Sports & Fitness The Diamond Generation ? - The new Socceroo's

It's just over half time -Hopefully Peru 0- Australia 1 ..So far Australia has dominated in between all the shadow boxing..

 

Well here we go again - penalty shootout to determine who goes to Qatar.

 

Looks like Australia is off to the World Cup..

 

Wooo !!!

through to the World Cup !!!

maybe not the diamond generation. , but they controlled the majority of the game and a master stroke by Arnie at the end .

I have to put that win down to his coaching . In the last two weeks he has created a team that has been solid in defence and controlling in midfield while missing our best player . Compare our performances in the first half of the qualifiers and the last half to see what a difference tommie makes .

As always , we seem to struggle in front of goal .

Diamond generation. Sadly no ( I’m better at predicting property and politics - I won the local tipping in the recent elections. We had to estimate the primary vote of the six candidates and my sum total from their actual vote was 9 % out )

What happened ? The golden generation really only had one world class creative midfielder , Marcus Bresciano . Great defence and defensive midfielder and in Cahill , Viduka and Harry three handy strikers .

Six years ago we had four creative midfielder who appeared on the brink of stellar careers . Massimo had won the player of the comp at the Asian cup . He was touted as the best midfielder in the championship and was being watched by teams in the the premier league . Injuries cruelles his progression .

Rogic , great career and a legend north of the border , but again multiple injuries stopped him going to the top of the pile .

Aaron Mooy single handed took unfancied Huddersfield town into the premier league and had a couple of god seasons as one of the main men in Brighton . As good as Bresciano but injuries in the recent time and a payday move to China have impacted him at a crucial team .

Jackson Irvine is a very good player but never quite kicked into the top level.

And then there’s people like Alex Gersbach. At the start of his career he was fast , solid in defence and had one of the best crosses I’ve ever seen . At 25 he should be playing in at top league .

One of the things about the golden generation was the path to a professional career in Europe was tough for Aussies so the ones that made it were well and truly battle harden.

Maybe it just to easy for a player with genuine talent to have a pro career without having to sacrifice everything .

There an insightful story about Aaron Mooy from when he was around 12 . His new coach saw him hammering the ball into the corner with his left foot . The coach said practice with your weak foot . He replied that is my weak one .

anyway , Arnie has taken a team of very good , but not great players in a couple of weeks and moulded them into a team that outplayed a much higher opponent .

Throw in Rogic ( if he gets over his personal issues ) and maybe , just maybe we will surprise some people in Qatar.

Won’t be surprised to see Arnie follow Ange to Europe in the next years .

Go the Socceroos !!!

cliff

 

Australia will be in a pretty good group and will play France first.

 

Yep eating humble pie and happy to do it. I did wake up around 5/530am to just catch the score and accept the inevitable but was surprised it was still 0-0. Feels good!!!!

I still think we need a new coach and some fresh tactics for the WC though.

 

Deja Vu

 

Seriously!!

The only time an OS coached worked out was with Aussie Guus and he had 11 players playing in the top leagues to work with .

Pim Verbeek was an unmitigated disaster who was only concerned about minimising the damage , and not really taking risks and that’s not how the players and our country wanted them to play .

Australia has a history of making dud decisions in soccer and the worst one was allowing Ange to leave rather than support him when he was being constantly criticised by the likes of Bosnich . He’s now shown how good a coach he always was .

Arnie has taken a team ranked 45 in the world with ? only one playing regularly in one of the top leagues and
beaten a team currently ranked 22 and as high as 11th in the past.

The players know and trust him and he knew his players well enough and he’s brave enough to substitute his captain and one of his most experienced players in Maty for someone who only had 3 caps before . How many coaches would have been prepared to do that given that keeping Maty on was the safe move and he’d be crucified and out of a job if it backfired .

If we’re to go any further we need someone who can make a decision like that .

 

I think Graham is a great guy and very passionate about the game and Australia, but its his game strategy, tactics and getting the most out of his team that I think is lacking.

That said, he knows everyone in the dressing room really well. And we only have 5 months before the WC. It's a conundrum.

 

Time to start watching, through to the final 16.

 

Woohoo, great goal by Leckie. Go roosss

 

They didn't play well today ... if we are being honest they haven't played well full stop. They are one of the weaker teams in the tournament and they have a very tough time keeping possession because they are technically inferior players. Every game has been possession negative by a significant margin, so any team that is on their game will touch them up and make it feel like a training game , just like France did. There isn't one above average player in the team except for possibly Souttar, but they do have fitness and they do have the one quality that cant be measured- heart. And so far that has been just enough to keep them alive, so there's always hope .

Argentina haven't looked very convincing for a team full of stars and the Saudi's showed that if you get right in their face and play fearlessly you can run them off the ball and get in behind them, so maybe we can spring an upset ......... but what the Saudi's did is the exact opposite of the typical Arnie Ball game plan , where he prefers to park the bus and hope for a counter. So while I'm proud of what they've done and the fight they've shown , I'm a realist. if Arnie isn't tactically fearless Argentina will likely pick us apart like France did . If he IS fearless.... maybe, just maybe .....

 

The only advantage they have is playing in 40C hot humid weather against countries where 15C is a hot day.
Nothing against Arnold, I just don't think he's a good enough coach.
Problem is current management is terrible and they can't get any decent coach.
The only thing worse is commentry and the news write ups...

Then there's franchise sport as opposed to competitive sport...

 

Seriously , Which planet are you on !!!

Yes , man for man they're not all in the top leagues unlike Denmark who have multiple regulars in major leagues.

They were always going to play the way they did . You can't take on a team with better players and beat them at their own game , but they defended well which is was their first goal . The last two games are the ONLY TWO GAMES that Australia has played at a World Cup final and not conceded a goal . Two games . The golden generation never managed that . I think Matt only really had one shot on target that worried him .

They followed the game plan and caught them on the break and won the game against a team that is ranked 10th in the world .

I've been a life long follower of Crystal Palace . They don't have the depth of players to take on the top teams at their own game and they play exactly the same way . Defend well and catch the opposition on the break . They are one of the few teams to consistently cause the top teams problems .

Sheees ...

Cliff

 

I live on planet reality . Not one of them would get onto the bench of a top team . They are 2nd tier players ; championship , Scottish league and A league . Souttar is good and Mooy is competent but slow , and Ryan is a good professional keeper but the rest of them are bang average at best , and can’t hold the ball . You don’t need to quote me all the headlines about two clean sheets in a row . . I’m a grown man who has played and watched the sport for decades and hasn’t forgotten all of this squads dismal football over recent years , including the 4-1 France training run . I support them and I wish them well and I am as excited as the next fan , sharing all the same sleepless nights as everyone else but none of that changes the fact they are just not very good and are riding their luck . Football has regressed a long way since the A League began. Young players don’t need to go to Europe young and grind . They can make a wage here being average . That’s precisely why we aren’t producing any more Vidukas or Kewells or Brescianos etc . And when a youngster like Volpato does make it in Italy he doesn’t want anything to do with this standard or style of football .

 

Ah well ... they did beat Argentina at the Olympics so there's always possibility

Don't underestimate passion, heart and tenacity ... and Australians love being the underdog

 

you totally miss the point .

As a team , they won . That is the only thing that matters. You play to your strengths which they did .
.
They beat the number 10 team in the world by sticking to their game plan so they outplayed Denmark .

cliff

 

Yeah the score was 1-0. Ref blew his whistle. Some times you win with solid defence and a lucky shot which breaks through. And Denmark were unlucky not to get just one more opportunity. Even Demark said they lost through our defence.

Interesting results from many teams. Italy didnt even make the 32 starters. Germany out, Denmark Out. Japan in, Spain out. It doesnt matter how well players or teams have played for decades. Its the 90+mins on field. Hopefully we dont go to a goal shoot with Argentina if its drawn. Many will say a draw with argentina is a win but it wont be. I would expect that shoot could end badly and show how average our keepers are. I suspect the soceroos could also get fouled with a well positioned ball in the box. Kewell got caught with that v Ghana in 2010 on a hand ball. Red card. One man down plus a direct penalty. We were 3 on the table and out.