2018 World Cup

[sevengoals]

Teams play solid football to qualify and then seem to forget everything when they are there.

[Obarizk]

People are taking this saudi loss a little far.

Claiming there is something wrong with the qualification process is short sighted. The saudis played very well in qualification, countries like Italy and USA did not play well when qualifying. Despite the famous Recoba mantra no one has a divine right to qualify.

When brazil let 7 goals in against germany their right to compete was not questioned.

As far as im concerned, every country who qualified 100% deserves to be there. Countries who did not qualify need only look at their results and blame themselves

You are completely right, there was nothing wrong with the qualification process.

However the Saudi's who played Russia were not the same team as the team who qualified because they changed manager. They tried to play a quick short passing game and in the first few minutes it looked a bit promising, but they simply are not talented enough to play it. Russia quickly stopped their game plan and they had no plan B and they could not rely on their defence to keep them in the game so they got thrashed.

[shinAUFC]

yeah very poor.

Its a shame because im so sick of the eurosnobs of the world talking down asia as a legitimate footballing region, even Japan struggles to show its quality at the world cup.

I think its a mental issue of the region ( not beleiving they belong ) rather than an ability issue.

[shinAUFC]

Just when you thought the vu vu zela had left the world cup arena.....

[sevengoals]

yeah very poor.

Its a shame because im so sick of the eurosnobs of the world talking down asia as a legitimate footballing region, even Japan struggles to show its quality at the world cup.

I think its a mental issue of the region ( not beleiving they belong ) rather than an ability issue.

I thought "aussie euro snobs" were only snobby towards the a-league.

This attitude smells fishy.

[sevengoals]

Bert van Marwijk has urged Australia to be themselves in the lead-up to their World Cup opener against France in Kazan on Saturday.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... oos-france


Is this good?
Of course it is!

( What else can we do?)


COME ON AUSTRALIA!!!







EdDog!
Give us a wave!

[shinAUFC]

No shame in parking the bus tonight!

Actually wouldnt mind cahill starting tonight. Give every other player defensive duties and allow timmy to position himself to score in the Air.

According to reports france have the most expensive squad just shy of $1 billion , what a massive opportunity this is for Australia

[Obarizk]

I would not be surprised if we are down 4-0 within the first 15 minutes, but if they don't blow us away right from the start then maybe we can make it a contest.

The trouble is the defence is weak, and has not seemed brilliantly organised in the last couple of friendlies, the midfield is not really suited to playing an harassing defensive game that might put the French off their game and we struggle to score goals. Apart from that I think we have a great chance of scraping a draw.

[Obarizk]

No shame in parking the bus tonight!

Actually wouldnt mind cahill starting tonight. Give every other player defensive duties and allow timmy to position himself to score in the Air.

According to reports france have the most expensive squad just shy of $1 billion , what a massive opportunity this is for Australia

I have wondered what would have happened against Netherlands last time if Cahill had not turned that rather hopeful long ball into the box into a great goal. They might have just blown us away. However with the little he has played does he really have more than 20-30 minutes in him?

[shinAUFC]

No shame in parking the bus tonight!

Actually wouldnt mind cahill starting tonight. Give every other player defensive duties and allow timmy to position himself to score in the Air.

According to reports france have the most expensive squad just shy of $1 billion , what a massive opportunity this is for Australia

I have wondered what would have happened against Netherlands last time if Cahill had not turned that rather hopeful long ball into the box into a great goal. They might have just blown us away. However with the little he has played does he really have more than 20-30 minutes in him?

Probably has little gas in him, thats why i propose giving him zero defensive duties. Although this could pose a problem in its self as we need the biggest bus in russia!

If we are going to totally concede to the quality of france then i would put nabbout upfront and give him instruction to press and defend until he has nothing to give. Save our more likely strikers for a game where he may actually see some ball in the front third.

Luongo over rogic for this game also, its all about defending , dont try out football france!

Leckies pace coupled with mooys vision on the counter isprobably our only hope in open play but france will be well aware of it, an over confident france may leave some gaps at the back .

[shinAUFC]

Jedinak starts! Good choice imo and allows us to take a punt on rogic creating

[Obarizk]

Sainsbury brilliant, not a huge surprise, Milligan also brilliant perhaps more of surprise. Mooy has been excellent, Jedinak very solid and no one playing badly. Nabbout is on a hiding to nothing but he is running his legs off.

[Obarizk]

Very good team effort, defensively the best performance we have produced for a very long time.
A bit unfortunate by Risdon to give away the penalty but it was the correct decision.

[blahblah]

A painful loss last night. We really looked good for the draw, How many touches did Mooy have? He was everywhere.

A lot of positives to draw from the game.

[Obarizk]

According to whoscored, if their stats can be trusted, I have my doubts.
Mooy had 58 passes at 77.6%
Milligan had 75 passes and 88%

Mooy also had 5 tackles, equal most with Kruse, 3 intercepts and 5 clearances. Interestingly Sainsbury is credited with no tackles, neither was Jedinak.

Looking at the stats even though the France midfield got a lot more of the ball Leckie actually had more passes than Griezmann, Dembele and Mpabbe which really shows how the defence shut them out of the game.