Think the Socceroos will smash Bangladesh? You're not paying attention

Your post which was deliberately antagonistic mocking anyone who disagrees as being a PlayStation fan. So I bit. And won.

@Steve You responded to my post. I'll always argue with people who make ignorant comments. You may find I argue with you regularly.

What exactly are you arguing? That you are so superior in football knowledge and anyone else who thinks differently (even if correctly) must be a PlayStation fan. You were wrong. There are other people in the world who know and love football as much, perhaps more than you. People are allowed to predict, with fair cause, a smashing. The fact you keepm referencing rankings, as if they are in anyway statistically relevant, is absurd. Give it up!

1. And, I'm happy to be wrong every time. I will NEVER forecast any team to score 5 or 6 goals in any competitive match against any opponent. 2. "Blowouts when a team like Bangladesh plays a team like Australia occurs pretty frequently" What do you define by frequently? 90% of the time? 75% of the time? I'd estimate blowout scores occur about 25-33% of the time when a low ranked team plays a high-ranked team in an international match. 3. "Malta and other minor Euro nations frequently play major nations in qualifiers .." And, that's why the AFC has opened up the qualifiers to the low ranked teams. In 20 years time we may seem the same improvement from the low ranked Asian nations 4. "If you ACTUALLY watched games and not just read FIFA rankings you would understand the context of these results. The fact you equate Malta with Bangladesh in football is ridiculous" How many matches of Bangladesh had you watched before you made your predictions? I wasn't comparing Bangladesh to Malta. I was pointing out that low-ranked Euro nation (160 in the world) played one of the world's strongest football nations and it wasn't a blowout and no Italian fan would've predicted a blowout.

And yet you were basically wrong in your statement, I was right, and blowouts when a team like Bangladesh plays a team like Australia occurs pretty frequently (see UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia alone in the last 24 hrs). It's just it's not that often an Asian team like Bangladesh plays a team like Australia. Malta and other minor Euro nations frequently play major nations in qualifiers, so it's no surprise that they get better results against bigger nations. If you ACTUALLY watched games and not just read FIFA rankings you would understand the context of these results. The fact you equate Malta with Bangladesh in football is ridiculous

"How did you come to the conclusion that Bangladesh were a team which we shouldn’t have been smashed by us?" By watching football & playing football, I know that scoring a heap of goals does not happen just because one of the teams is lot weaker. I didn't say scoring a lot of goals & winning by lots would be a shock. What I said was it's ridiculous to make such forecasts because, more often than not, such scorelines do not occur. From what I've been told, that may happen in PlayStation football. That's why I mentioned the Euro qualifiers. To show the inexperienced football fan that even the biggest Euro nations don't automatically get blowout scorelines when they play nations ranked 140 places below them,.

I am amsomeone who admits to watching global football. You are someone who admits that your affinity for the local game far outweighs your interest in foreign leagues or featuring foreign teams. There are plenty of posts from yourself to prove this. How did you come to the conclusion that Bangladesh were a team which we shouldn't have been smashed by us? By looking at completely irrelevant Euro qualifiers and the BS FIFA rankings, as if they mean anything? The more relevant Asian qualifiers and results of Bangladesh (look at them) would have clearly lead you to believe that anything other than a smashing (4-0 min.) would have been a shock. So which fan am I, someone who doesn't overestimate the quality of historically poor football nations.

I'm not sure where I stand with having the top tier Asian nations competing at this initial qualification stage, nobody likes a blowout. It was clear Australia didn't try and play at 100%, I suppose UAE did with their 15-0 win! The big upside though is we get to see the Socceroos in actio much more, plus more media attention and the players will be more attuned to each other.

The reason for these mismatched scorelines is because the AFC has decided to open up Stage 2 of the Asian Qualifiers to include nearly every nation in Asia (only 6 nations were eliminated in Stage 1). For WC2018 qualification we have 40 Asian nations competing in Stage 2 - double the number of nations that were there at Stage 2 for WC2014 qualification. So, yes, there is a greater chance of blowout scores now. I assume most football fans were aware of this change. It's like increasing the AFL competition from 18 teams to 36 teams. You'll get more chance of blowout scores Is this good or bad? Who knows. I think it's better to give the low ranked football nations more international experience. Also these WCQs also double as qualifiers for the 2019 Asian Cup, so the incentive for the mid-low ranked Asian nations is not World Cup qualification, but Asian Cup qualification.

Did you see the Euro Qualifiers? In particular, check out the Croatian result and the Italian result. Only a football novice or football illiterate would've expected Italy to smash Malta by 6 goals or more simply because Malta is ranked 160 in the world. Also in Asia last night, China 0-0 Hong Kong. Check out the rankings of China & HK The disparity in rankings between Croatia & its opponent and Italy and its opponent is far greater than the disparity in rankings between any Asian nations. As I said before: ridiculous scoreline predictions based on Fifa rankings exposes the prognosticator as a football novice (at best), or football illiterate (at worst). Which are you?

Oh and did you see the other scores from the AFC overnight? 15-0, 10-0...all one sided jokes.

5-0, could've been 10, and we barely tried 2nd half....stick to proving your football knowledge on web forums, as clearly you don't watch much international football. Bangladesh were pretty bad, as most knowledgeable people expected.

5 - 0. Can he stay please? Or will you comment like this every match?

I personally thought Bengladesh we're going to be better. We've seen with many of the lower Asian nations many players who are very skilful. Not so with these guys. If I had any knowledge of Bangladesh' ability than I would have expected at least a 4 goal victory. I think the 2nd half Austarlia will tone it down a notch, though not sure they can take it any easier than they currently are.

"Germany also beat Brazil 7-1 in Brazil" Can't see how that is relevant at all. The issue here is: should we be predicting a big score in an international football match, based on Fifa Rankings? My opinion is that such predictions expose the prognosticator as a football novice (at best), or football illiterate (at worst).

We'll see mate, I think you are giving Bangladesh too much credit here. It's not like a 6-0 is unprecedented for the Socceroos against lowly ranked opponents in WCQs, don't act as if it is. We've beaten even recently much better sides (e.g. Oman) 4-0 at home. Germany also beat Brazil 7-1 in Brazil. What they did in one game away to Georgia means nothing.

When I see comments like "we should score at least 6 & win easily" I have to wonder if people actually watch international football, or they just play Fifa PlayStation football? Absolutely ridiculous comments. Only a few months ago, Germany played Georgia in a Euro Qualifier. Germany is ranked No1 in the world. Germany are the current Champions of the World. Georgia is ranked 154 in the world. The final score was Georgia 0-2 Germany. Germany's starting XI included: Neuer, Boateng, Hummels, Schweinsteiger, Ozil, Kroos, Gotze, Muller & Reus. There were not substitutions until the 86'. Georgia kept the Germans scoreless in the 2nd half.

Knowing Chittagong, there's little guarantee it'll turn up in time.

I doubt Bangladesh will play the type of game that will allow a cricket score; I'm expecting the 9:45 to Chittagong to be parked across the goal mouth.

We will rack up at least 8