Set piece double gives Socceroos boost ahead of massive World Cup clash

there is VAR in the Asia Cup. I watched the first half live, with that great goal by Kuol very late, in extra time, then watched the second half on replay this morning. P+ have their act together on replays, very good. Arnie coached the U23s until recently didn't he? Last Olympics. This core group have been together for a while now, with a couple of new ones.

I was going off the highlights only so thought thats what happened, as it was yellow initially and dint know their was VAR. Yes looking at the replay it seems they are running scared of the Aussies and this is plan B. They didnt show the tackle rolling off the top of the ball in the highlights . Arnie is just plain off his head, we have this collection of beasts he can unleash and they are all in the u23. I wouldnt back Mooy against a group of kids physically.

Rich was a striker on the Gold Coast a few years ago, he's a monster, very confident. I'm not sure about his defence, he likes to play forward too much for my mind, leaving big gaps for a counter but that's from limited observation. The other UK based players look good too, Francois and Peupoin but not absolute standouts.

I agree, looked like a clear pen, but ti be fair, an earlier handball could well have been a pen the other way. Much of the game seemed to have been played in front of our goal, although I don't know if the stats back that up, just seemed that way to me. We did well to get the win, I thought. Iraq's a good side, dominated us for large parts.

the issue last night was complacency..even with 10 men most of the time they seemed comfortable but that nearly caught them out.

he wasnt upgraded for protesting..it was suggested by the VAR that it was a RED..nonsense, totally accidental..then a clear PEN in last minute of play to give Australia the win referred by VAR was overruled by ref. The ref had a poor game including ignoring fouls..he seemed to think the histrionics by Iraq meant no fouls at all.

Well talk about performances Iraq 10 men and they got a 1-1 draw. How many beast players do they have in the backline, Powell sits out Bos comes in. Rawlins not quite physical enough to be given the beast rating, also came in and put in the cross for Kuol to do an incredible scorpion goal off a hard hit cross. I also think Kuol could also be a high jumper or 100 to 1500m runner, he has long legs. Now we have to talk about the elephant in the room, Adelaide United. This club needs to be off limit to youth players. Its a thug training center not a football club. They seem to have a special deal they can do all their antics in the A-league and get away with it, Adelaide have a 100 more fouls than other A-league teams this season and their on field behaviour is atrocious. Muscat seemed to have this deal with the refs early on in the A-league and now Veart has taken over. Yengi seems to gave been given a second yellow through crazed protest after a studs up tackle. This behaviour he was taught Adelaide wont be tolerated in other places. The football skills have been neglected, Bernardo I have noticed his skill level has gone down, and he is doing stupid things now.

Wasn;t a penalty , Bailey Wright got a piece of the ball first then collected the player. The 2nd goal was offside though. I also think that shove by Behich even though the player then threw themselves to the ground in the bargain, that would have warranted a penalty if the player tried to put a cross instead of diving he would have gone down being off balance.

Their goal was a cracker and the guy scored it really showed up Davidson’s lack of pace.

Ninkovic to me is more talented than Modric, Modric when does he receive the ball in advanced positions with his back to goal. Modric when you say he isnt fast if he wasn't fast he would never have played in the premier league. Even know at 36 he still is a quite decent mover and his fitness is first class, Ninkovic was never that fast and never that fit, because Modric has a really good engine, he constantly moves, and goes to vacant areas which is why he has time, if he went into the penalty area he would be easy to deal with. There are a lot of better goal scoring midfielders than Modric.

I walys thought they stuffed up not giving Matt Le Tisser better time

not showing on tv guide but Im sure its live on Para..if Im wrong at least 11pm is a good time to find out!

Kuwait put up a bigger fight than Jordan. I didn't think they lacked quality , the ref allowed a lot to go on and Australians hacked them and steamrolled them physically.

I am not sure of its live on 10 play for Australia matches,the replay is on Paramount plus only along with all the other countries matches. On the other hand for some reason Paramount plus takes forever to put up replays and 10play has them straight away for Socceros. Why is it Australian websites that provide ad content seem to be on phone modems or maybe 20 year old servers they slow down 10play and other websites. Paramount doesn't have that problem. I also think u23 is a good level for Asia, because the problem in Asia apart from Japan and Korea is the players then become decadent afterwards. The Middle East in particular the players slack off in their highly paid middle eastern clubs.

The u23 has a beast backline, it was like land of the mobile giants against Kuwait, Rich-Baghuelou he is huge 6 ft 5, still very mobile and is tremendous going forward, technically good and confident passers. Bility looks a great athlete as the other center half and why is he playing in Iceland. Kuwait must have wondered what they were up against, very physical , very fast , good on the ball . The only issue I saw was Rich was no good in the air, Bailey Wrights head is the only thing that the Socceroos had against Jordan. Its embarasssing seeing a u23 team that looked man for man better than the starting line up against Jordan apart from Mabil.

I'm not underestimating them at all. We must not concede first. They are the masters at feigning injury and being fouled etc. Almost as bad as Jordan.

Lack of pace is one thing , Kilkenny is older, he is slower as well , that doesn't stop him form working in defence. For the goal and one on one, all he had to do was run a few meters forward and put pressure on the shooter for the goal and the passer for the through ball. Mooy being in Shanghai in lockdown plus not playing a mystery how he is picked. Aloisi has done a good job with his defense, Kilkenny was exposed at City for pace many times, Kilkenny had 10 yellows at City and 4 at United this season, and those 10 were only the ones he was able to foul in time. Mooy in England and WSW he was also good in defence. Mooy was also exposed for pace for City. So lack of pace can be catered for , a lack of effort and fitness its crazy to risk playing Mooy.

i think a lot of people are underestimating the UAE. although they don't score many goals, they are really tight at the back (one of the meanest defenses in Asian qualifying) the new coach has only been there since february and already has masterminded a victory over one of the biggest nations (south korea) plus the UAE have proved if they score first, they can defend a lead.

Barnes profited from the openness in the English game at the time, your not getting that in the international game. If he wanted to score those sort of goals at international level he needed to play in either a front three or second striker not the English formation. Dont see what it has to do with Lineker. Hoddle was a great player in the wrong country, they didnt know what to do with him an international level. Viduka his problem was simple he was unfit and needed big on field rests to perform. At club level they were happy to leave him out at front doing nothing. At Socceroo level he was dropping back to help them play out that meant he was spent for the day. Against Thailand in the heat he was overcome by the heat and standing around near the edge of the area doing nothing, instead of the Thai defender putting him 20 meters off side, for some reason he decided to stay and mark Viduka, and he was able to receive the ball close enough to goal. The A-league on a defensive level is unique, weird philosophies, a lot of old players who are given the privelege of standing around doing nothing , where has McLaren scored at a goal a game outside of the A-league.

Grant and Davidson play on opposite sides. Grant wouldn't have been dropped for Davidson, more likely Daniel Atkinson. Agree on Redmayne. If you have a first choice keeper (Ryan) and a back up (Vukovic, although I would argue Birighitti should have been there), why not bring up one of your younger players, Gauci or Glover (I know Glover wasn't great recently). Seems like a smarter way to ensure you continually have young players ready. I think with no real progress from the team in recent games Arnie was really just throwing a bone to some of those Fringe players to see if he happened across a Silver Bullet for next week. I think it is a bit concerning that one week out, with months of lead time and nothing to do but watch and scout players, that he stated that he still hasn't settled on his top 11 or 13 players. I know coaches like to play it close to their chest and keep all players on their toes, but at this point, surely game time together to strengthen combinations and create confidence and stability really is where the focus should have been.