World Cup 2018 FIFA World Cup-Group C Thread (Australia, France, Peru, Denmark)

[Sozabarus]

You reap what you sow. Australia had a forward thinking, brave, visionary as a manager but hounded him out because he didn’t qualify for the World Cup easily enough. It took balls to do what Ange was doing and yeah it could have back fired, but it didn’t. People are too short term in their thinking instead of looking at the bigger picture and what he was trying to do.

Despite him being the best manager this country has ever had, he still wasn’t able to change the mentality of your average fan so in the end you got what you deserve - dull, archaic football.

Even though Australia finished with 0 points in 2014, that was undoubtedly a better World Cup performance than the s**t dished up this year.

 

[mcgarnacle]

He's so annoying. Completely illogical and over emotional

and the BS, it wasn't the Australian way to play. just makes up the narrative depending on the outcome.

Australia had chances. Just don't have the skill across park, and also, a talisman to seize it.

the hard done by, gallant, honourable defeat s**t we have had to endure from Foz and in Basheer's commentary in the first two matches before it all went to s**t in the final games in the past two world cups has been embarrassing.

We don't have the cattle. Unless this changes, we'll always be bit parts at world cups when we come up against good European & South American opposition. At least we're not as porous as Saudi Arabia have been historically.

and anyone who expected anything different from France vs Denmark were just as much deluded. We were half way out of this WC as soon as fate was out of our hands. Then Peru lost to France. Game set match.

 

[Yidaki]

 

[Satan]

View attachment 518347

 

[Plugger35]

You know exactly where Australian football is at when the entire nation insists a 38y/o who could not get meaningful playing minutes with Melbourne City is going to be our saviour

A team like Argentina has Aguero on the bench A player like Aguero would have claims to be the best Socceroo ever if he were Australian. And Argentina barely scrapped through the group stages.

They were made to look second rate by Peru who haven't even made it through the group stages which also says a lot about where the Socceroos are at.

 

[mcgarnacle]

You reap what you sow. Australia had a forward thinking, brave, visionary as a manager but hounded him out because he didn’t qualify for the World Cup easily enough. It took balls to do what Ange was doing and yeah it could have back fired, but it didn’t. People are too short term in their thinking instead of looking at the bigger picture and what he was trying to do.

Despite him being the best manager this country has ever had, he still wasn’t able to change the mentality of your average fan so in the end you got what you deserve - dull, archaic football.

Even though Australia finished with 0 points in 2014, that was undoubtedly a better World Cup performance than the s**t dished up this year.

you're still living in 2015.

asian opposition were carving us up in the middle during qualifying with Ange's visionary 3 CB possession set up. the philosophy didn't suit the personnel.

the guy had a sook and dumped the national team 6 months from a WC. if he had belief in his philosophy and getting anything out of it with this bunch of players, he would've seen it through to the end.

BVM had them for a handful of matches and playing competitively. The players crumbled with turnovers and poor skill mistakes which is what hurt them in all games, and were too slow up front to convert chances.

 

[Alfonz]

Even if soccer participation levels are reasonably high, there’s too many competing sports in Australia and our population is too small to generate a good national team.

It’s fanciful to think we’ll ever be much better than making up the numbers in something that most people don’t give a s**t about for 98% of their lives.

 

[Pykie]

They were made to look second rate by Peru who haven't even made it through the group stages which also says a lot about where the Socceroos are at.

I'm not sure 4 shots for the match which included an offside and deflected goal and 42% possession is made to look second rate.

 

[jd2010]

I can't believe people are critical of BVM and preferred what Ang dished up 4 years earlier. 1 point & being in it until the final group game is a good achievement for our current generation of players who are simply not good enough to expect too much more from. It's not like it was an easy group at all

 

[Thistle]

You reap what you sow. Australia had a forward thinking, brave, visionary as a manager but hounded him out because he didn’t qualify for the World Cup easily enough. It took balls to do what Ange was doing and yeah it could have back fired, but it didn’t. People are too short term in their thinking instead of looking at the bigger picture and what he was trying to do.

Despite him being the best manager this country has ever had, he still wasn’t able to change the mentality of your average fan so in the end you got what you deserve - dull, archaic football.

Even though Australia finished with 0 points in 2014, that was undoubtedly a better World Cup performance than the s**t dished up this year.

I have to disagree. Yes Ange tried to revolutionise the way we play but he tried to make players fit a formation rather than finding a formation that suited the players, and it almost cost qualification. Facing the likes of France with that strategy is a scary prospect.

Bert's structure made the socceroos competitive, but it were clearly lacking the class required to get more out of the games. I think he did a good job with what he had to work with.

 

[JimDocker]

You reap what you sow. Australia had a forward thinking, brave, visionary as a manager but hounded him out because he didn’t qualify for the World Cup easily enough. It took balls to do what Ange was doing and yeah it could have back fired, but it didn’t. People are too short term in their thinking instead of looking at the bigger picture and what he was trying to do.

Despite him being the best manager this country has ever had, he still wasn’t able to change the mentality of your average fan so in the end you got what you deserve - dull, archaic football.

Even though Australia finished with 0 points in 2014, that was undoubtedly a better World Cup performance than the s**t dished up this year.

Utter Bollocks. During qualification, Iraq beat Thailand 4-0. Australia drew 2-2 with Thailand. Let that sink in. That is where we were at with Ange coaching .

Ange had the team playing a go nowhere, over possession style of play that was somehow, according to Ange, going to enable them to beat better opposition.

Qualification under Ange was dull, archaic football. He had a plan and failed to follow it through. He achieved qualification which should be a given nowadays. We scraped in, playing garbage football, then he quit. Don't talk to me about him having balls. He took the easy way out and left somebody to do the hard work against real opposition.

There will be a lot of criticism of Graham Arnold over the next few years, but he will get Australia to qualify automatically for the next WC. We won't have to play 2 extra games and sneak in by the width of the goal post.

 

[Admiral Byng]

Even if soccer participation levels are reasonably high, there’s too many competing sports in Australia and our population is too small to generate a good national team.

It’s fanciful to think we’ll ever be much better than making up the numbers in something that most people don’t give a s**t about for 98% of their lives.

Yeah this. It is was it is. Most of us are not really willing to give up the best talent going to cricket or AFL so we can have a better showing at World Cups once every four years.

 

[SM]

Utter Bollocks. During qualification, Iraq beat Thailand 4-0. Australia drew 2-2 with Thailand. Let that sink in. That is where we were at with Ange coaching .

Ange had the team playing a go nowhere, over possession style of play that was somehow, according to Ange, going to enable them to beat better opposition.

Qualification under Ange was dull, archaic football. He had a plan and failed to follow it through. He achieved qualification which should be a given nowadays. We scraped in, playing garbage football, then he quit. Don't talk to me about him having balls. He took the easy way out and left somebody to do the hard work against real opposition.

There will be a lot of criticism of Graham Arnold over the next few years, but he will get Australia to qualify automatically for the next WC. We won't have to play 2 extra games and sneak in by the width of the goal post.

We won't qualify under Arnold.

 

[Cuzz09]

granted, the nation are once in 4 year followers of the socceroos. they know the name and past exploits, not the recent output

Aussies following the socceroos in World Cups are in the same boat as people who just watch the Melbourne Cup.

Once the event is finished they dont care.

On [device_name] using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[JimDocker]

We won't qualify under Arnold.

Bookmark this conversation and get back to me then.

 

[SM]

Bookmark this conversation and get back to me then.

Did you see his Asia Cup campaign?

 

[Guido]

If Foster wants us to ever "win this thing", it'll be through a pragmatic approach (with another golden generation).

Bert's outlook that "France is a world class team with world class players, they would win 7-8 out of 10 matches against us, it's my job to make our match against them one of those 2/10" is 100% correct.

This idea that we can take on any world class team, any day, anywhere, based on heart and a more expansive gameplan is horseshit - Ange's setup would have seen us torn to shreds in that first game. Sure, more possession and attacking flair, but ultimately giving that kind of world class opposition more time and space means you get taken apart, in most games. Sure, you get the occasional game where it works like against the Dutch in 2014 or Chile in the Confeds cup last year, but it's essentially a crap shoot - the proof is in the Germany game at the same confed's cup last year - we conceded 20 shots on goal and should have copped 5-6, against a second string German side, whereas against France's one billion dollar squad at a World Cup, the setup locked them down and gave us a true shot at a result.

If you want a miracle result at major tournaments, meaning 4-5 results against World class opponents, you have to setup for playing the percentages - as a real world example, without a truly world class player in the squad, Greece wouldn't have won the 2004 Euro's (results against Spain, Portugal x2, France, a top 10 in the world Czech team at the time) playing a gung-ho russian roulette style of play or 3 at the ****ing back!

Bert's style/gameplan was fine and gave us opportunity for a result in all 3 games - his execution though was off. Playing our most creative and damaging attacking asset in Arzani for 70 minutes for the whole tournament - absurd. Luongo not getting a minute - major question marks. Staying with one striker and bringing on Irvine when we needed 3 goals for a result - nuts. But I liked him and approach, loved the passion for the cause in paying assistants out of his own pocket, and would have happily taken him for the next 4 year cycle.

Now for Arnold. On a $5.6mil/4 year contract - unfortunately there's not gonna be any payout, so let's buckle up.

 

[JimDocker]

Did you see his Asia Cup campaign?

Qualifying for the World Cup is easier than winning the Asian Championship. Plus, I think he has improved. WC qualification should be a given for Australia.

 

[jd2010]

Coaches can definitely improve and also get worse over time. Just look at Ang for the perfect example of both. Arnold should get us through to a WC but I don't see 2022 being any better than this campaign unless 3-4 players in that 18-22 yr bracket really step up over the next few years.

As good as Mooy (or Leckie) is he shouldn't be our star man. They should be the role guys like Emerton and Culina etc. were

 

[Stevi_Tigers]

Firstly thanks for a wonderful career and great memories Tim Cahill and the fact he is mentoring arzani is great

Facts remain until we get more players playing in England/Spain/Italy or Germany instead of the a-league/Scotland or j-league this is the limit of what we can do make the cup out in the group and contend for the Asian cup

Need to pump as many games as we can into arzani

 

[WealstoneRaider]

Australia seem to have gone backwards to the team you had in the 00’s, or perhaps it’s other teams going forwards. I think you were unlucky to finish with one point though, was unlucky not to beat Denmark which you needed to. The young kid who came on looks a talent, need a few more of them coming through.

 

[jd2010]

Firstly thanks for a wonderful career and great memories Tim Cahill and the fact he is mentoring arzani is great

Facts remain until we get more players playing in England/Spain/Italy or Germany instead of the a-league/Scotland or j-league this is the limit of what we can do make the cup out in the group and contend for the Asian cup

Need to pump as many games as we can into arzani

This!

Said the exact same thing in the autopsy thread. It's something like 12 players in 2006 vs 3 now

 

[Stevi_Tigers]

This!

Said the exact same thing in the autopsy thread. It's something like 12 players in 2006 vs 3 now

2006 team was packed with winners as well and battle hardened campaigners

 

[jd2010]

I think the football public here just need to realise just how significant the move from the NSL & semi professional football to the A-League was/is. Dont get me wrong it was needed but it also meant we took some steps back with player development. When there was no pro league here all our decent youngsters had to go off and try and cut the mustard in Europe and it worked out well for some. Nowadays they stay here where lets face it the coaching isn't what it is over there and we end up with all these mid range footballers. We've got to keep improving our level of coaching to youth footballers here and that will correct over time. But it's crazy to expect too much from this generation who were first given their taste of senior football in a fledgling competition

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

Ange lacked a striker in qualifying, obvious from all the shots on goals. It cost us automatic qualification. Cost us again in this tournament. Both Ange and BVM good coaches for us, not so sure with Arnold.