The Samurai Blue have beaten the Socceroos 2-0 at the Saitama Stadium and fully deserved their victory.
A goal in each half was a fair reflection of proceedings, where the Socceroos failed to put consistent pressure on the home side in what was a disappointing performance from the Aussies.
The early stages saw the Japanese dominate the contest and the well-organised Socceroo defence repel any half chances created.
As the first period rolled on the Socceroos started to gain some traction in terms of possession yet failed to find clear avenues to goal.
The late goal from Asano with less than five minutes remaining in the first half appeared to hurt the visitors and their start to the second period was less than inspiring.
The Socceroos still found consistent periods of attack during the second half yet failed to provide any consistent and realistic chances.
Ideguchi’s wonderful strike in the second half quite possibly heralded his arrival as a key player for the Japanese for a long time to come, as well as sealing the Australians fate in the qualification race.
If Japan take a B-team into the contest against Saudi Arabia, the Socceroos appear doomed. If a real contest takes place and the Japanese seek all three points, the Socceroos need to find a way past Thailand, which, despite seeming easy on paper, was far from the case last time around.
All in all, this was a disappointing performance in many ways from the Socceroos.
After pushing Chile and performing well at the Confederations Cup, the local fans were optimistic about the final two qualifiers and felt things could have been wrapped up with at least a point tonight.
However, once again the Socceroos have found a way to create stress for us all and we will have another week of waiting before we know our fate.
Whatever the outcome, Postecoglou, staff and players need to produce something much better if this team is to achieve anything in Russia 2018 – if we even get there.
Griffo
Roar Guru
It's not solely a problem of not being able to pass Chris. You have to pass to someone. The opponent will try to block passing lines and your team mates have to move into space (ie: not behind an opponent) to have the best chance of receiving the ball. Both were occurring vs Japan, which was part of their game plan to put pressure on us. It should mean our players shift into space but we have been guilty for a while of being static. But still I do agree to an extent: it does look sometimes like we try to pass harder through an opponent in hope it might trickle past them. :-(
marcel
Guest
"The embarrassing substitutions"...yeah...who would have imagined bringing on a defensive midfielder was the way to snatch a result in the final part of the game.
marcel
Guest
Maybe the problem with futsal players is they dont learn to run more than 15m...Rogic plays like a statue most games.
punter
Guest
We have always been poor in the passing game & never had the technical ability, this is our weakness. The defence was poor & this has always been our strength.
chris
Guest
Agree Chris. Our passing is just sub standard at times. For a team that wants to play out from the back, that part of the game just simply needs to improve.
chris
Guest
Is Winx running this weekend?
chris
Guest
If goal diff is the same they look at who has scored the most goals. If thats still equal then Australia qualifies as they look at head to head between Aus and Saudis.
LuckyEddie
Guest
We can talk 3-4-3, 5-2-3-1 etc. etc. etc. but we have two major problems and one of those cannot be remedied in the short term. Quite simply we are not producing quality top class footballers. Mooy might be the exception but we will have to see how he goes in the EPL for a full year. The major reason is that the best kids are not getting into rep teams because their parents simply cannot afford it. We have too many junior WC squads travelling the World using up money that should be spent at home. Quite simply a kid 19 should be playing in an A-League team instead of playing games against kids teams around the world while the coaches look for the next junket. The other problem, and this is worldwide, is that very ordinary players can make a very healthy living playing very ordinary football in very ordinary Leagues (the Middle East for example). So the cream does not need to come to the top and ordinary players have no great incentive to get better because they can set themselves up for life being just average. Ange is not a great coach and playing three at the back against quick Japanese player is stupid, BUT, a good tradie needs good tools and we just have an ordinary bunch of players.
Waz
Guest
Yup. We hope we can beat the Thai's who we were lucky to get a point from the last time we played ?
Waz
Guest
It ain't working and it ain't been working for a while. That sums up this campaign; the FFA could use this as a marketing slogan although "you've gotta have 3 at the back" also seems pretty compelling.
Grobbelaar
Roar Guru
There is still plenty of hope that we can finish top 2.
Grobbelaar
Roar Guru
Can't argue with any of that.
punter
Guest
Pretty well spot on there!!!! It ain't working & it hasn't been for awhile.
LuckyEddie
Guest
Well coming from a Scottish family I would disagree with your statement. But I have a cousin who was on the St Johnstone Board and quite simply them and others know they cannot beat Celtic to the title. The clubs other than Celtic have their own competition and in a way concede the Celtic games. Small clubs like StJohnstone in Perth just do not have the money to compete and any decent players they have are quickly picked up by the rich clubs in Europe. The same happens in Spain where Real will thump a team 6-0, in most cases the lower rated team just plays the reserve team. But as far as Rogic is concerned he is a good enough player but not very quick and if he was great player he would be in he EPL.
not so super
Guest
Waiting for nemesis to set the record straight
not so super
Guest
i heard the women in the crowd are especially vocal
Stevo
Roar Rookie
So why didn't we mix it up????? How often did Ryan roll the ball out to one of our defenders for then to start a sequence of passes sideways and backwards and then for the ball to find its way back to Ryan for a hoof! Might as well hoofed it from the start and caught the opposition defenders on the back foot. Not having a proper target man was a problem. FFS what was Ange thinking??????? Extremely poor tactics from us.
Kaks
Roar Guru
Where do we start? The woeful team selection (again)? The fact players that don't deserve to start keep getting to start (and it cost us big time, again)? The embarrassing substitutions that dont solve the issues shown during the game? Or the fact that Angel keeps trying to fit players into a system instead of vice versa? Or even better, the fact that we have 11 professionals on a pitch last night who dont seem able to pass without hesitating or find a player with their pass or even know how to control the ball in that rare instance a pass makes it to them. Woeful performance.
Waz
Guest
Another disappointing performance that for me points to a need to change the coaching staff, thankfully Ange has already made the decision to go saving everyone a lot of trouble.
stu
Guest
Perhaps Rogic is not as good as some believe. There seems to be an attack on the league he plays in when his abilities are discussed, rarely it is just his lack of ability that is discussed.