Socceroos Thread

[bulldogsthru&thru]

Re: Socceroos Thread

That team we had 20 years ago was probably the best national team we had.

Should have knocked off Italy in the first knock-out game. We then would have played Ghana in the quarters. Who knows from there. It could have been a semi final if not for a diving Italian.

[Eastdog]

Re: Socceroos Thread

Should have knocked off Italy in the first knock-out game. We then would have played Ghana in the quarters. Who knows from there. It could have been a semi final if not for a diving Italian.

Absolutely BT&T. We played really well in that match against Italy. We will never know but who knows how far we could have gone at the 2006 World Cup.

[Sedat]

Re: Socceroos Thread

That team we had 20 years ago was probably the best national team we had.

Yep, and almost all of this elite talent was a direct product of junior NSL club/youth development pathways.

It's glaringly obvious now that the old NSL clubs developed players infinitely better than any of the A-League clubs have done in the last 20 years. What a great idea it was to permanently ostracise these passionate and invested clubs from the highest level, simply because they had ethnic sounding names and there were a few flares and the occasional punch-on at the games (which there still is).

[Axe Man]

A couple of good results v Indonesia and China have given us a good chance of direct qualification for the 2026 World Cup.

A win v Japan in Perth in June will be enough, otherwise it will come down to the last game away v Saudi Arabia.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

Well some good news tonight at least. Socceroos win it at the death and have now qualified for the world cup.

[jazzadogs]

Well some good news tonight at least. Socceroos win it at the death and have now qualified for the world cup.

I should have stayed home and watched that.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

I should have stayed home and watched that.

Jokes on me I turned off at 90min to go to bed and missed the winner. To be fair it was a dour affair. We were horrible all game.

[Sedat]

Very impressive 2-1 win away against the Saudis overnight to secure automatic qualification. It is no mean feat to qualify for 6 world cups in a row.

Popovic has been super impressive since taking over.

[GVGjr]

Very impressive 2-1 win away against the Saudis overnight to secure automatic qualification. It is no mean feat to qualify for 6 world cups in a row.

Popovic has been super impressive since taking over.

And it's not like we have a lot of top flight players to pick from.

[jeemak]

Yep. Stellar effort to notch a sixth WC in a row, in really good company in terms of teams that have done so.

Agreed that Popovic has been impressive given the cattle at his disposal and the circumstances under which he took over.

[whythelongface]

Great work by the Popovic and the team. Have made it through relatively comfortably after a shaky start. Hopefully we can build from here.