PBP Thread: Australia vs Peru, 26 June 2018 [R]

Props to Australia for not bunkering against Perú like other teams did.

 

Unless you're absolutely certain you're better than the other team, it's better to play conservatively: let them do the running, the pretty plays, take the most shots, force the most corners. Just keep the lock and make your chances count.

Seems to work every time, post-2010.

PS: Australia had to risk it, they needed the win. Just in case.

 

That's exactly what Denmark and France did to Peru. Peru's inexperience in a World Cup showed clearly.

 

The scoreline could of been larger in Peru's favor but it showed why we could not score in the previous game, Guerrero is not in football shape.
Australia had no real clear chances, they kept missing the goal. Only once was our keeper forced to make a save.
Anyway too bad we had to leave earlier than expected but our key players are getting hurt (Tapia, Farfan, Guerrero) and I don't think we could of had a good game in the following round.

 

Yeah, both scored, the best player in this tournament and the best player in the squad.

 

Happy Peru got that victory today. They have the best fans at the world cup

 

Ehh. I think theres just a bit of luck when it comes to the chances you get. A bounce here or a deflection there and the whole outcome changes. I mean does France have that finishing class? The goals they scored have not been great strikes either. I'm quite certain even Australia's goal keeper could have tapped in the deflection that Mbappe scored on. Sometimes shit happens.

 

If luck didn't exist, computer programs wouldn't need random number generators to model real life situations.

 

This is the way Perú, this is the way. You're paying your dues right now. Keep Gareca if you can. Keep the people who hired him. Make the youth teams your biggest priority. Take advantage of this communion with the people that you have now. Make the national team the "people's team". Make it an island of efficiency and professionalism no matter how fvcked up your league gets. We know you've got what it takes. It's just a matter of time. Welcome back to where you belong!

 

Listen I don't care what anyone says. Denmark's strategy was not good. Peru's wasn't that great either honestly. Goals went in, that's it.

 

Peru has always been fun to watch, even when they were at the bottom of CONMEBOL with Bolivia. But they've often lacked that little extra that gives you having a striker in a top club, a guy used to the pressure.

 

I don't know man Australia had a bunch of chances that could have went their way. Shots on target don't always tell the whole story. Peru's Defense played soft and overall didn't have a great game today.

 

So far he and Hazard have impressed me the most. Not only do they want the ball, they attack, defend and pass. Too bad. Peru were my mocha horse.

 

The one thing I've noticed is that according to a considerable number of posters here everyone always seems to have their worst game when they play against us.

In essence, your first sentence sums up our game. We can't score goals from general play. It's been a weakness for sometime and it cost us any chance in this tournament. If we don't find a solution to this everyone we play at this level will continue to have their "worst game" against us and still get a result. This is now 5 consecutive competitive matches where we haven't scored from general play, with the goals coming from 1 free kick and four penalties.

 

Man of the Match: Andre Carrillo. #PER pic.twitter.com/paGb8YuWSp

— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) June 26, 2018

 

Sort of suggests Australia play a good general game (I have thought our midfield pretty much have run all three games ... and our backs give great runs). However, we have nothing in the final third ... although against Peru they made more than enough chances (just was either that final ball or no striker). Really need to find something better than Leckie, Kruse and Juric across the front three ... imagine if we had someone of Leroy Sane's quality (who can't even make the final 23 of Germany, yet would be by far our best player).

 

Yeah I was a little surprised how deep Peru sat from the kick off ... it looked like they really went into the game with a counter attack mind (was it because they knew it was Australia's weakness, or did the Australian team force them to play that way??)

Peru were a lot more attacking and creative against Denmark (17 shots, 52%) and France (10 shots, 56%) ... Australia (4, 47%). Really surprising stats when you consider France and Denmark are both ranked over 20 spots higher than Australia, and Peru had nothing to lose against Australia (so you would have imagined they would have wanted to play a more natural attacking game).

 

I’d say Farfan is recognized as Peru’s best player of this generation. Carrillo is class, look forward to see him at a big club next season.

 

You cant really use the possesssion figures for anything else than it will tell you who were in more urgent need of scoring a goal and who had the advantage of defending a result .... Denmark had most possession against Peru up until Denmark scored and then Peru had almost all the possession the last 30 minutes or so, which changed the final possession figures to Peru 52% v 48% ... Australia were obviously more in need of a win against Peru and Peru had a result to defend after they managed to score.

Attempt figures can also be quite misleading, except that it could tell you something about efficiency and the quality of defending ... of the17 "attempts" only 6 were on target against Denmark and of them the keeper had to make 3 very good saves, Denmark produced 10 "attempts" of wich 3 were on target = 1 goal + a very good save by the keeper... Peru also gave up 7 corner kicks to Denmark, while Denmark only gave up 3 for Peru ... they also gave up 8 corners to Australia, which do impy that Peru have a weakness in defense that Australia was just not able to take advantage of.

 

Interesting how you traveled from "world class players" and "European soil" to "statistics" (which is another form of masking reality).

Truth is Denmark got the points and classified, but no one saw it as the good team you described. And your reference Poland... about the same.

 

Different schemes when playing with Guerrero (4–2–3–1) or Farfán (4–4–2 or 4–4–1–1).

The curious part is that although both Guerrero and Farfán play together since they were children, they don't achieve results when playing together. In qualifiers Peru was on the edge of the abyss until Farfán was left out of the squad. There are two probable reasons for this: One, they tend to interfere with each other and, two, none is particularly good at ball recovery (thus making a highly unbalanced team when losing the possession).

As for Peru not "attacking" more against Australia, there was a problem with its defensive midfield. Tapia hadn't recovered from that hit on the head (he spent a week without training), Yotún was incredibly imprecise, and Flores (who usually covers for them) was even worst. This meant that the others had to multiply themselves to cover the spaces... and there's something to be acknowledged to the number of yellow cards Australia received.

 

I'd go for the 2nd one, "none of them is particularly good at ball recovery", much more when both are past their prime physically.

 

Oh, Peru has had worse games than the one to Australia. But it doesn't change the fact that Peru's defensive midfielders played below their standards. It's part of the game, as no one is guaranteed to perform well in each and every match. For Peru, it just happened that three of them had it simultaneously, and is a pity (for Aussies) that Australia couldn't take full advantage from it.