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Joined December 2018
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Maybe, but we’d have a squad loaded with centre backs, fullbacks and central midfielders. Maybe 2 guys who know how to find the back of the net
Graham Arnold 'can’t possibly' pick A-League players for the World Cup
I agree with Cobbo getting there. Blues are all about speed and agility now, so fight fire with fire. Oates is in good form and would be the logical pick if the blues were going for height and size on the wing, but he’ll struggle to contain the pace of JAC and To’o
My Queensland team for Origin 1
Again I’m not talking about a current rugby player changing to football. I’m saying we’re the same species as Germans, Spanish, Brazilians, we have similar body shapes and percentages of the population with genes suited to becoming rugby players. If Germany were crazy about rugby, they’d have a heap of big and tall people wanting to muscle up and join a club. Instead they only want to watch and play football. That’s what we’re maybe missing out on here.
Why are so many people frustrated by the fact that the Socceroos are simply not good enough?
I’m mostly talking physical stature. We literally can’t make a big physical no 9 right now. We just keep producing 5’11 tap in merchants. That’s an example where a bit of physical presence would be helpful to add to the talent pool
Why are so many people frustrated by the fact that the Socceroos are simply not good enough?
People refuse to accept it in Oz football circles, but I truly believe we’re restricted by a lack of natural athletes in the game. Think of the athletes with elite strength, stamina, work ethic that choose to play Aussie rules, rugby league, cricket, basketball. If football had the dominance here that it does in Germany, Italy or Brazil, so many of those would have grown up on the game. Arzani has natural talent, but that’s about all he has, and he’s up against players from those countries with the talent, as well as physicality and work ethic.
Why are so many people frustrated by the fact that the Socceroos are simply not good enough?
I’m hopeful that these things come together, but I think we need to be realistic about how well clubs adapt. It’s one thing to have sustainable 2nd, 3rd and 4th national divisions in Europe where football is life and thousands of fans attend. It’s a whole different thing to get that going in Australia where the top flight struggles for meaningful support and NPL games average a couple hundred attendees.
Why are so many people frustrated by the fact that the Socceroos are simply not good enough?
Rugby’s another sport we’ve fallen in compared to international standards (albeit in a far smaller environment). With both sports, it’s not that we’re doing things a lot worse now than we used to, it’s that what we did back then took us a lot further than it can now.
Why are so many people frustrated by the fact that the Socceroos are simply not good enough?
Half the golden gen had their development supercharged by the AIS football program, which no longer exists. There was better connectivity between junior and senior ranks in the NSL (although this has improved lately), but they were still playing far less games than European leagues, then and now. So I’d say the golden gen came out of a combination of: good junior-senior connectivity in NSL clubs, the AIS program, and easier pathways to Europe.
Why are so many people frustrated by the fact that the Socceroos are simply not good enough?
I distinctly remember us playing ugly as hell back then. Knives were out for Verbeek and his ultra-pragmatic style. Guess we were still fairly new to AFC and didn’t appreciate the results we got.
Then again, having a look at that group we were in, we had it REALLY easy: other than Japan it was Bahrain, Qatar and Uzbekistan, and none of them were a threat back then. The other group of the Koreas, Iran, Saudi and UAE would’ve been a nightmare.
'Sloppy' Roos drop points against China, leaving World Cup bid reeling
Half the squad are the same players Ange had, what are you on about..
'Sloppy' Roos drop points against China, leaving World Cup bid reeling
That’s great, but those are all club sides. The international game is a different beast. Ange himself said he prefers club football as he can work with players week in week out. The 2018 campaign also came at the end of Ange’s tenure, where his playing group had fully come to grips with his philosophy and yet still struggled against Iraq and Thailand, got played off the park in Japan and scraped past Syria. What exactly has changed since then?
'Sloppy' Roos drop points against China, leaving World Cup bid reeling
Regardless of the coach, it’s clear that we’re incapable of maintaining the necessary level to overpower Asian teams on a regular basis in qualifying. We’ll spike here and there, knock in a couple of goals and put on a passing and possession masterclass (usually at home). But we’ll drop down again the very next game. That’s not just in this campaign or the last, ever since we joined Asia we’ve muddled through in patches and relied on ‘moments’ to get over teams, rather than dominate them consistently.
'Sloppy' Roos drop points against China, leaving World Cup bid reeling
We just had Ange lead us through a qualifying campaign and went exactly the same way we’re going now.
'Sloppy' Roos drop points against China, leaving World Cup bid reeling
Glad someone mentioned last campaign under Ange. Have people seriously wiped that one from memory? They’re really quite similar so far: promising start, getting demolished in Japan, draws against teams we should beat. Difference is this time we’ve had to play home games in the middle east and we finish the campaign with a much tougher assignment.
'Sloppy' Roos drop points against China, leaving World Cup bid reeling
Not to jinx us ahead of tonight, we’re obviously getting the 3 points and maintaining our strong run. But isn’t it a bit weird we still don’t know the inter-confederation play-off details yet? Wikipedia page still says a draw will be held “at a later date”. Do we have any more info on that?
Qatar looks a long way off should the Socceroos lose tonight
A lot of grounds hosted NRL games this year, Mackay and Rockhampton held finals games! Redcliffe has about 8,500 seats less than the next smallest ground, and a brick wall up against one end. It needs an upgrade to host regular NRL games. Nothing wrong with saying that, it’ll just be a steep upfront cost because of the league’s club location.
Dolphins in, Redcliffe out and Wayne Bennett to coach
Righto, might have to rephrase that to “professional era”! Still it’s nice to see NRL recognise an existing entity with some actual history, after spending decades building teams out of focus groups..
Dolphins in, Redcliffe out and Wayne Bennett to coach
I’m curious about that too, seeing as they’ve literally built themselves into a corner by having their leagues club right up against the field. It’ll take a hefty rebuild to get the stadium up to NRL standard (if they stay at the same location).
Dolphins in, Redcliffe out and Wayne Bennett to coach
Greater Northern South East Queensland Dolphins probably. Always on the lookout to expand ‘catchments’! It’d be nice if it could stay Redcliffe and just acknowledge heritage for once, but I can see them trying to grab as much territory as possible (Sunny Coast, North Brisbane, Caboolture etc)…
Dolphins in, Redcliffe out and Wayne Bennett to coach
Is this the first time an existing RL team has been ‘promoted’ to the top flight? Maybe the seagulls back in the NSWRL days?
Dolphins in, Redcliffe out and Wayne Bennett to coach
No they haven’t, maybe they would have in our position, maybe not. Our 4 wins against Jordan and Kuwait all in the middle east were huge, as were our 3 consecutive wins abroad this round.
It’s also worth noting how different Japan are at home. They might struggle with finishing, but they monster teams in every other stat playing at Saitama. But take them away from home and they become a lot more vulnerable.
'Really great, intelligent football': Arnie's weird boast as Socceroos' Japanese jinx continues
Well he didn’t say “I’ve heard they’re doing this”, he just observed what they were doing and noted how it looked like a clear coached strategy. They identified our passing and lack of composure on the ball as a clear weakness to exploit
'Really great, intelligent football': Arnie's weird boast as Socceroos' Japanese jinx continues
Look I don’t think it’s as doom and gloom as some would say. Japan are NOT the same team away that they are at home, that’s for sure. Neither are Saudi Arabia. It would help us if we actually played at home though. It’s one thing to get over China and Oman in an empty middle eastern stadium, Saudis will be a different story!
'Really great, intelligent football': Arnie's weird boast as Socceroos' Japanese jinx continues
I remember Harps saying something about Japan being coached to watch our first touch and put pressure on us. It’s totally true though, we completely lacked any first touch fluidity, every time a player received a pass, there was about a second or 2 where the ball would bobble a metre forward. Japan just had to watch for that, jump on it and our possession becomes a contested ball..
'Really great, intelligent football': Arnie's weird boast as Socceroos' Japanese jinx continues
Why were they handing out ski goggles to the players afterwards. Something about white powder?
The only team that can stop arrogant Panthers from three-peat is themselves