FIFA World Cup thread

Well if we had a mountain to climb against Denmark, it was only a hill compared to what lay ahead.
All we can aak is another monster effort, but eliminating the first 1/2 hour which wasn’t great.
If we start like that again it will be 2-0 before we warm up. But that’s past."
Armies job, again, is to make them believe ! The bodies will be aching but if he can get inside their heads then who knows.
 
jirskyr said:
You should have low expectations - football in Australia has always been struggling to compete with the other codes, and probably that will continue.
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This is not true at the junior level. Less people are playing league and more are playing soccer with multiple divisions in each age group.
 
watersider said:
Watching them play Denmark reminds me of the way most Middle East countries play against us: very defensive structure and playing for the counter attack. It's ugly but it frustrates the opposition and has worked again. We really conceded no sustained chances and were tactically superior to Denmark, who needed to win and had the superior squad. Same goes for Tunisia, and even Peru in qualifiers. I think it shows a bit of maturity and sophistication in our play that we can win this way, and we've obviously learnt something from our Asian football experience and grown from it.

Arnold has gotten results playing very defensive football and I think this goes against what Craig Foster and critics have argued for, which is attacking aggressive football. It's funny to hear them laud the coaching now when they are so critical when we don't win (ala France match). I tended to agree with the critics too, I don't like sitting back like we do, but there's no way this group of players should have made it even to the world cup, let alone the final 16 from that group, so great effort by Arnold against all the noise and criticism. It's also a victory for the A-League, despite the sloppiness of it, in that you can build a successful squad around A-League players.

It's interesting watching the level of confidence and ownership players like Mooy, Duke and Behich have. Beside Mooy, these are not very well credentialed players, and the technical quality is not that high, but there's strong belief and they execute their roles well. With the exception of Atkinson in the first match, the players have looked composed and competitive. This really highlights the positive impact of coaching imo, players playing well beyond themselves.

We performed very well against Italy 16 years ago in the round of 16, and I'm thrilled we get to play Messi and Argentina. Others wanting lesser opponents miss the great opportunity of the world cup, which is to see our plodders face the best in the world, and perhaps some of the best all time. It's magnificent and a rare privilege to see.
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Touching on your point about playing aggressive attacking football, you have to have the class up front to do that. No disrespect intended to Duke, MacLaren et al, but we don't have world class finishers. Goodwin's goal was a good finish, Duke's header was class and with all due respect to Leckie, he dusted the Danish defender with some good footwork and sent it on it's way, but it's a good thing he shanked it off the boot and it skidded wide because if he hit it clean I think it goes straighter and Kaspar saves that. They're all goals and they got us through, but we don't have the ability to bury a game by nailing two or three goals quickly.

The tactics to rely on the back four to keep it tight is probably the right move given our comparative lack of class up front.
 
Cultured_Bogan said:
Touching on your point about playing aggressive attacking football, you have to have the class up front to do that. No disrespect intended to Duke, MacLaren et al, but we don't have world class finishers. Goodwin's goal was a good finish, Duke's header was class and with all due respect to Leckie, he dusted the Danish defender with some good footwork and sent it on it's way, but it's a good thing he shanked it off the boot and it skidded wide because if he hit it clean I think it goes straighter and Kaspar saves that. They're all goals and they got us through, but we don't have the ability to bury a game by nailing two or three goals quickly.

The tactics to rely on the back four to keep it tight is probably the right move given our comparative lack of class up front.
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Can we get Erling Haarland to migrate south from Norway before the next World Cup? :ROFLMAO:
 
jirskyr said:
You should have low expectations - football in Australia has always been struggling to compete with the other codes, and probably that will continue.

Although this particular team is fighting hard in a tournament that appears to have levelled the playing field with its timing and temperature, there is a distinct lack of quality in Australian football, which has been slightly patched-over by raids on Scottish football. Obviously Australia barely qualified for the tournament, because Asian qualifiers are now long and difficult (but fair) journeys for our squads.

The development strategy of the past 20 years, and investment in the A-League is not producing sufficient quality of young footballers. I don't know the intricate details, but they didn't choose the current approach for fun; the FFA must have believed they were pursuing a decent strategy. And the money available pales in comparison to the other football codes.
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Mate the problem with the A League is there too busy focusing on washed up veterans instrad of developing youth
 
I'm pretty sure the FFA had the notion that by trying to consolidate in Australia our national players would play with/against each other more which would make a more cohesive team. There was one World Cup (I want to say 2010 or 2014,) where we had our first choice 11 playing in 10 different leagues across 9 countries. And they looked like they'd never played together before.

Problem is as mentioned before, any kid that looks like they're going to have the slightest bit of talent goes overseas, which is understandable because they go to play with the best and be paid accordingly.
 
upthetigers said:
This is not true at the junior level. Less people are playing league and more are playing soccer with multiple divisions in each age group.
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But is that translating into adult-level success?

You can have a million kids playing soccer but it won't get you far if they are not funded and the pathways stink.

Rugby league on the other hand - very successful in turning promising junior talents into world-class players.
 
I’m sorry soccerroos you guys are allowed to come home. Wallabies however stay out in the wilderness until you sort ya self out
 
Halbrowne61 said:
Well if we had a mountain to climb against Denmark, it was only a hill compared to what lay ahead.
All we can aak is another monster effort, but eliminating the first 1/2 hour which wasn’t great.
If we start like that again it will be 2-0 before we warm up. But that’s past."
Armies job, again, is to make them believe ! The bodies will be aching but if he can get inside their heads then who knows.
Click to expand...
Yeah probably the biggest concern is playing with so little possession will cook you ....they looked very tired the last 5 minutes....
 
To think they are going to look at having penalty shoot-outs at the end of group games

This morning was insane ....at one stage within 5 minutes either of the 4 sides in the group were going through ....and one of those sides got beaten 7 - 0...
 
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