Socceroos Thread

[Twodogs]

Re: Socceroos Thread

Please no. Scarily if we go down the Australian route after Arnold it is Muscat and Aloisi, two managers I despise (I also despise Arnold but he is atleast a very good manager).

i just want a good manager. Even if it is Graham Arnold. The only problem is we can't appoint Graham Arnold as Graham Arnold's assistant and the assistant coach of the Socceroos has to be Graham Arnold. Life wouldn't make any sense otherwise.

[Sedat]

Re: Socceroos Thread

I reckon Ange has been sensational. He took over when we were embarrassing and useless on the world stage after successive 6-0 defeats against France and Germany. He had a bunch of over the hill veterans and greenhorns, and decided to put his trust in youth from the get-go. We performed way above expectations in the first 2 games of the 2014 world cup with a squad full of babies, then these kids blossomed under him to win the Asian Cup. Then in by far the tougher World Cup qualifying group we went 10 games with only 1 loss despite having no strikers of note. We miss out on qualification with 19 points while South Korea qualified 2nd in the other group with only 15 points. We then survive 2 cut-throat H&A legs to make it to Russia, and all the while dominating possession and generally bossing opposition around, something we've never done in the history of the national team. If we had any world class strikers who weren't 37yo, we'd have smashed qualifying.

Ange has made strawberry jam out of pig shit, and he's done it with an attacking game plan and without any cutting edge in front of goal.

[Twodogs]

Re: Socceroos Thread

I reckon Ange has been sensational. He took over when we were embarrassing and useless on the world stage after successive 6-0 defeats against France and Germany. He had a bunch of over the hill veterans and greenhorns, and decided to put his trust in youth from the get-go. We performed way above expectations in the first 2 games of the 2014 world cup with a squad full of babies, then these kids blossomed under him to win the Asian Cup. Then in by far the tougher World Cup qualifying group we went 10 games with only 1 loss despite having no strikers of note. We miss out on qualification with 19 points while South Korea qualified 2nd in the other group with only 15 points. We then survive 2 cut-throat H&A legs to make it to Russia, and all the while dominating possession and generally bossing opposition around, something we've never done in the history of the national team. If we had any world class strikers who weren't 37yo, we'd have smashed qualifying.

Ange has made strawberry jam out of pig shit, and he's done it with an attacking game plan and without any cutting edge in front of goal.

All fair points. I guess the bottom line is he delivered a place in Russia and he's walked away, and only he knew if he really wanted to go on and had what it took, leaving plenty of time for the new man to come in and establish himself. Will we go for an established international or continue with an Australian coach?

One thing I know. I'd love to have Sam Kerr playing for the Socceroos. Then we would be bossing teams.

[The Adelaide Connection]

Re: Socceroos Thread

All fair points. I guess the bottom line is he delivered a place in Russia and he's walked away, and only he knew if he really wanted to go on and had what it took, leaving plenty of time for the new man to come in and establish himself. Will we go for an established international or continue with an Australian coach?

One thing I know. I'd love to have Sam Kerr playing for the Socceroos. Then we would be bossing teams.

It's early days, but Sam Kerr has the look about her that she could be the best/most credntialled player ever to throw on the green and gold (and I know there are a lot of apples and oranges difficulties that come into play).

What it does do, especially for a nation with a population as small as ours, is make you wonder how freaking amazing our national team could be if soccer was the #1 sport (without compromising the pool of the best/most skilfull athletes by cutting out huge numbers to AFL, Rugby and (to a lesser extent probably) Cricket. I guess you could mount this argument for the Olympics too.

[Twodogs]

Re: Socceroos Thread

It's early days, but Sam Kerr has the look about her that she could be the best/most credntialled player ever to throw on the green and gold (and I know there are a lot of apples and oranges difficulties that come into play).

What it does do, especially for a nation with a population as small as ours, is make you wonder how freaking amazing our national team could be if soccer was the #1 sport (without compromising the pool of the best/most skilfull athletes by cutting out huge numbers to AFL, Rugby and (to a lesser extent probably) Cricket. I guess you could mount this argument for the Olympics too.

Yeah it's funny when you talk to overseas sports fans who always want to trot out the "small population, average national team" world view of the Socceroos' fortunes. They assume that because we have a fairly small population that translates into a lack of real quality in the national team.

They also assume that soccer is the no 1 football in Australia. You explain that not only is soccer not the no 1 football it's not the no 2 football either and until recently it wasn't even the number 3 football. Although I think we can say that Soccer has replaced Rugby Union as the number 3 football in Australia.

Anyway my point is that AFL and NRL gets first dibs on most of the available talent. I don't know that a lot of people outside of Australia know that.

[Remi Moses]

Re: Socceroos Thread

Did a good job with a poor side to be honest . The narrative in that we should have made it without the Honduras game is disrespectful to improving nations we played. Graham Arnold ? Pfffft!!!
Arnold has done the game a disservice by not having any young local talent in his Sydney side .

[Sedat]

Re: Socceroos Thread

What it does do, especially for a nation with a population as small as ours, is make you wonder how freaking amazing our national team could be if soccer was the #1 sport (without compromising the pool of the best/most skilfull athletes by cutting out huge numbers to AFL, Rugby and (to a lesser extent probably) Cricket. I guess you could mount this argument for the Olympics too.

Separate topic but my biggest bugbear with AFLW is the cynical way that they have gone about trying to steal female sports stars from other established women's codes, some of whom have been supporting women in sport for decades. AFLW waltzes into town and tries to destroy these sports from day 1, using their powerful media support and enormous war chest as leverage. And you still have dickhead AFL-centric media scribes asking Sam Kerr if she'd be interested in joining AFLW, to which she rightly scoffed at the suggestion.

[Sedat]

Re: Socceroos Thread

Did a good job with a poor side to be honest . The narrative in that we should have made it without the Honduras game is disrespectful to improving nations we played.

This point shows the complete and utter lack of knowledge about Asian football, especially the teams from the Middle East. Japan and South Korea are perennial mainstays in the World Cup and have been for 30+ years. Then there are technically gifted nations like Saudi Arabia, Iran and the UAE who are all semi-regular World Cup qualifiers and of course have an infinite supply of money to invest into their local leagues and national teams.

It is bloody hard to qualify for the World Cup through Asia for a whole host of reasons - extensive travel, wildly different pitch and weather conditions, and of course the quality of the other nations in the region. Our qualifying group apart from Thailand was very strong - Australia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iraq. We drew too many matches (no doubt due to our scoring problems) but we only lost once in 10 games. At the start of qualifying you'd sign off on 19 points in 10 games every day of the week and expect to qualify comfortably.

[bulldogtragic]

Re: Socceroos Thread

Socceroos: France, Denmark, Peru

[Twodogs]

Re: Socceroos Thread

Socceroos: France, Denmark, Peru

Good luck and everything!

[westdog54]

Re: Socceroos Thread

Of all the groups I'd only give us a better shot of surviving A and G.

You never know which France will show up to a world cup.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Socceroos Thread

Official world rankings: France 9, Peru 11, Denmark 12, Australia 39.

[Twodogs]

Re: Socceroos Thread

Socceroos: France, Denmark, Peru

Actually since this dual citizenship thing has come up and with my dad dying I've taken the trouble to find out where I am eligible for dual citizenship from. Believe it or not in addition to being Australian I am also a Dane and Jamaican (yes, I look completely Jamaican-that explains a lot).

Anyway my point is that I've got two dogs in this race!

[boydogs]

Re: Socceroos Thread

Dream result would be Russia, Peru and Iran. Nightmare result would be Germany/Brazil, Spain and Denmark.

Bit of a mixed bag then

[Sedat]

Re: Socceroos Thread

Bit of a mixed bag then

Yep, Peru was the perfect pot 2 result for us and Denmark the worst pot 3 result - however I'm much happier getting an easier pot 2 team and tough pot 3 team than the reverse (such as Spain and Tunisia for example, which would have made it virtually impossible for us to finish top 2 in the group). Any of the pot 1 teams except Russia are tough and France is no exception, but I'd rather them than Germany, Brazil or the Argies any day.

France first up is key - it's in Kazan where we will be setting up training camp so we can hopefully snag a draw while the French ease into the tournament. The Danes are a good team but not insurmountable and Peru are flashy but physical teams trouble them. We are good enough defensively to get out of the group stage but we desperately need to get our front third sorted.