Socceroos / Matildas / World Cup / Asian Cup

[mightytiges]

Spain has sacked their coach Julen Lopetegui a little more than 24 hours before the World Cup begins.

While the USA, Canada & Mexico will jointly host the 2026 World Cup.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/live/football/44465708

Given 2030 is the 100th anniversary of the first WC in Uruguary/South America & Europe will get 2034, that means we will need to wait until 2038 before we can bid again.

[mightytiges]

Stayed up as well. Risdon is a worry at RB but we're really weak there. I wish Mooy/Luongo combo worked better but it just doesn't. Jedinak has to start but that throws everything out a bit because Luongo is better than a sub but Rogic is our best attacking mid and while Mooy is slower than refrigerated honey he is one of our better play makers.

Still wouldn't start Arzani. Not against France anyway. He's worked magic as a sub against two average teams. He won't get that sort of sniff against France and I'd worry it would destroy him.

Sallai ripped us to shreds. Not looking forward to what Dembele and co will do.

It's a crazy idea but I wonder with our dearth of right backs if Leckie could sacrifice his natural attacking instincts and play a more disciplined defensive role at RB for the sake of the team. Luongo say then moves to Leckie's position out wide right with Jedinak, Rogic and Mooy in the mids.

I can understand not wanting to start Arzani. He may not have the tank for the full 90 at this level and if he doesn't have an early impact then yeah it could backfire needing to sub him off. The only issue I have with that fair enough argument, is the game may be virtually over if France strike with a lead of a couple of goals before he comes on in the second half. Dilemma, dilemma, dilemma  .

[mightytiges]

Thanks to the Saudis for doing the whole AFC a favour by losing zip-5 . Lucky the number of spots for future World Cups is expanding otherwise FIFA would take a spot away from Asia.

[Assange Tiger 😎]

Bloody oath they were bad. I reckon an OER 11 would have given Russia a better game

[mightytiges]

Bloody oath they were bad. I reckon an OER 11 would have given Russia a better game

I hope we on OER have some bigger bodies  as the Russians are big boys .

[dwaino]

Egypt had a red hot crack. Suarez is a flog.

[mightytiges]

Egypt missed Salah. The manager wouldn't risk Salah's shoulder even as a sub in the last 10 mins that could have seen a totally different result.

Iran beat Morocco thanks to an own goal in the last min of injury time. At least a good result as far as the AFC goes after the Saudis' 'effort'.

Portugal Ronaldo drew 3-all with Spain in the other game.

Now onto the Socceroos tonight  .

[dwaino]

Looking forward to tonight’s games. Missed the first half last night because the Optus Sport app is rooted. Stream would drop after 10 seconds. Luckily the SBS/Optus World Cup app was fine on the phone and I could air play it to the Apple TV.

[Assange Tiger 😎]

Chucked 100 bucks on both Oz/Frogs to have 1.5+ corners in each half.

2 corners per team in each half should be easy money I hope was paying $6.50 

Bit nervous about the Frogs ripping us to pieces but still looking forward to tonight. 0-0 with a few minutes to go with Cahill coming off the bench to score the winner (on his day out from the home) would be unreal

[mightytiges]

We can't afford to cough up a soft goal early. We didn't in both friendlies but our first halves were ordinary against inferior opponents.

[dwaino]

Mbappe, Griezmann, Matuidi, Giroud, Dembele, Kanti, Pogba, Varane, Hernandez..etc lol. Not sure if any goal at any time will be soft or just that we’re really going up against it the first game. We will struggle to score but France will romp the group so we can’t afford to get flogged because second spot will probably come down to goal difference. Denmark and Peru are very winnable if we bring our best. Definitely Peru, they struggled to get through NZ for qualification. Denmark will be tough but not impossible. 

[mightytiges]

By 'soft' I meant more self-inflicted schoolboy errors in defence (eg: Hungry game). I agree it's going to be tough tonight even if we play well. That's why we can't afford those schoolboy errors.

Jeninak starts ahead of Luongo as you predicted dwaino.


https://twitter.com/Socceroos/status/1007904871759020033

[dwaino]

4231 to clog the inside. Dembele and Griezmann will cause havoc wide.

[dwaino]

Great first half. We've come to play.

[mightytiges]

First 10-15 mins we gave them too much respect and stayed off them too much but after that we settled and played, pressured and defended well. Our set pieces have looked dangerous too. As long as we cut out any loose passes in our back half, we can control the game.

As for the French, they should be called the swans with all their dives and acting as they've been shot when we tackle them .