Jedinak misses Socceroos training, but will play against UAE

Only at the national level, so not a lot (also in the ACL 2014 - but I can't really recall anything about the game). He clearly is a cut above the rest and if it wasn't for the laws that more or less make it impossible for UAE players to ply their trade outside of the Emirates he, Khalil and Mabkhout would be having successful careers in Europe. Whether he's the best Asia has ever produced is a question for wondrous debate, however he is the most dangerous midfielder we'll be facing in this stage of qualification and at 24 has a long career ahead of him.

Ben Many are saying Omar Abdulrahman could be the greatest player Asian has ever produced, have you seen much of him play.

Marron I doubt it will be on FTA and even if so mid week early morning, with almost zero media coverage will mean a low rating match. Bias takes many forms, at one end you attack, at a different end you fail to report..... I not suggesting bias as this is the end of both the NRL and AFL seasons but Football still struggles without a commercial FTA partner [I stress partner not broadcaster] to get media traction. But of real sadness to me is the political left, wanting to have a pop of the Pauline's of the world, and shout and jump about re Cronulla etc .... will actively ignore normal behaviour by Muslims in a friendly sporting context thus showing them in a different light to the PH's of the world. I have always struggled with this its kinda like the political left also have a bias against sport overall maybe and never consider using sport as a vehicle to express what they want to say.

Ben Thanks for the summary I don't know much about them so all this stuff you give us is excellent.

UAE will cause us some trouble, particularly at home. In the recent game against Japan they played very narrow, with #10 Omar Abdulrahman using his considerable technique to draw in defenders and then lay off the ball to the likes of #15 Ismail Al Hammadi or #7 Ali Mabkhout to either fire a shot or draw a foul. Often they would go for the latter which allowed #11 Ahmed Khalil to use his considerable dead-ball skills which is where both of their goals against Japan came from (one free and one penalty). In this respect they seemed to welcome a congested defence and did little to pull the Japanese wide to create space. When they did go for a long ball it was often over the shoulder of #7 Ali Mabkhout who has the knack of hitting a half-volley on the run. We need someone on top of him if he makes a run as he does not need a touch to control the ball to pull the trigger. In defence they seemed to rely a lot upon the towering #19 Ismail Ahmed. Kiyotake was rather adept at making sure corners went no-where near him which seemed to fluster the Emiratis somewhat. If the Japanese could have finished the chances that resulted the game would have looked far different.

This is a crucial game.

Many opportunities will be lost, that's for sure. From the football chatter (or lack there-of) I get the feeling that much of the Australian footballing public is also unaware as to how important this game may be in the final mix.

Did I not read that they were hopeful of getting this to FTA (if delayed)?

Ben I can only imagine the crowd on the night will be a good test for the officials... Sad in many ways the broader Australia sporting public is almost denied media coverage on this. The editors simply see other things will do better ... Sadder to [aside from Football] it misses a valid response from the political left, to have Muslims seen in a positive light i.e sport loving and having a good night out,

Correct. This game is potentially the most important in our qualification phase. As UAE are shaping to be one of the contenders then getting at least a point from them on the road puts some solid distance between us and an immediate rival for one of the two spots (in-so-far that to make it up they need to gets points off of us in Australia).

Ben """ Socceroos support staff were bemused by the presence of two men wearing United Arab Emirates shirts who were granted special access to watch the training session."""" Interesting indeed ...

With that win over Japan and if they beat us, they will be hard to peg back TBH from at least a top three finish

"Socceroos support staff were bemused by the presence of two men wearing United Arab Emirates shirts who were granted special access to watch the training session." Ah, the joys of playing in the Gulf States :)