AFC Asian Cup - Final: Australia v Japan

[Angus1]

It was a great set up and a great finish.

We had nothing as clear cut as that except for Kewell's strike.
That's the whole problem with our game. All this great play yet not many quality strikes. Just lots of low percentage headers.

I think the team stuck too the gameplan a little too much here.
Occasionally you have to remember to play football. A run through the middle. A one, two pass. Bloody hell we had the ball that much just set something up.

 

[Leon]

Yeah cool, rightio champ

Carney ****ed up, Kewell missed a chance or two, it doesn't mean they're chokers or "****ing ****s" as you disgracefully called them, they're players who gave it their all in a tight match and couldn't quite pull it off for us.

You clearly have a Richmond esque need for a scapegoat and someone to blame, the rest of us will try and look at it a bit more rationally

 

[twentydollarnote]

kewell finishes like a winger because he is one, should never have played him as a striker or if we are going to at least try to compliment his strengths by getting deep crosses from in behind in rather than long diagonal balls 1/2 way up the pitch. qwe needed a pacey outlet for our front half too it was way too slow.

and for the goal where were the central defenders????????? annoying.....

 

[peternorth]

what a crap summer

- lose the ashes to a team with a few imports*
- lose the asia cup to a strike from a korean
- li na loses




















* although cook isnt an import

 

[belfast_bomber]

Yeah cool, rightio champ

Carney ****ed up, Kewell missed a chance or two, it doesn't mean they're chokers or "****ing ****s" as you disgracefully called them, they're players who gave it their all in a tight match and couldn't quite pull it off for us.

You clearly have a Richmond esque need for a scapegoat and someone to blame, the rest of us will try and look at it a bit more rationally

Excellent summation... you sure aren't like the rest of the pool supporters on this board

 

[A Bit High]

If that is on my right foot with nobody near me it's in. He had so much goal to aim at he didn't even need to put it in the corner (which he didn't). Easy finish only a spud misses that.

Yet you were not in the side...Another great mystery in Australian sport.

Think your ambition is waaaaay ahead of your abilities champ.

 

[Bartram_Class]

Their keeper was the best player on the park and they scored with a screamer, regardless of where our defence was, timed it to perfection.

It hurts, but better to come away feeling hard done by than admitting we were outplayed. And best of all, the likes of McKay and Kruse held their own. It's looking up.

 

[krisholio14]

In the end we got beat by the better side. Nothing to complain about.

 

[belfast_bomber]

In the end we got beat by the better side. Nothing to complain about.

I wouldn't even go that far. It could easily have gone either way.

We certainly shouldn't be looking for people to slag off.

 

[Puddy]

One thing that pisses me off about alot of Australian Soccer supporters is that they blame losses on almost everything but their own team.

Socceroos were probably the more dominant team but they didnt take the chances that they should have. A win would have been great for Australian Soccer, just gotta look forward to hosting the 2015 Asian Soccer Cup.

 

[bisazc887]

But Australia would have gone all the way in 06 remember Yeah its allways something or someone elses fault...I agree Puddy

 

[footy4ever]

Our biggest game since second last world cup.

I hit the sack at full time 0-0 thinking that because Aust. had owned the game for the most of it, and had easily had the most scoring chances, I would wake up and see 1 or 2-0 win for Aust. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU......................but in the back of my mind...I knew it, I just ****ing knew it would turn to crap!!

One consolation. It didn't take a professional diver to ruin it for us.

 

[Coledinho]

What.The.Hell.Was.David.Carney.Doing

Single handidly lost Australia the game with one of the more bizarre pieces of defending you will ever see.

 

[mattys123]

I'm proud of the effort we have throughout the whole tournament, and especially last night.

For most of the 120 minutes, we thoroughly outplayed the Japs, but as we all know with Soccer, the best team doesn't always win, you simply have to finish off your opportunities.

In the end the lack of a real striker cost us the tournament, if had of had a Viduka type (I hated how they kept comparing Kewell's role to Viduka) we would have won, but the one thing we have lacked, and seems will lack for a while is an out and out striker who can finish precisely when the opportunity arises.

Kewell and Cahill, as good as they are, are not, and never will be "strikers", their finishing just lacks the polish required.

I'm proud of the effort, but disapointed in our execution in the final.

Oh well, in 4 years time we have to get some real revenge, it's 2-1 in their favour in big tournaments, hopefully we play them at some point in the 2015 Asian Cup at home, and our crowd can get us over the line.

 

[AG]

Hopefully that is the last time we will ever see Kewell and Carney in Australian jerseys. Both singlehandedly cost Australia this match.

lol. Why do you always go overboard?

 

[Coledinho]

lol. Why do you always go overboard?

Hes right about Carney though. That is seriously some of the most bizarre piece of defending ive ever seen. He was running to mark a water bottle for christs sake.

 

[AG]

Kewell has been our best player.

EDIT: I take it back Weagles, I sped read and thought the other name was Cahill.

 

[Ray Nolan]

Anyone bagging Kewell is a muppet, he had a whale of a tournament.

 

[Knight Ryders]

I don't ever proclaim to be a football (soccer) expert but watching the last few games before the final I did think that Carney was the weak link in the defence as he had shown times where he loses concentration where he gives the ball up deep in defence or losses his player. He does offer an attacking option though, but someone more educated could probably fill me in on whether he is a weak link or not though.

The socceroos achilles heel has always been our finishing. Cahill has proven to be a good finisher in EPL but that is more as an opportunist; he seem to play provider to opportunities in this tournament. Mission number 1 should be for Osick is to find someone who can clinically finish the good work up the park. A pity Kerem Bulut could be wasting his talent away in jail...

 

[The Big Steele]

Everyone said how way Harry Kewell played.

He missed about 5,000 shots.

 

[Coledinho]

I said at the beginning Australia made a big mistake in not taking another LB to the tournament and it showed as it went on. Joshua Rose is probably the best LB option we have atm, but more ideally id switch Emerton back to RB where he excelled for Australia in the past and throw Luke Wilkshere down at LB

 

[Bourky23]

Anyone bagging Kewell is a muppet, he had a whale of a tournament.

this.

i'm tipping the majority of people here slagging harry off have jumped on the wagon for the final and this is the only game of the tournament they watched.

fact is, we wouldn't have made it that far without him.

 

[Bourky23]

As I mentioned earlier, no Kennedy killed us.

knows the Japanese game and would have been a legitimate aerial threat.

 

[ErnieSigley]

As I mentioned earlier, no Kennedy killed us.

knows the Japanese game and would have been a legitimate aerial threat.

Someone else to butcher chances? We dominated the air anyway, it was way too predictable in the end, maybe the delivery was poor but we needed to mix it up more.

 

[ErnieSigley]

Can't say Kewell is to blame but I don't think he had as good a tournament as many say. He was fit and on the pitch which made a huge difference but a Kewell at the top of his game would have buried many of his chances.