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MightyFighting

MightyFighting

Brownlow Medallist
Veteran 10k Posts
Jun 23, 2003
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Melbourne
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Just wondering how Australia compares to the best countries in the Asian Confederation.

How far would Australia be likely to go in the Asian Championship?

How far would A-League clubs be likely to go in the Asian Champions' League?
 
when australia joins AFC, at their best they will be the one of the top, if not the best national team.

However, in the asian champions league, i cant see A-league teams giving the better asian clubs any trouble, seeing as our teams are controlled by a measily salary cap of 1.5 mil whereas most asian leagues are without a cap.
 
Sherrinator said:
when australia joins AFC, at their best they will be the one of the top, if not the best national team.
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Really? I would have thought Japan and Korea were clearly the top 2, even with Australia included. Saudi Arabia probably next along with Iran. My guess is Australia would have slotted in somewhere around 3rd or 4th. I'm by no means an expert though.
 

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I can't speak for Japan but I'd say that Australia are fairly evenly matched with South Korea, perhaps a tad behind South Korea but not by all that much. A huge compotent of the South Koreans' success in WC 2002 was the fact that they had the fanatical support of the entire country behind them playing in front of their supporters, also having a great coach in Hiddink helped them a lot. South Korea has some great individual players and has good team cohesion, but their greatest strength is their hometown advantage when playing at home.

South Korea had never won a WC finals match leading into WC2002 and are a good to very good team who had everything go right during 2002. I'm not downplaying their performances then, they were terrific and they deserved their 4th position but the national team really hasn't done much since 2002 and I doubt they'll fare all that well in 2006, a win or 2 probably and a round of 16 berth but that's probably where they'll finish. Unfortunately, a lot of locals here are bound to be disappointed as they honestly believe S Korea can repeat their 2002 performances and even go further! :eek:
Wiser locals see that 2002 was very fortunate and are more realistic about Korea's chances this time round.

South Korea are very difficult to beat at home but it is possible, whilst they often miss the hometown support and don't play nearly as well away from home, yet are still a very capable side. At the moment, I'd say Japan and South Korea are above Australia (and they deserve to be as they have the runs on the board with several consecutive WC appearances) but once we start playing in the AFC, I wouldn't be surprised if we match up alongside these two nations as the best in Asia.
 
I'd think Australia should make the final 4 of the Asian Championships.

With regards to the Asian Champions League, bit hard to tell as we don't get to see much of it over here. But in the recent final I'm pretty sure Kallon was playing, and there is some serious quality running around in the Middle East as a lot of European players go there to earn big bucks before retirement.

Also going to be very hard for a small A-League squad to make a midweek trip to Saudi Arabia or the middle of China, then return to play possibly 2 days later on a Friday night!
 
**** said:
Really? I would have thought Japan and Korea were clearly the top 2, even with Australia included. Saudi Arabia probably next along with Iran. My guess is Australia would have slotted in somewhere around 3rd or 4th. I'm by no means an expert though.
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At full strength on any given day in any given place we'd be an even money bet playing Korea or Japan - despite the fact we've played 2 meaningful matches every four years compared to their glut of international competition which provides them with experience, match hardness and invaluable tactical and strategic team awareness.

From now on - once we finally get the regular competitive matches every other country in the world (bar the rest of the shmucks stuck in Oceania) have enjoyed for the past five decades - if we don't go into every AFC tourney fully expecting to win we may as well renounce our footballing faith and go our separate ways.
 
GOALden Hawk said:
Also going to be very hard for a small A-League squad to make a midweek trip to Saudi Arabia or the middle of China, then return to play possibly 2 days later on a Friday night!
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This capped squad rule won't last long - even before Champions League football comes into the equation teams have already been bitching loudly about it with Newcastle especially hit by injury and suspensions earlier this season.

As with the generic white away guernseys and no reserve grade football, the 22? 24? man squad will be a distant memory by this time next season.
 
**** said:
Really? I would have thought Japan and Korea were clearly the top 2, even with Australia included. Saudi Arabia probably next along with Iran. My guess is Australia would have slotted in somewhere around 3rd or 4th. I'm by no means an expert though.
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Japan are in disarray at the moment. Shocking side in reality, no defense, no attack and a few good midfielders. Their team goes to bits when another team plays hard football.
 
dyertribe said:
This capped squad rule won't last long - even before Champions League football comes into the equation teams have already been bitching loudly about it with Newcastle especially hit by injury and suspensions earlier this season.

As with the generic white away guernseys and no reserve grade football, the 22? 24? man squad will be a distant memory by this time next season.
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Do they have the money to pay for all that?
 
I can't speak for all the teams but Adelaide, Sydney and Perth are all rolling in money so it won't be a problem money wise. The FFA are addressing the squad size issue, too, and we will definitely see a reserves/youth league in the near future. I know United will take the best players from the SA leagues, as I am sure the Victory, Roar and Glory will do as well. =)
 
There were at least 8 sides ranked above Australia in the rankings (some through flukes maybe). The best I think we could hope for is a playoff, only to see FIFA screw us over again and we'll have to play Uruguay for the 3rd consecutive time.
 
stmookeyj said:
There were at least 8 sides ranked above Australia in the rankings (some through flukes maybe). The best I think we could hope for is a playoff, only to see FIFA screw us over again and we'll have to play Uruguay for the 3rd consecutive time.
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Hopefully we'd get a playoff against Oceania. :)
 

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stmookeyj said:
There were at least 8 sides ranked above Australia in the rankings (some through flukes maybe). The best I think we could hope for is a playoff, only to see FIFA screw us over again and we'll have to play Uruguay for the 3rd consecutive time.
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bahrain is playing trinidad and tobago so if we made the playoff we would play a north american zone team. i think.
 
stmookeyj said:
There were at least 8 sides ranked above Australia in the rankings (some through flukes maybe). The best I think we could hope for is a playoff, only to see FIFA screw us over again and we'll have to play Uruguay for the 3rd consecutive time.
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we'd go straight through easily.
 
stmookeyj said:
There were at least 8 sides ranked above Australia in the rankings (some through flukes maybe).
Click to expand...

The FIFA Rankings?

The FIFA Rankings are an absolute joke and should never be taken seriously.

The perfect example of this fact (apart from the usual anomalies like the USA being ranked in the top-10) was in the leadup to France98 when Nigeria was considered a genuine contender for the trophy despite having a FIFA ranking of 70-odd.
 
dyertribe said:
The FIFA Rankings?

The FIFA Rankings are an absolute joke and should never be taken seriously.

The perfect example of this fact (apart from the usual anomalies like the USA being ranked in the top-10) was in the leadup to France98 when Nigeria was considered a genuine contender for the trophy despite having a FIFA ranking of 70-odd.
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i agree the rankings are garbage. the US a top ten team? please. they are beyond crap and play in arguably the softest confederation (apart from oceania). how should they get 3.5 spots, compared to 4.5 of conmebol? mexico deserves to be in the WC, but the US trinidad or jamaica or whoever makes it realy dont deserve it.
by that theory oceania should at least have 1 spot.
 

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