in both Qatar & UAE, the British Embassy has been warning residents not to fill up our gas tanks due to fire risks as temperatures could rise up to 54-55 degrees! I don't think it'll quite be as hot as that in the afternoon in Muscat but it's still going to be flippin hot!
Expected result but disappointed with Holger's (two) substitutions. Did he go for the draw and keep fresh legs for Japan?
I think so. As long as you win your home games, drawing the away games should be good enough- a win even better- in order to qualify. Based on the temps they were playing in, I'll take it.
Very acceptable result, maybe even a good one taken into consideration the extreme weather conditions. Even Germany would find it difficult to play football in 40 C. And at least its a better outcome than last time. The return leg should and will be an easy 3 points for Socceroos. Australia needs to win all their home games, with the only exception being the match against Japan this coming Tuesday. That is gonna be a tough nut to crack. So maybe one away win against Iraq or Jordan, in order to secure the qualification. Then it'll pretty much be wrapped up.
Didn't a German B-side play the UAE a couple of years ago in Dubai in June and win 7-2? I remember it was sweltering hot that night, too.
I saw the 2nd half of the OMN - AUS game, thought Oman didn't do enough to win the match, did they actually have a shot? Hosni maybe. A good point for Australia picked up at this point. If it was later in the stage and 3 points were needed, then I'm sure we would have seen a different outcome. Oman looked good without being clinical. But you do get the feeling, turn the game around and play in AUS, then it would be a totally different outcome. As for playing at 5pm and in extreme temperatures, well, thats home advantage isn't it? Surely, if your dealt that card, then you play what suits you and not them. Hell, my team played at 13:30 against them, when we would have preferred a 19:00 kickoff. Next time it would be wise of us to play in the 4pm sunshine against Aus who beat us at the friednly 6pm kickoff time back in November.