I noticed her too!

She’s a lucky woman!

They panned the camera to Maty sitting in the stands with an absolute gorgeous woman sitting next to him... I'm assuming it was his misses.

Wouldn't worry too much about Metcalfe's shortcomings.

The talent from the 23 and under players coming through is high in quality and quantity. ATM Metcalfe is an Arnie favourite, because of his terrific work rate off the ball, and being a muscular, power, central midfielder.

I have seen approx 10 younger Aus midfielders coming  through, with superior technique on the ball to Metcalfe. A number of them can defend too. Apart from having a big current advantage in experience, Metcalfe's time as a senior Socceroo for a  starting player won't last long if all the young  midfielders keep  improving at the rate they are.

The likes of Jake Hollman, gets his head up when running  with the ball or dribbling. Ditto Lachlan Brook. This enables them to make better decisions when they have the ball at their feet, than the likes of Metcalfe and Irvine.

Although playing  slightly different positions, the likes  of Niuewenhof, probably cover Metcalfe in most aspects of play - ball winning, ball playing, insight - apart from attacking prowess.

Can't see Metcalfe or McGree playing Right Wing again if the likes of a resurgent Arzani, Irankunda, Boyle and Brook are available.

Missed that game, but I do wonder if he’s best trying to become a right side specialist, as a winger or even right back, especially at B1 level. I’m I unconvinced about him in the centre of the park. 

Just so much easier against a side that was very naive in their high line. Played right into our strengths. Can only hope some teams in the next round make a similar mistake.

With the omissions from this squad we've got some really good depth now and they all know the set up. The first match day is home to pot 4 and away to 6. 6 points are a must. 

I watched the game. Meh. He is not a ‘proper’ winger- same as Bos isn’t - but at least Bos has good skills as a left back. I remember Baccus was good. Will be very surprised if Metcalfe will survive Bundesliga - especially with new coach

He was immense against England at Wembley. Not sure what position he was playing. Most likely out wide on the right

Metcalfe is yet to impress me at all in any of the matches he has played for Socceroos so far. Every other player (except Duke lol) i can see their abilities being of some value at least. 

all ok guys in following posts.
1st one was a soft imo, no matter which team I follow or NT, I reckon was fair enough challenge and they crossed each other.
No matter which team I follow or NT you happily take the decision.
The 2nd yep was an obvious handball I'm just saying its soft the defender screwing up as such no more or less, as the attacking team bonus.

robbos think we will cut our loss's possibly Burgess won't see Nunez with redmen, mind you he'll be tested every single game will be interesting viewing.

When playing with two No.9s someone has to link up with the midfield and to be fair Taggart especially in the second half made us more effective by doing that.

It will be interesting to see if they go back to the one No.9 against the tougher teams.

If there is another No.6 playing in a higher level than league 1 then I think he's in trouble in losing he's spot.

So hard to know what to make of Metcalfe, I thought we lost a huge amount of control when he came on for Baccus. I don’t know about him as a true 6.

meanwhile we have a first choice 6 from league 1 (who seems to go ok).

Upon review of both the third goal, and the second penalty:

Boyle is offside in the build up for the third goal. Yengi is not offside for the shot. Would still be brought back for offside under VAR though.
And the handball is handball. Can't even see the 'soft' arguments in that, it's not like those standard "hand above head" penalties, it's above and outstretched towards another player (as someone mentioned earlier).

Couldn't see any offsides in the second or fourth goal.

LOL.
I well into the beers at the game, and after the first penalty they didn't seem to show any replays, so had no idea how we'd been awarded that 2nd penalty - it just seemed to come out of nothing.

Watched the highlights this morning and happily reverse my comment - the 2nd penalty was correct and NOT a soft penalty.

Our passing out of the backline was inaccurate far too often and players further upfield also gave the ball away more than we are used to - maybe that is players just out of playing form at the moment but it has to improve before serious games.

Yengi had a good game but I find him a bit slow on his feet when he is working to shoot. Put him against faster, more skilled defenders and they will nick the ball or shut him down before he can get his shots away.

We looked to play a more expansive game and the higher line of the Palestinian team let us do that. I think that will just reinforce to other teams that playing a packed back will stifle our play and the higher line will expose them to our attacks.

I really liked the way we looked to pass off in the final moments of build up rather than taking our first chance and shooting. The goal Taggart set up was fantastic team play to turn a chance into a certainty.

For the first pen I found it interesting. It was similar to any player putting themselves between the ball carrier and the ball. In many cases that is considered to be taking possession if the ball is within playing distance and the subsequent foul would go with the defender. On the other hand, it could be looked at as impeding the run of the attacker if the ball is not within playing distance. I think that the defender going airborne was the deciding factor - showing that he wasn't going for the ball (like I think NicCarBel alluded to earlier). Compare it to Farrell stepping in front of a player going for the ball, being considered to have taken possession, then being hit from behind and getting the freekick awarded to him and it is not that different.

The 'soft' handball penalty is a clear penalty and I read it that everyone agrees with that. The 'softness' mentioned is just that it was one of those stupid things players do in the box sometimes that gave it away when it shouldn't ever happen like that. I have to say though, without the handball he was still fouling the Aussie player with illegal contact by trying to push him in the back.

Stamatelopolous and Irankunda really did not get much of a chance to show us what they can do at that level. From the moment they came on the focus of the game seemed to shift away from open play and constructive attacks to passing straight to opposition players or holding the ball back. It was the perfect for them both to be running around for an hour at least and what a chance that would be for us to see them play outside their aleagues teams.

Good to get a win on the basis of several goals and some nice periods of constructive attack. Not so good that we exposed ourselves as easily we did when a very skilful Palestinian side took their chances to apply pressure.

Much better game to watch than the Bangladesh mudbath.

Have only seen the first incident (didn't watch much of the game last night) - Will stand by the decision to give a penalty.
If you take the match context out these incidents, it's no different (apart from one was a slide, and one was not) to the Grosso/Neill penalty against Italy in 2006.

I can see the arguments for and against, and it's 'very soft'. But I still think the referee is within his rights to give a penalty there. Would I have in the same position? Not sure. I was watching the incident back knowing there was a penalty being given, so that might have influenced my opinion on that incident.

Geez LFC, if those penalties came for Liverpool, you'd be screaming for penalty. Both clear to me, first one maybe a bit soft, but 2nd one clear handball, he went to punch it.

Looking forward to Burgess smashing Nunez in the PL next year.

we all see it differently, soft 1st pen imo reviewed it a few times and there is always some refs who wouldn't have given it as well.
3/4 goals were offside.
The last being another pen, actually the defender wasn't even looking at the ball point of contact, trouble was he had his arm extended out at critical point of momentum - soft because it was a stupid error and pen no argument but soft by the defender.

I actually thought Palestine looked very active through that 1st half, pressing hard, their ball work/technique let them down in possession.
Burgess looked good imo due to the opposition, against a ore mobile and better quality NT he'll get found out more than not.
Circati should be paired with Souttar now imo.
He showed class/position and distribution, likes looking for that big switch play - ok against these kind of guys who played high but not for every game depending who you play.

Played on a decent pitch too.

Bos provides a lot of offensive thrust with his superb ball carrying runs.

Behich's defensive positional play from so much experience is an asset too.

Even though I prefer a single striker, Taggart's goal was superb. His striker's shot was superb - as was the build up play.

Also, Taggart's well timed diagonal  run for Yengi ( I think ?), to put Taggart through and break the line,  then with Taggart's  superb pass under pressure to give Boyle a sitter, was also  tremendous play individually, and team play, from Yengi and Boyle ( good off the ball running and anticipation).

Furthermore,  both goals were created centrally - not the constant wide left and wide right play against Bangla. It also helped that Palestine played a higher defensive line too.

exactly right.... made all the space in the world for us, tactical naivety from them but kudos they kept coming all match... 

Against Bangla when we had the ball , Arnie played a 4-3-3 attacking midfield triangle, with either Duke or Yengi tucking in more centrally on the left. Bos at LB was often the  sole wide player on the left flank against Bangla.

Against Palestine the 4-4-2  flat midfield in BPO, or the 4-4-2  bowl shaped midfield in Ball Possession, left too much of a hole behind the attacking duo. I prefer a 4-3-3, with one central striker, to gain more  midfield dominance. Yes we scored  5 goals, but a different ref and it could have been 2-0 or 3-0.

Wonder what has happened to the 4-4-2 midfield diamond, that Arnie used to use? Pim liked it too.

Don't usually get involved in refereeing decisions.

 However,  the first  pen was soft for us. The third goal was marginally offside. Yengi wouldn't have scored  a nicely crafted team goal with VAR.

Was also disappointed some of the newer  Socceroos didn't get a better run against Palestine. To play Irvine, a veteran throughout  both games, was surprising? Arnie stated he needed him for onfield leadership. True.

But far more important to the national team is to see what Arzani and Nisbet could do against Palestine, a better team than Bangla, on a decent pitch. 

I thought Arzani's skill, attacking verve  and crossing, and general creativity against Bangla was outstanding, on a shocking pitch.

I also thought Nisbet 's passing and moving in tight paces and donkey work in BPO was  good against Bangla too.

For mine, Strain looks a superior RB to Jones. It would have been good to see  the former  get a run against  Palestine.

Stam should have been brought on earlier. We know what Yengi can do. Stam did not receive enough touches, but what I saw impressed me. Off forum mates who are Newcastle supporters wax lyrical about him.

Devlin needed more time on the pitch against Palestine. Bringing Metcalfe on was counterproductive, unless he replaced Irvine. Both are power midfielders, short on skill. I was pleased to see  Metcalfe demonstrate some better technical qualities on the ball. Despite  Irvine doing a lot of good other  stuff, his technique in tight spaces let him down in both games. I think Metcalfe is a more skilful power midfielder. 

 Irvine lacks the fast feet on the ball in limited time and space, that the likes of Arzani and Nisbet have. Whilst Irvine is on the pitch, apart from his fast running with the ball on the counter, we can't move the ball quickly enough to pull defences out of shape. Irvine's handling speed is too slow. The likes of Arzani, Nisbet,  O'Neill, and the younger Nieuw, Jake Hollman, Youlley, Valadon, Teague et al, have sufficient handling speed for the Socceroo team unit to move the ball more quickly in midfield.

Still Devlin needed more time on the pitch against Palestine.  He hasn't done much wrong in  the last two games in his cameos.

Until last night, I had always thought of Burgess as the weakest of our four CBs, Souttar, Rowles, Circati and himself. He put in a good shift last night. More aerially  dominant than he has been, winning plenty of hard balls too, and generally,  but not always always, was composed on the ball.

Punching the ball away in the penalty area isn't soft.  There's not a ref in the world that wouldn't give that.
The first penalty, the defender was in the air both feet off the ground with a knee raised.  It was a careless and dangerous tackle/body check in the penalty area. 
Looked like the other three all had elements of offside at some point in the build-up.

Didn't impress me as a performance overall.  At times in the second half they seemed to have lost their drive.

pretty much agree with all BUT I saw all 5 live haha...

Good to see Behich back on the left, considerable step up from Bos, who just runs with the ball until he loses it. 

Well thanks to Palestine for playing a higher line. Here's hoping the high pressure stakes of the next round will see opponents play that bit higher against us. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez2j2Zg84cM
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