South Korea down Socceroos in Asian Cup

And....those same players he chose to rest will now have to be called upon against China on Thursday! So where is the logic in resting for the game last night? There were positives to come out of the game for Australia (Burns in particular who will give us much needed finishing up front) but Ange should have done the resting of the players in the Oman game and then bring them fresh into this game. Korea did a great job of foxing and played to the situation last night!

Charlie It's more than that. It's the logisitical hassle, you lose basically a whole day of rest and training, and have to re-settle in a new hotel etc, and new routines it's disruptive. There settled in Brisbane now. China have to fly up to Brisbane, after playing today, fly on monday, essentialy getting 2 days less preperation, and have to settle into Brisbane, from Melbourne or Canberra, where as the socceroos are settled in Brisbane, also they are familiar now with the suncorp surface,advantage to the socceroos on all levels.

Scalpers...

Mate, Im not sure where you think Brisbane is...but Bris to Melb is 2 hours max...flying first class I think theyd be fine...your logic is stupid.

Interesting that 4,000 ppl with tickets didn't show up.

A great strategic decision that might have cost them the game and now sees them having to face the tournament favorites in the semi final?

Most probably the best crosser of the ball we have and considering the crosses that we been doing it doesn't feel that he should be left out!!!

It's a bit of a tough break for Tom after he played so often under Ange previously, though in saying that he plays centrally for his club and isn't going to budge Mass on his current form. I feel for him, I like him more than Troisi on the left tbqh because he has drive and good delivery, I would have liked to see him start last night.

Maybe Ange was thinking that the first two games required his first choice squad to get us to the top of the table but he certainly undervalued the Korea game! The performances from Burns and Luongo were terrific so perhaps, as comments have suggested, we need to build more firepower around these guys. It is what it is- a loss could be what the Socceroos needed to improve. Bring on Thursday and China -more moths, a capacity crowd and an even more pockmarked pitch!

What has tommy oar done wrong in my opinion he is far better than the majority of all our players. Burns looks sharper than troisi and leckie so I think that the attack should contain oar Cahill kruse burns I think we can beat China well and if we play the same enthusiasm we can give Japan a run for there money!!!!!

It was a fair performance by the Roos, but the result wasn’t. Nonetheless, I was wondering—are we playing with too much urgency and not enough smarts? What ever happened to the tactic with a midfield-general putting their foot on the ball and dictating proceedings. Give me an Andrea Pirlo type of player in our midfield. I think I have seen enough of Matt McKay—bring in Antonis and see what he can do. I would have loved to have seen Mooy in the squad for this role. Maybe we have to play Bresh to give us that edge.

At least South Korea know they were given a game last night. They were battered like Schnitzels by the Aussies last night. Almost a touch too far even in my opinion. They looked physically crushed at the end of the game. :-) It was the Battle of Brisbane for them.

Agreed on the first point - the rotation should have been against the easier opposition. I think Cahill's yellow was harsh - he was entitled to go for the header - the South Korean keeper just made a meal of it.

Easy in hindsight but why didn't Ange play his full strength side in this game and rest them earlier in the tournament against weaker opposition? South Korea are actually a pretty good side. Looks like pretty poor planning to me. And why does Tim Cahill continue to get yellow cards? Great goal scorer that he is he can dish out some pretty ugly fouls that result in yellow cards. This can come back to bite the team later in the tournament when he is unavailable for crucial games. You can see his frustration if we get behind on the scoreboard but that is no excuse for some of his actions that result in yellow cards.

Another typical frustrating performance punctuated with sloppy defending and missed chances. Leaving your stars off til the last 20 mins, no surprise when they came on things got more interesting. South Korea were out on their feet but chances not taken to grab the draw. Blessing in disguise to be on track for Japan in the semi's? Don't know about you but I'd rather leave Japan to the big one. And to travel to Melbourne to settle in isn't a big deal these days for professional athletes-come on!!! Let's face it, they had a great chance to take the easier path to the final and blew it!

No need to panic, we weren't as good as the results in the first two games suggested and we're not bad because we lost one game - we can always blame the pitch of the moths or something ;-) It is a reality check for the squad on what's required to win at tournaments, Koreas goal was skilfully crafted but they exploited poor defending; we had our chances but couldn't take them. We're still good enough to win this competition but there's no second chances from here on in

Agree re Newcastle, it was a dumb decision who ever would have made that semi final. The capacity for this tournament is reduced to 22,000 as they're not allowed to see tickets for the grass banks.

On the contrary: resting the first players is a great strategic decision, so they will be fresher for the playoffs.

Okay thanks Asian cup, rules then.

China are definitely top - H2H record takes priority over goal difference