Socceroos / Matildas / World Cup / Asian Cup

[Judge Roughneck]

a happy slave

[mightytiges]

Bayer 04 Leverkusen's Australia international winger Robbie Kruse has suffered a serious knee injury in training.

The 25-year-old tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on Friday and an MRI scan on Saturday confirmed the severity of the injury, which will keep Kruse out for the rest of the 2013/14 season, jeopardising his chances of featuring at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. He is set to undergo an operation next week.

http://www.bundesliga.com/en/liga/news/2013/0000283919.php

Our best Socceroo out of the World Cup . 

[tony_montana]

Talk he may go for the lars surgery to try and make it for the WC.

Poor bastard, was becoming a real player for us

[gerkin greg]

Curitiba going to be dropped as a World Cup venue 

socceroos will be playing their games on a float at mardi gras instead

[one-eyed]

The Socceroos kit goes old school for the 2014 World Cup:


http://au.fourfourtwo.com/forums/default.aspx?g=posts&t=89831

[one-eyed]

How do you lose from being 3-0 up with 33 mins to go?!  The World Cup isn't going to be pretty to watch  .

[tony_montana]

Did you watch the game? A lot more positives to take out of it than negatives.

First half was as skillful a performance as Ive seen from a socceroos side, great to watch and come along miles since the pathetic long balls and pedestrian build up under Holger. We looked fast, slick with plenty of movement. Second half was disappointing result wise but a good experience and ensures they don't get carried away. Going down to 10 men stopped the momentum but good eye opener that they need to work on how to contain if this happens again.

Plenty to work on but it was great to see the difference and improvement in game play in such a short period of time under Ange. Would give them heart that theyre on the right track.

Biggest positive for mine was seeing Curtis Good and Spiranovic playing as centre backs. Looked fantastic first half, hope they get more chances to show they are way ahead of Lucas neill

[one-eyed]

The first half was great and a credit to Ange's coaching but the game goes for 90 mins not 45. It's frustrating seeing the Socceroos give up goals to silly schoolboy errors. Defenders falling over in the box allowing their opponent a free header from a cross; a stupid backpass which left Langerak high and dry and got him sent off; another cross from out wide that sees Ecuador outnumber our defence 3-1 at the top of the box with just a minute or so to go in injury time. Obviously people will blame fatigue with a young-ish team which saw our intensity fall away and structures fall apart especially with 10-men defending a 3-2 lead but no international side should be conceding 4 goals in the last 33 minutes when they're 3-0 up.

[tigs2011]

Mitch Langerak...

[tony_montana]

The first half was great and a credit to Ange's coaching but the game goes for 90 mins not 45. It's frustrating seeing the Socceroos give up goals to silly schoolboy errors. Defenders falling over in the box allowing their opponent a free header from a cross; a stupid backpass which left Langerak high and dry and got him sent off; another cross from out wide that sees Ecuador outnumber our defence 3-1 at the top of the box with just a minute or so to go in injury time. Obviously people will blame fatigue with a young-ish team which saw our intensity fall away and structures fall apart especially with 10-men defending a 3-2 lead but no international side should be conceding 4 goals in the last 33 minutes when they're 3-0 up.

I prefer to see the positives in that performance. Clear improvement in gamestyle and skill. They wont concede like that again, better to cop it in a friendly and learn from it

[one-eyed]

The Socceroos have dropped down to 63rd on the latest FIFA rankings.

http://www.football-rankings.info/2014/03/fifa-ranking-march-2014-final-preview.html

[mightytiges]

The first half was great and a credit to Ange's coaching but the game goes for 90 mins not 45. It's frustrating seeing the Socceroos give up goals to silly schoolboy errors. Defenders falling over in the box allowing their opponent a free header from a cross; a stupid backpass which left Langerak high and dry and got him sent off; another cross from out wide that sees Ecuador outnumber our defence 3-1 at the top of the box with just a minute or so to go in injury time. Obviously people will blame fatigue with a young-ish team which saw our intensity fall away and structures fall apart especially with 10-men defending a 3-2 lead but no international side should be conceding 4 goals in the last 33 minutes when they're 3-0 up.

I prefer to see the positives in that performance. Clear improvement in gamestyle and skill. They wont concede like that again, better to cop it in a friendly and learn from it

I'm sadly not that confident especially with the World Cup group we're in . Given the team we have, if we walk away from this World Cup with a similar outcome to the 1974 Socceroos then IMO it will be a positive.

[one-eyed]

The draw for next year's Asian Cup has been announced.




THE Socceroos will open their 2015 Asian Cup campaign against Kuwait in Melbourne on January 9.

Following their clash against Kuwait at AAMI Park, the Socceroos meet Oman at Sydney’s Stadium Australia on January 13.

The Socceroos then face the toughest test of their Group A campaign when they host the South Koreans at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on January 17.

The 2015 Asian Cup will be held in five Australian cities – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Newcastle and Canberra – from January 9 to 31.

Two teams from each group qualify for the quarter finals.

http://www.news.com.au/sport/football/socceroos-handed-a-tough-draw-for-the-2015-asian-cup-with-south-korea-oman-and-kuwait/story-fndkzvnd-1226865593681?from=herald+sun_rss

[one-eyed]

Socceroo Brett Holman will not make a second World Cup appearance after announcing his retirement from international Soccer, effective immediately, on Wednesday.

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/socceroo-brett-holman-retires-from-international-football-20140430-zr1vj.html

[tony_montana]

tap on the shoulder