Socceroos Australia v South Africa [Friendly] 7:30PM ANZ Stadium

[giggler99]

We are F@cked I tell ya!! that match especially the second half was just Sh!t outplayed by a third string South Africa ffs!! we have to many players not up to international standard atm I'm afraid.

I fear for us at the World Cup I really do, I have never felt so fearful for a Socceroos team as I do right now.
I just wish we won't get to embarrassed in Brazil that's all I want at this point.


By the end of the World Cup Ange will be wishing he was still the coach of Melbourne Victory.

 

[Redalert]

We are F@cked I tell ya!!

I fear for us at the World Cup I really do, I have never felt so fearful for a Socceroos team as I do right now.
I just wish we won't get to embarrassed in Brazil that's all I want at this point.


By the end of the World Cup Ange will be wishing he was still the coach of Melbourne Victory.

In fairness it was a friendly, I wouldn't overreact. The team was undermanned and Ange is still getting his tactics right, I'd wait a bit before completely writing us off.

 

[giggler99]

In fairness it was a friendly, I wouldn't overreact. The team was undermanned and Ange is still getting his tactics right, I'd wait a bit before completely writing us off.

Well we haven't got much time to get tactics right only one more friendly against Croatia and from what I saw it's not enough we can't match it. We played sloppy, gave the ball away to much, made to many high crosses to nowhere and our defense was comical, We dish up that crap we will get punished and smashed 5-nill plus in all matches. Shit is starting to get serious now, there is no time to piss fart around at a World Cup. Sink or swim that's the nature we are truly sinking imo.

I know we had players out too but the honest truth is our young squad is just not up to it no matter how much effort, fitness, tactics we throw out it will not make any difference against who and what we are up against.

Might as well just park the bus and limit the damage.

 

[AM]

In fairness it was a friendly, I wouldn't overreact. The team was undermanned and Ange is still getting his tactics right, I'd wait a bit before completely writing us off.

If I were to remove the word "completely" would you be prepared to go along with that?

 

[Redalert]

Well we haven't got much time to get tactics right only one more friendly against Croatia, I know we had players out too but the honest truth is our young squad is just not up to it no matter how much effort, fitness, tactics we throw out it will not make any difference against who and what we are up against.

Might as well just park the bus and limit the damage.

I'd rather go out having a go, if we get belted then so be it, at least we've set the platform for how we want to play going into the future. I agree that our squad's not up to it, but we may as well try to play positive football.

If I were to remove the word "completely" would you be prepared to go along with that?

Probably

Quality-wise we're well off the pace, but that doesn't mean we can't be competitive. Senegal beat France in 2002 and New Zealand were undefeated in 2010, upsets can happen when teams are well-disciplined and organised.

 

[Loonerty]

Was at the game. Jesus getting out of Olympic Park is a nightmare, I wish I'd driven rather than PT.

I thought we played pretty sloppily. Sloppy defending leading up to their goal, and just looked sluggish on the ball. Oar and Leckie really impressed me. Cahill was regular old Cahill, you know what to expect. Milligan pissed me off the most.

There was a good cheer when Kennedy came on, which was pretty good to hear.

Overall this is definitely a team aiming more at Asian Cup/2018. We're going to get monstered in Brazil, but we've got to take our lumps before we can improve significantly.

 

[JimDocker]

It seemed like once Australia had a string of 5 passes, they decided that was long enough and they had to play a miracle ball into the box. There was no patience at all. They need to keep hold of the ball. If they give possession up that easily against the better sides, they will bleed goals. All the talk of possible intent is ok, but it needs to be tempered by a dose of reality.

Halloran looked good when he came on.

 

[nicko99]

We will find out more of how we will fare at the World Cup when we play Croatia in 2 weeks.

 

[Wes Tiger]

In fairness it was a friendly, I wouldn't overreact. The team was undermanned and Ange is still getting his tactics right, I'd wait a bit before completely writing us off.

Might only be a friendly, but I'm sure he's not judging off this game alone. We've been poor for quite some time now which was seen during the qualifying process where we struggled to qualify and had mediocre results and performances. 2-2 At home to Bahrain from 2-0 down? Took us forever to break down an already eliminated and youth filled experimental side vs Iraq in our last game at home just to get to the world cup. We hardly created anything that game. Look at the floggings Brazil and france dished out and then blowing a 3 goal lead vs Ecuador.

Might only be a friendly but almost every other result/performance weve had was putrid even in games that mattered.We havnt got a hope in hell. Will cop a flogging in each game.

 

[Redalert]

Might only be a friendly, but I'm sure he's not judging off this game alone. We've been poor for quite some time now which was seen during the qualifying process where we struggled to qualify and had mediocre results and performances. 2-2 At home to Bahrain from 2-0 down? Took us forever to break down an already eliminated and youth filled experimental side vs Iraq in our last game at home just to get to the world cup. We hardly created anything that game. Look at the floggings Brazil and france dished out and then blowing a 3 goal lead vs Ecuador.

Might only be a friendly but almost every other result/performance weve had was putrid even in games that mattered.We havnt got a hope in hell. Will cop a flogging in each game.

There's a big difference between Ange and Osieck both in terms of personnel and in how the team plays, so its unfair to judge the side on last year's qualification and friendly performances. Ecuador also saw the Socceroos show glimpses of a coherent game style for a half, which is more than we saw in 4 years under Holger. We'll probably lose all 3 games fairly easily, but what I'm looking for is how we go about it rather than the scoreline.

 

[ANGEL DARK]

There's a big difference between Ange and Osieck both in terms of personnel and in how the team plays, so its unfair to judge the side on last year's qualification and friendly performances. Ecuador also saw the Socceroos show glimpses of a coherent game style for a half, which is more than we saw in 4 years under Holger. We'll probably lose all 3 games fairly easily, but what I'm looking for is how we go about it rather than the scoreline.

Its not going to matter a hoot how we go about it when your up against class sides in the world cup. That effort last night was appalling against a 2nd or 3rd rate South African side who are nobodys even when theyve got their best lineup in. It definately the worst Australian team out of the last 3 world cups weve qualified for and in all seriousness we shouldnt even have qualified with how easy it was going through Asia. I much prefer to qualify through Sth America like we did in 2006 because if you beat them you know you deserve to be there. I fear we will be the laughing stock of the world cup

 

[FRUMPY]

Its not going to matter a hoot how we go about it when your up against class sides in the world cup. That effort last night was appalling against a 2nd or 3rd rate South African side who are nobodys even when theyve got their best lineup in. It definately the worst Australian team out of the last 3 world cups weve qualified for and in all seriousness we shouldnt even have qualified with how easy it was going through Asia. I much prefer to qualify through Sth America like we did in 2006 because if you beat them you know you deserve to be there. I fear we will be the laughing stock of the world cup

Could quite easily be the definition of the Australian side. We are a very average football side and were lucky to qualify. We will not score a point and goals against could be quite high. Im expecting all 3 games to be similar to the 4-0 drubbing against germany in the last world cup.

Last nights result means nothing and being in a high training load meant they had little in the tank. But you just have to look at the players getting a gig at the moment, very average side.

 

[Hamingja]

I was hoping this was on free to air to build up some enthusiasm for the world cup.

Perhaps for my enthusiasm's sake it is better I didn't see it.

 

[peternorth]

the wc is perfectly set up.

if we get hammered, experts will say it was expected.

if we somehow get through, or even score, we will be lauded.

 

[NUFC Tiger]

Its not going to matter a hoot how we go about it when your up against class sides in the world cup. That effort last night was appalling against a 2nd or 3rd rate South African side who are nobodys even when theyve got their best lineup in. It definately the worst Australian team out of the last 3 world cups weve qualified for and in all seriousness we shouldnt even have qualified with how easy it was going through Asia. I much prefer to qualify through Sth America like we did in 2006 because if you beat them you know you deserve to be there. I fear we will be the laughing stock of the world cup

I don't think you can fault the effort/work rate - there was certainly enthusiasm and endeavour, just a lack of finesse and efficiency. Obviously the players wanted to put in a positive display but couldn't quite manage it - there was a lot of fouls committed which is reflective of a side trying to come together and mesh into a fluid unit and perhaps were guilty of trying too hard. Had Jedinak, Bresciano and Spiranovic played (plus Kruse and Williams), you'd have expected we'd have won.

A lot of people are not giving South Africa enough credit as well - Australia is ranked 59th in the world currently and South Africa are not far off us in 65th. We were arguably missing half of our best 11 as well while South Africa also had a few outs. That being said, they narrowly missed out on the final round of qualifiers in the African confederation (losing their last game to miss out on going through).

Also, just on that second bit, I get where you're coming from but it's an incredible honour to be part of the World Cup - they only come around every 4 years. Whether we 'deserve' to be there or not is a moot point. At the end of the day, we qualified through the Asian qualifying process fairly. Are there better nations than us who won't be at the tournament? You bet! Is that our problem? Not at all. Every team has to earn the right to be amongst the 31 other teams (host nation excluded) via a successful qualification process via their respective confederation.

Maybe I'm selfish but I'd love to see Australia mixing it up with the best every 4 years rather than waiting for another generation to come and go before we might make a return to the WC. If the 5th ranked South American team was in the Asian confederation, there's a very good chance they'd be the best nation of any of the Asian countries. If we had to go via the playoff route against South America (like we did in Oceania), I'd suspect we wouldn't be at the WC for many years to come. Furthermore, the only way to improve as a nation is to produce better players and coaches. The best way (IMO) to do that is to inspire and motivate more people to follow the code and become passionate about it; and in order to do that, Australia needs to be represented on the world stage.

Yes we may get blown out of the water in Brazil but just imagine how massive it would be if we could steal a 1-0 win over Holland or hold Spain to a draw. That would be as famous a result as our 3-1 triumph over England or the 3-1 win in Kaiserslautern. That kind of result would inspire a new generation of kids to dream of becoming future Socceroos and Matildas and help capture the nation's imagination.

 

[Big Sauce 21]

Long balls over the backs at the world cup is our only chance of scoring.... and cahill from set pieces.