- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The most important three weeks of Australia’s World Cup qualifying bid get underway tomorrow night as the Socceroos travel to a sold-out Saitama Stadium to take on already qualified Japan, live from 8.30pm AEST. Join us then for live scores and commentary of the action.
To say the Socceroos’ campaign had been disappointing so far would be a gigantic understatement.
After an insipid performance back in March at home to Oman, Australia sit just outside the automatic qualification spots with Jordan a point clear, albeit having played an extra game.
And due to Jordan not playing tomorrow, a point could be enough to catapult Australia back into the top two.
However on the other side of the coin, a loss for our boys would mean that regardless of the result between Jordan and Iraq, Australia would drop to fourth in the group with just two games to play – a catastrophic position considering our stature.
The public opinion of Holger Osieck has been turning steadily for the better part of the last year, with more and more people loathing the ageing line-ups that have been trotted out while promising youngsters get left on the sideline.
Hopefully we see a nice mix tonight, and the rumours are that Josh Kennedy and Timmy Cahill will work up front together, an aerial combo that would give any defensive unit nightmares!
Japan have nothing to play for and are coming off a 2-0 friendly loss to Bulgaria, but there is absolutely no way they should be underestimated.
For starters, they’d love to prove themselves the dominant force in Asia by making an example of one of the other heavyweights.
I’m sure they also remember that that 1-1 draw in Brisbane earlier in the campaign was the only blemish on their perfect qualifying record (before losing to Jordan after having already punched their ticket).
It’s never a good sign when people are less concerned with winning than with merely turning in a solid performance, but that’s what we’re looking at here.
Hopefully despite recent results, the boys can turn it around and steer us back towards Brazil.
And regardless, it’s going to be a very tense home stand in the two following Tuesdays.
Join us here on The Roar from just before 8.30pm AEST for all the team news, line-ups and formations.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.