OMG we score from playing directly!!!!

Rawlins at LCB in build up. Keep an eye on that. Clearly one of the sharpest out there and he's played at U23 level.

Triantis is Sainsbury 2.0. Sprinklers....

Minutes this season:

Lopane 227
Segecic 651
Drew 742
Simmons 172
Popvic 493
Forde 286
O'Donnell 122

What a lovely free kick goal by Segecic! 2:0

Tokyo vibes this seeing our young players unexpectedly do well. Despite the absolute blindness of the opening 2min we seem focused and pumped. Interesting is our best two in Rawlins and Triantis are calm and poised as a CB pairing.

WAs release for this mandatory by clubs? I totally get how Adelaide would feel with Irankunda. I'd have to trawl to find anyone of eligible who shouldn't have missed out. To show how young this age is, Bos and Teague are ineligible. Can debate it all day but I wish Garang were here for this. The big if of making the WC means hopefully the better bunch will all go.

Goal Iran. Way to casual by Forde there.

Good save by JW

3:1. Lovely transition!!! Segecic on the double

Bernado having fun with the space afforded. Good game management experience for these players now. Should have buried a 4th by now.

Has to be said drew is very impressive 

OH FFS victory on Drew's foot but they scramble to block. Should have done better. We're still pushing and fighting but two goal leads and Iran....

Young Leckie strong drive on ball type.

After multiple chances denied at their end Iran now make it 2:3 with 10 to go. Now we're in for a big big fight. So unnecessary. 

Really scrappy goals to concede 

8 added. Rigged! 

So far hanging on 

That was their chance 

Australia win. Iran miss a sitter at the death. Could've been 7:3 for Australia. Hard fought and a good second half. Should have buried it earlier with a fourth goal as that second Iran goal really saw the clock standstill for 20min. A good aggressive battle by the Australian players. Lots of block by Iran for the Australian chances.

Decent performance against one of the best afc nations

where is alargich out of curiosity?

So I guess we want Qatar to beat Vietnam? 

Madanha just got up and down the wing today as a right back. Top shift. The centre back pairing of Triantis and Rawlins was very composed and their sharpness and superior level showed. Forde not too good today. Weak for the first goal. Upon reflection O'Donnell was very industrious and started to shine near the end winning the ball. Lopane was ok. Segecic had his day. Drew was most impressive and Popovic had good positioning to help chances develop. Oliveria looked very comfortable against a tiring Iran. We won but it's a shame we didn't get the fouth goal.

STATS

Aus-Iran
Pos: 46:54
Shots: 21:9
On target: 8:6

It appears H2H is the tie breaker.

The group is thrown open now. 

If we are serious Segecic should be the next No.10 after Rogic and Hrustic, hes that good for me.

Technically excellent but has that creativity and vision which made me think he reminds me of a player in Daniel Pehna when he at the Jets and we know how good he was for them but this time we have Aussie version with Segecic.

But we know he's at a club that doesn't often play young players especially when they use him out of position too so this is a concern, I really feel Australian coaches dont give the same responsibility to young Australian players who play in those key positions on the pitch contrast to foreign players who get the benefit of the doubt.
Because we have players capable of playing in key creative and forward positions as we seen with Botic recently, but it just that it takes some balls from local coaches to do so which is disappointing.

Much better with the ball movement in this game, we moved the ball quicker which helped too.

Also we pressed alot better which I dont think they tried enough against Vietnam who played quite slow.

Wonder why sfc arent playing him much?

Just need these younger players to be given the faith and played more than hack recycled locals and underwhelming imports. Sure, the league needs top quality from abroad and the young players need to earn it but there's enough game time around. WU for example, Botic is starting and kicking on. Pain, Troisi, Kilkenny are still serving well but I fear it keeps the younger players out that bit longer. Two more A league clubs would relieve the pressure. 

Segicic is surrounded by a number of good seasoned players.

They have a history that's for sure as a big club with an conservative coach in Corica who favours the older players, as we know they also let talented players in Tilio and Hollman go as well.

Also the likes of Yazbek, Peupion and Teague were sold overseas so its odd for a club they develops good young players to either let them go or not used enough or least give them more scope to develop.

The need of more teams through the NSD and expansion should help but clubs need to be conscious when to use talented young players as well I think.