Australia draw 1-1 with Japan

Yes agree, he should have brought on Jedinak or Kewell - but would the result be different? We can only speculate.

Still baffled as to why holger brought on a defensive midfielder when bresc went off injured. Logic dictates that you either replace him with an attacking/creative mid or at the very least a box to midfielder

Neill convinced that Australia and Japan will make Brazil 2014: http://tensport.com.au/news/newsarticles/Football-Neill-convinced-Australia-Japan-will-make-Brazil.htm

It was fantastic Cattery, yes, great goal.

But you have to admit - Honda showed some pretty good touch and composure to set up the goal.

Epic Match! The reactions from viewers from all around the world in different media outlets has been just that "What a game of football!". Would love to know the global TV audience for last night's match. And what a pleasant surprise to see the Roos turn it on the way they did last night. I wasn't exactly all doom and gloom before the match but certainly anxious. Well we reminded Japan last night we're no Oman or Jordan. We are AUSTRALIA!! Get that up ya!

jb. The pendulum did swing didnt it ,it went from chasing a result to earn a draw,then to we must no win . I feel Osieck is conservative he's not like Hiddink.

Johnno, When the Jerry's cut us open in South Africa most of us stood back and said we were cowardice, but what about when the Germans ripped through the English 4-2 Lampard no goal, and then to tackle Marraonna's Arg's result 4-0 to the Jerry's, we do seem to hit top sides and the form does stack up good observation .

Mid - An extremely detailed description of how we conceded a goal & you seem to have crossed all the "t's & dotted all the " i's,". However I would have thought you may have speculated further by asking why,when we were definitely in the ascendancy in the first 13 minutes, was our only play-maker substituted with a defender?. Are we so poorly off for that type of player? Might I make a suggestion.If we are so hard up for play-makers that this has to be done should we not be experimenting with what we have & try to solve 2 problems at once.There is a player in our team who has the touch,the nous, & the hitting power,required to play that role & that man is Carney. If he was given a go in there flanked by a couple of "scrappers",& backed by a good ,mobile, DM, as is the norm in today's line ups,it would allow us to use a full back with a far better knowledge of how to play there than either Carney or Mackay who appear to be the present incumbents,& that perceived weakness is no secret as proven by our most recent opponents who appear to know that it is in this area Australia is prone to successful penetration as you have pointed out. Your thoughts? jb

thanks mid always a pleasure you have a very good post too my friend. And with Italy i meant to say after Italy just beat us by a controversial penalty when we dominated the match and were by far the fitter team and the better team, they end up winning the whole 2006 world cup. -heck germany after we beat in friendly then re grouped well as we saw when they played us in 2010 world cup we just had a terrible 1st half under Pim vs the germans. -But this team history has shown and team over the least 20 years that beats this golden generation of socceroos team over the last 20 years the majority of those nations become better football nations or that generation becomes battle hardened and goes on to get more wins and glory in the big matches and win world cups or asian cups, or does well in world cups , and there football nation in general.

Tho this was an excellence from 442 ... just about the Japanese goal...poster called macktheknife Absolute litany of errors for the Japan goal. 8:30 or so. 1) Holger makes a sub at a corner. There's a reason that's an unwritten rule of management. Australia is down a man but have 7+Keeper in the box. Japan only have 5. 2) Australia have two free players. Brosque & Ruka are the only players outside the box. Japan had been playing short corners all evening, Wilkshire or Carney needed to leave the box and close down the corner taker. 3) Brosque doesn't track his opponent #17, who is allowed to receive the ball and dispose of it freely. Japan had been doing short corners all night so there's no excuse for this at all. If he closes down #17 the chance of a short corner evaporates. If Ruka/Wilkshire/Carney close down the corner and Brosque tracks his man the ball goes into the mixer most likely. 4) Ruka ended up having two players to defend on his own and was suckered into trying to close down a third. Brosque told him to track their #6 which he did. But because Brosque hadn't tracked his man #17 properly, Ruka got sucked in to closing him down, which then left #4 open. Ruka looks over at #4 but he doesn't actually turn to track him because Brosque isn't tight enough, Ruka is young and not a defender, his instincts told him to do what most strikers and attackers are told, which is close the man on the ball down. He probably expected in his mind one of the full backs to close the taker down instead of him. In this one movement Ruka comes off the bench with no instructions about what to do at the corner, and tries to track players 6, 17 and 4 and does that ineffectually. 5) This is a minor issue, but Cahill stands still in the box as it unfolds. He should have followed their #6. By standing still he forces an unsure Carney to push out forward trying to cover both the #6 and an attack by #4. Carney makes a semi-rounded run out until #4 gets the ball just outside the box. Ruka is way out of position and would only give away a penalty. Cahill eventually makes the run towards #6 but he's hopelessly out of position and couldn't do anything about either Japanese player. 6) Carney is the only player in a good position to stop or block a cross. Instead he doesn't push out fast, he gets caught in two minds by #4 and #6 and in the end doesn't even make a challenge. He gets dribbled around effortlessly at which point the cut back is made. He needed to close down #4 immediately once Ruka was beaten. 7) Lucas' tendency to leave his defensive duties to cover the goal line in any dangerous situation in the box crops up again. He leaves his marker wide open for a tap-in. Every other player for Australia stayed with their man except Lucas. The key problems are making a sub at a corner (although being down to 10 men the confusion may have happened anyway), Ruka not defending anyone properly, Carney not defending at all, and Lucas leaving his marker.

Johnno Nice post

This socceroos golden generation is tulle special and it can be traced back to the junior world cup in portugal the under 21 or under 23 olyroos class of 91 in porutugal where we made the semi finals, then the barcelona olympics semi final, the great showing vs Argentina Maraddonna argentina. -A pattern emerges here over the last 20 years. Any team that beats this soccer's team in a meaningful match goes on to bigger and better things, a sign why i think is we set the bar high and the team spriti high tha tit is a great role model, and teams have to fight hard to beat this golden generation, that after the win they become mentally stronger especially and physically too. eg Italy beat us 2006 in controversial penalty they end up winning it. -Argentina after they beat us in 93 after being all over the place in there qualifying in south america were going great at USA 94 then maradonna got kicked out. -Germany beat us in 2010 and made semi finals. -Japan won the Asia cup and never looked back, and there loss to us in 2006 made Japan hurt and more hungry as a football nation. -So basically this golden germination socerros team with the speical spirt Hokger talks about, most teams that play them become better teams after. Ghana as well were 1 penalty free kick on full time from going to semi finals of south africa 2010 but missed and then lost in penalties to uruaguy, -An Uruugay after being bundled out by us in 20005 went on to make semi finals 2010 world cup. -So teams become better after playing this golden generation of socceroos. -And this draw long term will be great for Japan as it will snap them out of maybe complacency in this group and bring them back down to earth in Asian football and realise Australia and id say iran and south korea do not fear them. -In other words after tonight Japan wili realise they are not as good as they thought they were and they were made to look better than they were at home ground advantage vs Jordan and Oman.