Socceroos / Matildas / World Cup / Asian Cup

[mightytiges]

How the stuff can the reigning Asian champions be seeded 6th?

+1

We don't play enough friendlies and tournaments compared to other countries that the stupid FIFA ranking system relies on.

[one-eyed]

The Socceroos have jumped up to second in Asia in the latest FIFA rankings:


THE Socceroos have reached their FIFA ranking in four years, rising 17 places to 50 on the latest table.

It places Australia second in Asia behind Iran (42) ahead of the next World Cup qualifcation draw as the Socceroos have jumped past South Korea (56), Japan (57) and Saudi Arabia (60) in the past month.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/football/socceroos-move-into-fifa-top-50-for-first-time-since-2012-after-world-cup-successes/news-story/41d2eb2a28e69055c8bfeae9d24a309c

[mightytiges]

The latest update to the FIFA rankings just prior to third round WC qualifier groupings did us a huge favour. We've avoided Iran and South Korea, and really only have Japan as the biggest threat in our group with the top 2 in each group automatically qualifying for the World Cup.

Group B: Australia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iraq, Thailand.

1 September 2016      Australia     v     Iraq
6 September 2016   United Arab Emirates     v     Australia
6 October 2016        Saudi Arabia     v     Australia
11 October 2016         Australia     v     Japan
15 November 2016      Thailand     v     Australia
23 March 2017            Iraq     v     Australia
28 March 2017       Australia     v     United Arab Emirates
8 June 2017          Australia     v     Saudi Arabia
31 August 2017       Japan     v     Australia
5 September 2017  Australia     v     Thailand

[Stalin]

Newcastle u15

Best the australian women's team

7-0

Edit:  may have been 8-2  upon further research


5th bests ladies team on earth v the best 14 year olds the hunter valley can muster

[dwaino]

Rogic is a gun. Leckie's exposure to regular Bundesliga time is paying off too.

Smith was a deadset liability, just not his night. Jedinak has tapered off a bit, hopefully just due to off season and can tell Kruse hasn't played a lot in recent times since his injury. What's the go with our CBs at the moment? Milligan playing there. He was awesome though. Mooy, Luongo and Rogic through the mid is pretty good to watch, so many well threaded through balls.

[tony_montana]

Agree with that summation dwaino. Milligan is a gun whether it be in midfield or as a ball playing CB, reads the game so well. Its pretty much horses for courses. Depending on the opposition - If we go back to a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 then Milligan partners Jedinak in defensive midfield and Spiranovic comes into central defence. I got the feeling that we looked a little scratchy, our ball control wasnt crisp, I lost count of the amount of time our players couldnt seem to shield the ball, the Iraqis seemed to get a spoiling foot in so often. Good signs overall though.

UAE beating japan in japan is a huge result, dangerous opponent.

[Stalin]

Never liked Milligan cause bein a SYD player - but he is indeed a class act

[dwaino]

Agree with that summation dwaino. Milligan is a gun whether it be in midfield or as a ball playing CB, reads the game so well. Its pretty much horses for courses. Depending on the opposition - If we go back to a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 then Milligan partners Jedinak in defensive midfield and Spiranovic comes into central defence. I got the feeling that we looked a little scratchy, our ball control wasnt crisp, I lost count of the amount of time our players couldnt seem to shield the ball, the Iraqis seemed to get a spoiling foot in so often. Good signs overall though.

UAE beating japan in japan is a huge result, dangerous opponent.

Was thinking the same regarding the formation after I wrote it. Probably didn't see the need to play two lumbering CBs against a quicker and more aggressive Iraq. I don't mind playing narrow, our mids are class and were chopping up defenses but thought the post game analysis made a great point, for whatever reason our full backs weren't pushing up. Whether that's work rate or instruction, too often our last pass into the final third as wasted when there were paddocks for our full backs to run into and send it wide and retaining possession instead of turning it over like we were.

Don't know about you as you've been into it a lot longer than me but I'm pretty bullish about this team and our future as a football country. We have a lot of players in strong leagues now and some genuine class. Obviously still don't hold a candle to the heavy weights but we have some really classy players now even to the bench.

Hopefully just some cobwebs since most of the guys haven't been playing. I reckon Japan have lost their mojo of late. They weren't that convincing last WC, looked to be doing it tough in the Asian Cup (granted Kagawa would have made a massive difference though) and now towelled up by UAE. Not taking anything away from UAE at all but hopefully them having to travel back from Japan to play as well will even it out a bit. Our toughest challenge will be complacency which IMO we are still prone too.

[tony_montana]

You're not wrong.

Individually this team doesnt have the class of previous teams imo,
Kewell is still the best ever aussie Ive seen,
Viduka was world class,
Okon and Zelic both world class too.
Bosnich was a top 3 keeper in the world before he started racking em up,, Cahill needs no plaudits.
Aurelio Vidmar was a star in Spain and like Cahill had a special 6th sense of ghosting into the box late from midfield to score goals.

But our overall squad now is the easily best we've ever had in terms of depth and evenness, reckon Ange has a solid core of 25 players he can rely on. We also put a lot more work into training camps which = better cohesiveness and of course I love Ange reckon he is an absolute guru. This side will do some serious damage at the next world cup, we're still short a deadset gun number 9(central striker) but these days you can get away with it when you have a potent and creative all round attack like we are developing with Rogic, leckie, kruse, Mooy, ikonomidis etc all interchanging and giving us quick smart movement. Also should mention that rogic has the talent to be a bonafide genuine world class player, stuffing gun!

Hope you're right about japan, i havent taken much notice of them so not sure whats going on exactly. If we can get a result in UAE and bank points early it takes so much pressure off

[Harry]

Think they were a bit scratchy last night, too many missed passes and errors.  Our problem is still up front as leckie and juric are not the answer unfortunately.   Our midfield in mooy luongo and rogic is classy though.

[dwaino]

Bosnich and co put massive tickets on Rogic last night. Said he could become our best ever Socceroo and first actual out and out superstar.

Wasn't long ago everyone was saying he should come back to the A League for minutes but he persisted at Celtic and now he's starting and starring. Actually going to try and watch him in CL, that will be the true test.

[tony_montana]

He's a special talent no doubt about it. I was hoping he'd move to a better league but one more season for Celtic and CL exposure will be good for him.

Kewell  was a genuine rising star of world soccer.

Have a look at these clips, not so much the goals which were crackers but his movement, skill pace, could play central striker, left wing, number 10, strong in the air, was a freak... and this was all before he was 21-22 when he started getting groin issues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI-O--Qy-dg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyhpIpTXPpk

Im trying to find the clip of him doing a rebona cross in full flight, from memory dukes headed it over the bar but stuff me that was magic

[dwaino]

Cahill's winner came from one of the best crosses I have ever seen. No one broke stride, it curved and dropped perfectly and no one was ever going to save it.

[Stalin]

Bout time they found a left back

[Harry]

What are they gonna do when Timmay goes to the retirement home?