Socceroos / Matildas / World Cup / Asian Cup

[mightytiges]

Another penalty to us  .

3-0 

Off to the World Cup we go! 

[dwaino]

Woohoo!

Would be great if NZ make it too.

[Diocletian]

 Australia in the WC Finals - Italy not #2006neverforget

[Diocletian]

Sheep Shaggers Max Gawn, Paddington's Lima Beaners last in....

[one-eyed]

The 32 teams that qualified for Russia 2018:

Asia (5): Australia, Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea.

Europe (14): Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Iceland, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.

South America (5):  Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay.

North America (3): Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama.

Africa (5): Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia.



The World Cup draw will be held on 1 December 2017 at the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow. The 32 teams will be drawn into eight groups of four.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_FIFA_World_Cup#Participating_teams

[dwaino]

Real good chance to get a favourable group I think.

[dwaino]

Just checking out the Pots and due to some good countries missing it really opens up potentially favourable pot 2 and definitely pot 3 match ups. Sweden are deadly from pot 3 though. Poland a real dark horse. Given they’ve drawn pot 1 they should cruise through the group. I liked them at the Euros. Portugal’s rank must have soared up after winning the Euros though and imo they’re punching above their weight to get pot 1. Maybe they can draw their way through to the knock outs again. Looking at pots 2 and 3 we could definitely get a win and a draw with the potential match ups. Japan’s slide is pretty evident now, normally they would be around pot 3 I would have thought so they’re not going to get a free hit against a pot 4 like they normally would.

Crossing my fingers for something like a Russia, Peru, Egypt 

[one-eyed]

Yep, here's the pots:


https://twitter.com/FIFAWorldCup/status/931023806348398593

[Damo]

Probably get Germany Spain Sweden

[dwaino]

Ange gone.

[mightytiges]

Ange gone.

Disappointing given all what Ange has done for the game here and with the job only half done but not surprising. I reckon the reason is summed up in these comments he made today. The national coach should just be focused on coaching rather than dealing with all the external political crap that happens in Aussie Soccer. No surprise he wants a break from all that nonsense and wants to coach overseas.

"I mean, I have loved this job. But it's been all-encompassing. I've thrown myself … it hasn't just been coaching the national team."

"I want to coach abroad. Part of me, you know, is pretty keen to get stuck back into club football, working day-to-day," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-22/ange-postecoglou-quites-as-socceroos-coach-ahead-of-world-cup/9178616

[dwaino]

Meh. His new system doesn’t work for us and all he could resort to was sooking it up once he got called out for it.

[mightytiges]

My view of Ange is he coaches to prepare teams to perform on the big stage.The Socceroos played their best when it mattered - a promising WC effort by a young team against top ranking countries in 2014, won the Asian Cup and tore Honduras apart to qualify for next year's WC. In Ange's mind, friendlies and qualifiers are just games you can experiment with and only need to get through. So when journos are having a hissy fit over one of these non-Cup matches, Ange just looks at them and treats them with contempt as his body language during press conferences over the past six months showed. Add the troubles going on within the FFA and he clearly got sick of dealing with all the periphery crap.

As far as being Socceroos coach, it was meant to be a 3 World Cup strategy for Ange. Take a young squad to Brazil to give them exposure against the best; then vie to get them past the group stage in Russia; and then with what should be a squad of seasoned experienced campaigners by 2022, make a serious impact in Australia Qatar. Sadly, everyone lost patience with the job only half done.

[tony_montana]

spot on mt I agree with that - we're also a vastly better side when playing against good quality opponents that open up and give us some space to do damage the other way. Have little doubt we'll surprise and play some good football at the WC. Most of the squad are now playing regular football, some in very good teams/leagues so we'll improve by the time the WC comes round.

Also Dwaino, did you notice how solid and secure our defence looked in the playoffs against Honduras with Jedinak back? Massive difference - maybe the system can work with the right security in front of them? - although we look better with 2 proper defensive wingbacks instead of leckie playing as one - but i wont go into that now.

Ange has been at loggerheads with the FFA on 2 key issues - development of our top end junior talent. Felt the programs werent churning out the prototype of player his vision for what australian football should be in 10-20 years. That and also the lack of expansion in the A-league and an A-league 2. I think he just got mentally exhausted butting heads  - that and wanting a pay rise.

Wonder who we'll get? early talk is Arnold, Muscat, Popovic. Do we need an aussie or international?

[dwaino]

Agree with the other issue but I think using them as an excuse for the on field tactics is a cop out. I just thought we played our best in his earlier years with a 433 and 442 diamond, then he tried to stubbornly force the 352 with a slow build up to work when it clearly wasn't working. We should never be drawing with the likes of Thailand. Japan, South Korea and Australia should be the first 3 through Asian qualifiers every single time.

We need an international person I think. Arnold and Muscat are big fish in a small pond, will get destroyed on the world stage. Popovic probably the best credentialed but surely there would be a few better options out there. Walking straight into a WC side should be pretty attractive I would have thought.