Socceroos 2018 WCQ THREAD-v HONDURAS FOR SPOT IN RUSSIA (Dates TBC)

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Damn. There's some more committed people than me in this thread! 1.30 - 3.30 game time is about as bad as it gets - 3.30am is too late to stay up, but 1.30 is too early to get up. Well done to the hardy souls who watched the game and still went to work today!

I think it was pretty obvious by half time that this was going to be a TimMe game. The crosses were starting to improve, Rogic wasn't giving us a lot, and Juric didn't really look like scoring. Weighing all that up, I expected that he'd probably come on about 5 minutes after half time, so he was on later than I thought.

Milligan is still incredible, and is still in our most important 2-3 players. Mooy actually looked really good playing a bit deeper. Spiranovic and Sainsbury were very good. Smith did some really good things and if he keeps developing at the current rate he'll end up being the exact full back that Ange wants him to be.

Probably a better game than it had any right to be in that heat - the medicos and sports scientists definitely earned their money!
 
nobbyiscool said:
Damn. There's some more committed people than me in this thread! 1.30 - 3.30 game time is about as bad as it gets - 3.30am is too late to stay up, but 1.30 is too early to get up. Well done to the hardy souls who watched the game and still went to work today!

I think it was pretty obvious by half time that this was going to be a TimMe game. The crosses were starting to improve, Rogic wasn't giving us a lot, and Juric didn't really look like scoring. Weighing all that up, I expected that he'd probably come on about 5 minutes after half time, so he was on later than I thought.

Milligan is still incredible, and is still in our most important 2-3 players. Mooy actually looked really good playing a bit deeper. Spiranovic and Sainsbury were very good. Smith did some really good things and if he keeps developing at the current rate he'll end up being the exact full back that Ange wants him to be.

Probably a better game than it had any right to be in that heat - the medicos and sports scientists definitely earned their money!
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Agreed..
 
nobbyiscool said:
Damn. There's some more committed people than me in this thread! 1.30 - 3.30 game time is about as bad as it gets - 3.30am is too late to stay up, but 1.30 is too early to get up. Well done to the hardy souls who watched the game and still went to work today!

I think it was pretty obvious by half time that this was going to be a TimMe game. The crosses were starting to improve, Rogic wasn't giving us a lot, and Juric didn't really look like scoring. Weighing all that up, I expected that he'd probably come on about 5 minutes after half time, so he was on later than I thought.

Milligan is still incredible, and is still in our most important 2-3 players. Mooy actually looked really good playing a bit deeper. Spiranovic and Sainsbury were very good. Smith did some really good things and if he keeps developing at the current rate he'll end up being the exact full back that Ange wants him to be.

Probably a better game than it had any right to be in that heat - the medicos and sports scientists definitely earned their money!
Click to expand...
I went to bed at 9 and forgot we had a game in a few hours time. Woke up at 2am for the toilet and decided to stay up. I looked at my phone and got a push notification about the game so that's when I realised what I was missing.
 

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Awesome performance and win, this team is really taking shape. Still to reliant on Timmy Through, Kruse and Leckie to me just seem to have stagnated and don't seem to have that killer instinct or desire that Timmy has, not sure if they'll ever get it.
 
It was a great effort by the team, but our forward structure is a real concern, and is letting down a midfield and defence that its playing fantastic soccer.

Do Australia really not have any player (except Smith's cross obviously) who can cross the ball? Time after time, Rogic, Mooy and Milligan would put Leckie and Kruze into a good attacking position and they would comically stuff up the cross. Sometime the crosses were so bad that instead of resulting in a shot on goal for us, they set up attacking moves for UAE.

Seriously, our crossing has been an issue for a long time now. What are Leckie and Kruze offering? It is hard to blame Juric in the centre, when 2 of the worst crossers in world football are missing him by 20m every time.
 
Skeppersap said:
It was a great effort by the team, but our forward structure is a real concern, and is letting down a midfield and defence that its playing fantastic soccer.

Do Australia really not have any player (except Smith's cross obviously) who can cross the ball? Time after time, Rogic, Mooy and Milligan would put Leckie and Kruze into a good attacking position and they would comically stuff up the cross. Sometime the crosses were so bad that instead of resulting in a shot on goal for us, they set up attacking moves for UAE.

Seriously, our crossing has been an issue for a long time now. What are Leckie and Kruze offering? It is hard to blame Juric in the centre, when 2 of the worst crossers in world football are missing him by 20m every time.
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Bring back peter sharne :)
 
I still think Taggart is a one season wonder. Happy to be proven wrong though. Williams would almost be done as a Socceroo unless he has a strong injury free season with Glory. There's a reason why they might be back home rather than still OS.

Leckie does seem to have hit a ceiling. For all the running and work he does his final ball can be a disaster.
 
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I really like the look of Jamie Maclaren but he needs to do it for another season in the A-League and then possibly get a move. He's a little different to the likes of Juric, Giannou and Cahill in that he's quicker and he times his runs in behind really well. He's the type of player that could be handy against better sides come the World Cup when we need to play on the counter a little bit more.
 
Mr_Bojangles said:
I still think Taggart is a one season wonder. Happy to be proven wrong though. Williams would almost be done as a Socceroo unless he has a strong injury free season with Glory. There's a reason why they might be back home rather than still OS.

Leckie does seem to have hit a ceiling. For all the running and work he does his final ball can be a disaster.
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Agree with taggart but Williams is definitely immense. He'd be captaining boro in the EPL if he didn't have womanly injury peoblems
 

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bok_party said:
Not sure why Degenek got dropped at all?

Think if Taggart can actually stay fit, he could challenge for the striking role. Same with Rhys Williams but obviously mid/deg.
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Yeah couldn't understand that either. He had a solid game down the right Degenek, and was better then Smith as a wingback last Thursday. McGowan seems to be Ange's favourite in that position for some reason. He struggled offensively and alot of UAE's attacks were mostly down the left and got beaten time and time again. He does ok as an overlapping wide player but his passes were also a bit suspect.
 
FreoRicci said:
Yeah couldn't understand that either. He had a solid game down the right Degenek, and was better then Smith as a wingback last Thursday. McGowan seems to be Ange's favourite in that position for some reason. He struggled offensively and alot of UAE's attacks were mostly down the left and got beaten time and time again. He does ok as an overlapping wide player but his passes were also a bit suspect.
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Perhaps it's just a rotation thing. Who knows. Don't even know why he bothered calling up Risdon then if he was going to use McGowan. Still, everyone has a role to play in the end.
 
Gavin Excell said:
Don't know if anyone caught the post match with Ange but I must admit I love the brazen ambition. He reckons this country is too accepting of our "place" as a minnow nation and needs to raise sights. Great to hear.
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I agree with him - but I think we're nearly there already. Had we not drawn a genuine group of death 2 years ago (ask Spain), and had we not changed managers 7 months out I think we would've allowed ourselves to have much higher expectations. Certainly, after 2010 we were pretty brutal on the team, and downright savage on Verbeek after we failed to match the 2006 result.

Since Brazil we've won an Asian cup, and barring another horror draw we should be looking at final 16 as a bare minimum. Looking forward to Qatar our experience playing there on their pitches and in their conditions, the long term aim there should really be final 8.
 
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