Socceroos / Matildas / World Cup / Asian Cup

[mightytiges]

The 2️⃣6️⃣ players heading to our sixth @FIFAWorldCup 🫡✈️ #GiveIt100 #Socceroos


https://twitter.com/Socceroos/status/1589846826353852418

Got to hope Boyle will be okay. His ability to attack the wings and the box with his pace would be a massive loss for the Socceroos  .

[one-eyed]

France striker Karim Benzema will miss the entire World Cup after sustaining an injury while training ahead of France’s campaign in Qatar.

https://www.sen.com.au/news/2022/11/19/france-star-benzema-ruled-out-of-world-cup/



ps. By the way, there's a Tiger flavour with the Socceroos this World Cup. Paddy Steinfort is their high-performance director.

https://www.footballaustralia.com.au/news/football-australia-appoints-paddy-steinfort-performance-director

[one-eyed]

Boyle out of the World Cup  .

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/devastating-news-boyle-ruled-out-of-world-cup-as-hrustic-cleared-to-face-france-20221120-p5bzsj.html

[mightytiges]

AFC teams uncompetitive so far. Not a good sign for us  . Qatar struggling was expected as they only got a gig as the host. However, Iran only lost one game in the Asian qualifiers, yet they were ripped apart by England (by the way the Poms were impressive).

[mightytiges]

The Saudis just beat Argentina  .

Lucky first half with a couple of Argentinian goals disallowed due to VAR (offsides) but in the end the Saudis deserved the win just because they played with a positive mindset and sheer desperation rather than just trying to park the bus.

[mightytiges]

We're in front  . Blow the final whistle  .

Nice goal too. Leckie sidestep and cross goal to Goodwin who finished it .

[mightytiges]

Poor defending allowing Rabiot to run into the central box unmarked. It was fun while it lasted.

[mightytiges]

And there's the typical Socceroos' schoolboy error in defence gifting the opposition a goal . That was the soccer equivalent of the Tiges this year. Normal transmission has resumed  .

[mightytiges]

Yes we're playing France and missing our best attacking/linebreaking player (Boyle) but if Arnold just makes us park the bus in defence when trailing on the scoreboard then we get what we deserve. Witches hats this second half .

[mightytiges]

Japan knocks off Germany keeping their team structure across the park, applying pressure and playing proactive football (esp. second half).

So that's two AFC teams who had a positive mindset pulling off come from behind massive upsets while the other three who negatively parked the bus (includes us) got flogged anyhow.

[Assange Tiger 😎]

Arnold is not fit to manage a school canteen. Football in this country is cooked.

[Damo]

Arnold is not fit to manage a school canteen. Football in this country is cooked.

Football in this country isn't cooked , except for stupid rule changes, like the stand rule

Soccer on the other hand is cooked .. if it was ever anything else .. we are, have always been, and will always be, RUBBISH

[Assange Tiger 😎]

We weren't bad at all in the mid 2000s. Our problem is attracting a half decent manager and the way we discourage decent young players from testing themselves in Europe. No one should be playing in a World Cup if they're playing club football in the A-League...unless youre 30 odd and winding down but can still perform.

[Damo]

We weren't bad at all in the mid 2000s. Our problem is attracting a half decent manager and the way we discourage decent young players from testing themselves in Europe. No one should be playing in a World Cup if they're playing club football in the A-League...unless youre 30 odd and winding down but can still perform.

Or an exciting young talent like Kuol

[mightytiges]

Rather see guys like Mabil and Kuol get game time to at least gain some World Cup experience.

For a nation that now makes the World Cup on a regular basis, we have too many blokes with poor technical skills. Even when we play 'smaller' nations, the opposition will often have players with classier skills. It's why we've struggled to barely qualify in recent qualifier campaigns. It appears that junior level coaching is not focused enough on developing & drilling in elite one-touch footskills and as AT said at senior level we no longer have Socceroos playing week in week out against the best players in top European leagues as we did back in 2006. Viduka, Kewell, Cahill, Emerton, Neill, Schwarzer were all in the EPL, Bresciano was in Serie A, Chipperfield played for Swiss side Basel that regularly played Champions League back then. The only Socceroo now who played in the Champions League off the top of my head was Mooy at Celtic.