This is offtopic. Look i have a theory and feel free to disagree with me. If Saudi Arabia, Japan, South korea and Iran have all their players playing in the best clubs of Europe, then our Asian players can even beat the best teams like Brazil, France, Italy, Argentina, Germany and so on. Don't you think?
Hard to tell. It would certainly shoot up the levels of play, but geographical factors would still be there and there are chances players will start to become more loyal to their clubs and not their national teams. Can't really agree nor disagree because I can't conclude.
I think that's a very good point clinically made. If you take any one game, there are so many banana skins in Asia. The elites do stand out by statistics over a period of time, but those bundle of 2nd-tiers are all potentially a dangerous banana skin that you will fall hard on, if you disrespect them. In that sense there is no easy game here. Among elites too head-to-head is often 50:50 stuff, usually the side with complacency falling on their own swords. One example I somehow remember (somewhat fondly now since it's in the past) is, last Asian cup running up to the qualifiers, I had this feeling of anxiety watching Bahrain, they played dog-grit defence with absolute determination then pull off a sharp, hard counter to nick the game. This year I think we've seen a few more countries join this fray and showed their potential to be a dangerous 2nd-tier teams. We have an ever growing inventory of banana skins in our storage and it's not getting any easier. Perhaps from the outside that isn't easy to spot?
Haha! Banana skins indeed. Careful where you step on, or you will slip up! And everyone will be laughing at you! I hope more bananas are cultivated in future. It certainly will be entertaining.
I hope our team learnt this lesson. We supporters certainly did. Even the supposed minnow hosts (with the exception of Malaysia) showed they weren't easy beats. We've played in harsh environments in different places, but probably never over a tournament. I hope that the lesson learnt is that you need more than a week or so preparation for a major tournament. With a largely European based side its difficult to do much more than this, but we did it for the World Cup and we need to do it for the Asian Cup as well if we are to mount a stronger challenge. Some people like to blame refs, and whilst the odd decision went against us last night I didn't think the officiating was poor. Grella shouldn't have been sent off in my opinion but he was lucky he wasn't sent off in the Iraq game. Carney shouldn't have been yellow carded for diving when he was clearly fouled. Kewell was probably unlucky to be carded as well but he did seem to be very easy to knock off his feet throughout the tournament so a card at some stage was probably inevetibable. Last nights ref allowed a fair bit of physical play in challenges by both sides. Spoke about this above. More camps are needed in the lead up to a tournament like this, but its difficult to arrange for a tournament thats not the World Cup. European clubs don't regard the Asian Cup as a major tournament and don't like releasing players for anything more than the minimum. We even had trouble getting some players to camps for the World Cup. Most definitely. One advantage in not getting through last night is that we will now play qualifiers for Asian Cup 2011. The more experience the better. When you look at it overall, despite the poor play in the first two matches, we didn't do too badly. We made it out of the group stage and were eliminated on penalties by the defending champions and one of Asia's elite teams. Some younger players made their debuts in a major tournament and didn't do too badly at all. Players like Beauchamp, Milligan and Carney showed they can be good players for us in the future.
No you didn't do too badly at all. There has been many comments coming out of Australia, with lines along the line of "We are now aware of how to approach Asian football". I think it's a straight forward matter of Australia taking Asian football seriously and it'll go just fine. I said this while back and got flamed a little, but I really think one of the biggest problem Australia has had is that they allowed the world cup performance to get to their head a bit. Without that, I think Australia already has what it takes to complete at the top level here.
while being a top critic of the Australian team since the game they had vs Iraq due to some "not football related matters"... I will have to say Australia did prove they are a positive contribution to Asia when they held off a better Japanese team with ten men...
The biggest surprise to me personally was the quality of the 2nd tier teams that we haven't had the chance to see play before. The second tier teams are capable of beating anyone in Asia on their day, and perhaps it is only consistancy that puts them in the second tier. Oman was a great example. They played great against us, but didn't rise to the same level in their next two matches. Thankfully the OFC days of a bad game being a 2-0 win for us are gone forever.
Great to be part of the real football world. Can't wait to see Melbourne Victory up against the best teams in Asia, and the Socceroos in a fair WC qualifying campaign.
I personally am glad that Australia is in the AFC. Before Australia's entry into the mix, Iran (and Uzebkistan) were the closest thing to a European like side in the Asian confederation. The Australians can help Asian football gain confidence and learn to better adapt playing against more physical European players. That said, I don't think you will be as comfortable with Australia in the AFC as you imagine. Australia's route to the World Cup will become more difficult, not easier. Previously, you had a home-away playoff against one of the poorer finishers from the other confederations to make the World Cup. That gave you an almost 50/50 chance, even if you weren't able to convert your chances. Your chances are now reduced IMO, and given my view that Australia's best talents are aging and the new talents are not anything to write about, I believe Australia will likely settle in largely the same place as China in the Asian pecking order.
It's been a pleasure having the Australians in our community, and I hope for and look forward to their continued contributions even after the elimination of their team. And of course, see you in more friendlies, the Asian Champions League, and the World Cup qualifications!
Thats what we wanted. In OFC we had no reason to bring the 1st team in for matches against OFC opposition. So apart from friendlies and the two legged match against who ever our team very rarely played together. More qualifiers are actually better in a sense because not everyone is a crunch match. You could lose 3 matches and still get a spot against basically having to win 100% of your matches to qualify in OFC.
If all of us can raise our standards high enough, we could go for 5 or 5.5 slots in the worldcup for Asia region. Currently it's 4.5, isn't it.
Haha, nah, it's going to get a bit easier for us because at least we'll have competitive games consistently. In the past we thrashed the pants off all the Oceania countries that provided little or no competition (23-nil anyone?) and then had a grand total of 2 competitive games where we had to step up against very good south american teams that are, in general, much stronger than asian teams. It sucked. I'm looking forward to being able to play in competitive matches and not have all our hopes pinned on 2 games.
The argument is admitedly speculative, but based on what I have seen, Australia's best talents are getting close to retirement age. The next level of players you have aren't, IMO, good enough to secure you a spot from the large field that is Asian football. Asian football features a crowded field of teams, most of who are deficient in one department or another, but many of whom have what it takes to stand against Australia. Typically, except for Iran, S.Korea, Iraq and Uzbekistan, Asian teams are physically weak, although more than a few exhibit either good passing (east Asians), good speed (east Asians), or have very good technical players (west Asians). On balance, only the best of them, especially those which aren't weak physically, can stand their ground internationally against top quality sides. However, an opponent that is not that good, even if it is merely stronger physically, can be stopped by more than a dozen sides in Asia. On the other hand, some of these teams can be literally torn apart by a very good team that is also physically strong. To put it differenty, an Australian squad that is A league in quality will find itself repeatedly in trouble in the hands of teams like Oman, Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait, Iraq, and others, dropping too many critical points against them. It might man handle some of the weaker east Asians on occasion, but its prospects against the best sides in Asia aren't going to be good either. You had a good crop of players in the 1997-06 era. Those players, in their prime, could have perhaps dominated Asian football or, at least, put Australia among the top 4. But I don't see your future as bright.
Im not so sure about that. Two of our best players in the last two games are both in the A-league (Milligan and Carney) and Milligan in particular did well even though he is only 21 and had to step into the middle of a leaky defence in a must win match. Carney also did well despite there being major concerns over whether he was up to being a wingback. The ACL isn't the best judge on the a-leagues quality because teams that enter actually qualify for it in the previous season. So there is a season between qualifiying and then playing. Both Adelaide and Sydney went through dramatic reshuffles prior to the tournment (Sydney changed manager, Adelaide changed manager and sacked half of the squad). I think with a decent manager an a-league team could do a job for us in the WC qualifiers. We wouldn't rely on them entirely. Our future doesn't necessarily rely on a-league players anyway. We have a smattering of young players (17 - 21 year olds) playing throughout europe. Some are even making the step up to first team action (David Williams, Brondby; Mat Spiranovic, Nurnberg; Wesowlowski, Leicester; Troisi, Newcastle). Our U-23s side is doing 'well' in asian olympic qualifying for a team that usually gets brought together hastily. So I dont think the next gereneration will be a disaster and may even make the step up to the senior nats side earlier than expected. And anyway didn't Bahrain make the playoff for a position in the world cup and lose to Trinidad and Tobago. If we aren't atleast on par with Bahrain then we dont deserve to be at the world cup.
Not for that much longer we will take your crown at our second attempt and we will do it without anything but being the best team. Leger is 1-1 can't wait for battle number 3
Then why did an under-manned Australia u23 side filled with mostly 18-19 year olds dominated Iran in Olympic qualifying? Australia has plenty of young talent, more than we have ever had.
To true mate feel exactly the same, pumped we get to play in Asia and our club teams get to play other Asian champs. Think it offers us a massive chance to improve and think Asia will be better for playing Aus as we play a different style that will help others develop Go Iraq hope you take home the cup!
It works both ways, before our move we would only get two decent matches every 4 years, even confed cup games are not always full strength teams, now we get much more competition, this can only improve us. We don't want it easier - just fairer. Oceania's path is the easiest to get to a playoff, but it's unfair not to have a chance to recover from 1 bad game, and not to have a grueling set of qualifiers before that to prepare - such as Uruguay for the last two, and indeed Iran before that, did have. After watching the Cup this time I think all of the "Big 5" will find it harder, the Uzbeks especially have shown that they can match it with any team (and did it twice - v Iran and v KSA - where they were unlucky to lose).
That's the main thing. Australia's qualifying path used to be something like: Tonga->American Samoa->New Zealand->Vanuatu->Fiji->Uruguay. It was like hitting a brick wall. Also, I think Australia fits in to Asia better. We certainly have more ties with Asia than with obscure Pacific islands. Australian fans might actually take an interest in a our qualifying games now that they are all challenging, and are in countries that we have actually heard of.
Austrailia! you guys made a terrible mistake!!! you guys have absolutely nothing to gain from joining the pathetic 3rd rate AFC... Should have tried for UEFA! Korea should do the same and get the hell out of this ghetto continent!
AFC World Cup qualifying is the least stressful out of all the other confederations. There is lots of room for error in the final round of qualifying, only thing that might be stressful is topping the group in the initial round, but those groups aren't very strong. With two groups of 4 in the final round of qualifying, and the only thing you have to do to have a chance at the world cup is not finish last, it is pretty easy. That's why AFC always churns out the same teams for the World Cup every year, the qualifying allows for the best and most consistent teams to qualify each and every time.