The Road to Russia 2018

[sevengoals]

Australia 2-1 Syria

Game over.

[bpowell454]

What are we celebrating? We are nowhere near one of the top 32 teams in the world. We have no right to take up a spot at the world cup at the moment.

[sevengoals]

The Intercontinental play-off here we come.

[shinAUFC]

The real story here is Syria, I absolutely take my hat off to them. Hopefully next world cup they can qualify playing at home.

Adelaide would have a higher attendance to this game, however given North Terrace is currently all dug up it just wouldnt have been possible.

[shinAUFC]

chile and usa out !!! woweeee!!

We play Honduras, will be a very different kind if game than in asia. I expect Honduras to try out play us rather than sitting back.

Strong rumours ange is leaving after the play off .

Also disaapointed in the Aus media for casting Syria in the light that they did. No doubt the manager took things a little to far. However that was just weak and lazy journalism.

[Ghost]

The no denial response to the reports says everything.

Ange should be sacked.

[sevengoals]

I don't know what is going on down there, things happen while I'm sleeping...

If Postecoglou qualifies for Russia why would he want to step down?

His job is to get the national team to the WC.
I don't give a fark how he does it.
I'm willing to take the crap games, the just scraped by wins and the flukes.
Fark yes!
I'd rather have that and qualify than sit on the sidelines every four year and watch the other people having all the fun at the WC.

And when you are there anything is possible.

[EdDog]

Ange reportedly has taken exception to the ongoing criticism of him in the media.

As the old saying goes Ange, if you can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen.

If he’s leaving after our next two games, I agree with Ghost that we should sack him now and give Gomby the reins.

[Ghost]

Ange reportedly has taken exception to the ongoing criticism of him in the media.

As the old saying goes Ange, if you can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen.

If he’s leaving after our next two games, I agree with Ghost that we should sack him now and give Gomby the reins.

A new report he is leaving because his relationship with the FFA management, especially David Gallop has failed starting from when he was forced to retract comments regarding the pay dispute. He is also annoyed at things like his scouting resources being cut so he cannot fully monitor overseas players. However he feels he has the responsibility to get us to the world cup first before leaving and he apparently has interest from overseas clubs.
A total mess.

[shinAUFC]

Im guessing there is alot of politics behind the scenes.

I truly beleive there is a campaign out there to dethrone him. Since he was forced to retract his statements media reports from outlets contractually connected to FFA seemed to really double down on him and to my ears lead an agenda against him.

For example look how they reacted when ange put mooy on in the 12th minute. They couldnt wait to paint the picture if a stubborn manager backing down. In reality it was a forced decision due to an injury.

I have a feeling ange us stuck between a rock abd a hard place and the truth will never come to light. There is clearly much going on behind the scenes and it certainly seems like the football media is in ffa’s pocket

[shinAUFC]

in saying all of that i certainly dont think ange is above being critised.

I just feel there has something very off fir a last year or so and multiple personalities / outlets seem to be involved

[sevengoals]

FFA OUT!!!


(Woops, I forgot the smiley...)

[Stuckey]

Yeah I agree Shin, He's clearly not been the same person after FFA forcing him to retract statements.
It does seem like he's tiring of the constant battle.

But IMO he does bring a lot of that on himself. We made Syria look a lot better than they were. We would take 37 passes to hit their defence while a turnover and three passes from them and they are in the penalty area.
I'm a huge fan of Ange but some times its clear when a coach is out of options or ideas.
As I've said before the national team's results are a reflection on where the game is. It's no shock that we're struggling to match this world cup. TBH a small part of me wishes we don't make it as I'm certain something as drastic as that would finally wake the FFA up to the fact that the game is stagnate.

[shinAUFC]

I think the whole saga shows the footballing media in this country (atleast those connected to TV rights ( including the newspapers) are not free and publish anything that does not follow the narrative of their business partners.

This obviously is no surprise for non eastern states football fans but i feel like this has been stepped up to the next level.

When reading articles from independant journos the tone of the articles are very different. Even if they have a critique of the manager they can atleast articulate the how why and when rather than just use a throw away argument that requires little insight.

Ange has made some mistakes, however we also overestimate the quality of our team and TOTALLY underestimate the ability of our opponents.

For example check out this guy
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Al_Somah
Im not sure we have an Australian striker who could play for the saudis biggest club with that kind of goal to game ratio. There is a senae of priveledge in the way football fans abd the media underestimate many of theae players

[View From The Top]

For example check out this guy
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Al_Somah
Im not sure we have an Australian striker who could play for the saudis biggest club with that kind of goal to game ratio. There is a senae of priveledge in the way football fans abd the media underestimate many of theae players

What do you expect when the media in this country can hardly be bothered reporting on local football, and the only media outlet with an interest in the game is not interested in anything outside of the big four European leagues? These players are simply unknown, and the natural reaction is to discount the quality of anything that you don't know or understand.