajikistan 0
Syria 3 Thailand 1
Venezuela 2 Saudi Arabia 1
Kuwait 2 Philippines 0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQirQf01LEo

Japan 1 Colombia 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6LN8Rq-46I

South Korea 1 Uruguay 2

Wow 2:0 Scotland vs Spain on 50min. They've definitely made and plan and followed it. Amazing how you can go when you identify and exploit opponents weaknesses. Spain are shocked and look lost.

Scotland have beaten Spain. Well done. Plan went off without a hitch. Spain themselves absolutely rubbish tonight. They struggled against Norway too who only drew in Georgia so the group is wide open.

Unfortunately Scottish fans have about 25 years of argument material after that win.... 

Iran 2 Kenya 1
Uzbekistan 1 Venezuela 1
Bolivia 2 Saudi Arabia 1
UAE 2 Thailand 0
Germany 2 Belgium 3

After that Deng performance, it’s even more crucial that we convince Circati to select Australia. 

I'm going to post a current Socceroo best first eleven given the late WCQ campaign,  Qatar WC performances and the two friendlies against Ecuador.


....................................Ryan

Degenek.........Souttar..........Rowles.........Behich

..................O'Neill....................Mooy
.................................Irvine

Boyle....................Duke........................Goodwin

New selection - O'Neill impressive both as a rugged ball winner - and - a ball player. Has good vision and game sense too. Could compensate for Mooy's declining mobility. He is a Mark Milligan or Vince Grella type player.


Subs:
Atkinson - better overlapping attacking RB than Deg. Deg needed for experience. Deg can also switch to CB.
Gauci- we have a new quality keeper from a new generation. Made some good saves against Ecuador. Sweeps well too.
Robertson - haven't seen enough of him, but looks to be a quality technician. 
Delbridge - big, strong, rugged CB. Needed against Ecuador without Souttar. Roughed up the very physical  Kiwis.
Leckie - his experience needed. 
Tilio - impresses in his cameos.
Kuol -  great potential.
Bos - impressive debut,  Not as good  defending as going forward and overlapping as an attacking LB.
McGree - ATM I think Irvine is better as the Attacking Mid.  Haven't  seen enough of  him play wing.
Rogic - well documented skill set.
Hrustic - dropped unless he plays as a winger. Has consummate skill on the ball for a winger, but lacks requisite game sense and insight for midfield positions. Useless as a DM and Irvine, McGree and Robertson, plus Piscopo and Daniel Da Silva, are all ahead of him at Attacking Mid.
Mabil- good dribbling and ball carrying skills running at defenders and has composure around goal.
Borrello - good as a central striker.  Can also play wing.
Maclaren - good finisher, but although a very good A L striker, struggles a bit  internationally without a team game plan centred around him. 

Mark 00 has set up a new separate thread with other Asian nations  in recent friendlies.

There are some interesting results.

https://www.sportbible.com/football/spain-rodri-interview-scotland-fan-reaction-146498-20230329?source=facebook

Oh fuck off. The boring ball hogging Spanish shite couldn't handle some physical pressing and exposure of their weaknesses. Scotland were fine. They certainly didn't dive, moan to the ref and swarm the ref at every occasion. 

Spain rotated heavily and they were just terrible. Scotland had their plan and it was excellent execution. Kudos to that. It was essentially a less is more approach and it worked. Simples. 

The trend from the World Cup continues - of high possession teams getting beaten by aggressive (in the sense of turning every possession into attack), high pressing counter-attacking teams.

Optus have just posted photos of the new Australia kit. Being female models it's definitely for the Matildas. I just hope the Roos don't go away from the world cup kit so soon. It's grown in me with the positive performance.

Sky blue away. Stupid green emblem patch on the Gold 

Welcome to the forum, Olderroo.

  Most teams like to win the ball back in the attacking third - often called counter pressing in a Full Press.

Even teams who play a possession game, like France and Argentina, try to win the ball back as close to the  opposition goal as possible. They still prefer to play patient build ups from back to  front. But they will aggressively Squeeze in the 6 seconds of their Defensive Transition in the attacking third, to win the ball, and be able to launch an accelerated attack close to the opposition goal.

One phenomenon which is slightly  puzzling to me, is that young  Socceroos emerging, if not definite starters in the Socceroo first eleven, or  very close, it is  that the change  is occurring in the defence.


..........................................Gauci

Atkinson..............Souttar.............Rowles............Bos

........................................O'Neill


This sextet are all under 25yo.

This bodes well for the future, if they continue to develop and don't get injured.  

With the keeper, 2 CBs and DM position, it is critical  these players have organisational ability, game sense and a good grasp of positional play. They are critical  positions  in maintaining team shape in possession, and, when  the other team has the ball.