SUBWAY SOCCEROOS’ SQUAD l SEPTEMBER FIFA MEN’S INTERNATIONAL WINDOW
Keanu BACCUS Mansfield Town FC, England Aziz BEHICH Melbourne City FC, Australia Martin BOYLE Hibernian FC, Scotland Cameron BURGESS Ipswich Town FC, England Alessandro CIRCATI Parma Calcio 1913, Italy Thomas DENG Albirex Niigata, Japan Cameron DEVLIN Heart of Midlothian FC, Scotland Mitchell DUKE FC Machida Zelvia, Japan Joe GAUCI (Gk) Aston Villa FC, England Craig GOODWIN Al Wehda FC, Saudi Arabia Nestory IRANKUNDA FC Bayern Munich, Germany Jackson IRVINE FC St Pauli, Germany Paul IZZO (Gk) Randers FC, Denmark Awer MABIL Grasshopper Club Zurich, Switzerland Connor METCALFE FC St. Pauli, Germany Lewis MILLER Hibernian FC, Scotland Josh NISBET Ross County FC, Scotland Aiden O’NEILL Standard de Liège, Belgium Kye ROWLES Heart of Midlothian FC, Scotland Maty RYAN (c) AS Roma, Italy Sam SILVERA Portsmouth FC, England Harry SOUTTAR Sheffield United FC, England Adam TAGGART Perth Glory FC, Australia Kusini YENGI Portsmouth FC, England
A terrible performance nets the Socceroos a horror result at home to start the 3rd round of AFC World Cup Qualifying.
Not a good start when their pool also contains a rampant Japan (4-0 up v China currently) Saudi Arabia and a rapidly improving Indonesia. That said, they'll still have the 4th and 5th rounds of AFC qualifying to negotiate if they fluff their lines over the next 9 matches (so long as they finish at least 4th in the group...)
Improving Indonesia a creditable 1-1 draw in Jeddah against Saudi. No easy game in Jakarta for the Socceroos.
4-5 players of the Indonesian starting 11 last night, are Dutch born players at Eredivisie clubs, obviously with some sort of Indonesian heritage. Shades of Mata Hari (lived in Indonesia but 100% Dutch heritage).
Indonesia also have Elkan Baggott (on loan at Blackpool from Ipswich) though he didn't play last night. Sth Korean coach.
To me, it looked like they've underestimated their opposition. Bahrain played competitively and were not too bad at all. Having said that, the 'roos missed a couple of sitters (one in each half) and the red card did not help. I do not want to be too harsh on Mat Ryan, but he had a bit of a hand in the Bahraini goal (I think Alex Paulsen would have saved that).
To me, it looked like they've underestimated their opposition. Bahrain played competitively and were not too bad at all. Having said that, the 'roos missed a couple of sitters (one in each half) and the red card did not help. I do not want to be too harsh on Mat Ryan, but he had a bit of a hand in the Bahraini goal (I think Alex Paulsen would have saved that).
Watched most of the game the other night and it was all very static from a side that should really dominate that Bahraini outfit. But yes Bahrain did have a game plan, were very compact and stifled a lot of what Australia tried to do. Their CB's were excellent on the night cutting out opportunities and keeping them at bay. For their part, Australia needed a game-breaker (Irankunda) from the start to add a different dimension to their play, as it all ended up quite stale & all too predictable from them.
I know they've got 9 more games to get it right and try and qualify directly for the World Cup without needing to go the 4th round of qualifying, which looking at the other groups they'd probably fancy their chances anyway (Imagine the angst if they have to go to the 5th round and go into the intercontinental playoffs!) But a poor result (ie anything but a win!) against Indonesia in a few days might set some serious alarm bells ringing given they'd still have four of their eight remaining matches to be played against the other strongest teams in the group, in the form of Japan & Saudi Arabia.
I think a draw against Indonesia, will almost be satisfactory for now, in front of 75,000 in Jakarta. KO midnight tonight NZT
This is an Indonesian team loaded with Dutch born guys at Eredivisie clubs, and their keeper Paes is the starting GK with Dallas in the MLS. They managed to draw 1-1 with Saudi in Jeddah. No easy feat.
Could end up a real battle for spots 2nd, 3rd & 4th in this group, between 4 teams Saudi, Socceroos, Bahrain & Indo.
Japan who thrashed China, 7-0 look like being Group winners already. 1st & 2nd qualify directly for the WC, 3rd & 4th into yes 4th Round AFC qualifying. AFC will have 8 teams qualify directly, and then 9th into the playoff tourney.
I think a draw against Indonesia, will almost be satisfactory for now, in front of 75,000 in Jakarta. KO midnight tonight NZT
This is an Indonesian team loaded with Dutch born guys at Eredivisie clubs, and their keeper Paes is the starting GK with Dallas in the MLS. They managed to draw 1-1 with Saudi in Jeddah. No easy feat.
Could end up a real battle for spots 2nd, 3rd & 4th in this group, between 4 teams Saudi, Socceroos, Bahrain & Indo.
Japan who thrashed China, 7-0 look like being Group winners already. 1st & 2nd qualify directly for the WC, 3rd & 4th into yes 4th Round AFC qualifying. AFC will have 8 teams qualify directly, and then 9th into the playoff tourney.
I think sokkah twitter will explode if Australia take home anything less than the three points tonight.
Keeping in mind they did win 4-0 very easily against them in the Asian Cup earlier this year too. Going to see if I have it in me to stay up and watch how this one unfolds. I expect an Aussie reaction, but like you say, Indonesia will be buoyed on by a boisterous home crowd.
Indonesia have unearthed a few more eligible players based overseas since the Asian Cup. That game back in January was 2-0, until the 89th min.
Real test for Arnold tonight, but he's an experienced international coach these days. Was in a few tight corners in the last WC qualifying campaign, and got them to Qatar, where they performed bloody well.
Australia the far better side overall, missing a couple of gilt edged chances never helps of course. Indonesia scrapped that one right to the final whistle though for a valuable point.
They do host the Socceroos in October. So that will be a fascinating little watch.
This 4th Round AFC WC qualifying will be completed by June next year. 4 AFC teams will then be through to the WC, their WC qualifying finished, and maybe available for some friendlies. Earlier than most Confeds.
So if NZF want the AWs to really be challenged they should reach out to the Japanese FA for a game next September. Maybe we can borrow Sakai as a guest RB to help us out.
Expanded World Cup means they're still not in too much danger of missing out.
That's the downside of an expanded World Cup. Less jeopardy in qualifying.
More at risk than you'd think. Is currently Third Round qualifying, and is going to be tough for the Socceroos from here to finish top 2 in their pool. Theirs looks the toughest of the 3 pools, from which 6 teams get direct WC qualification.
Early days with 8 games to go, but Japan (6 pts, +12 GD) look a class above, leaving Saudi (4 pts), Bahrain (3 pts), Indonesia (2 pts) & Australia (1 pt) to scrap it out for 2nd in the pool.
If Aussie can only finish 3rd or 4th in their pool they go into the Fourth Round to be played at a 'centralised venue'. Read Qatar! Two pools of 3 teams, so only 2 pool games - no room for an upset loss!!
The Fourth Round becomes a danger zone with potentially lots of capable Middle Eastern teams in the mix. Remember unfancied Jordan made the Asian Cup final this year. Bahrain just beat the Socceroos last week.
Third round: 18 teams which advance from the second round are divided into three groups of six teams. The teams will play against each other on a home-and-away basis. The top two teams of each group qualify directly for the FIFA World Cup (so 6 teams), the third and fourth-placed teams advance to the fourth round.
Fourth round: Six third and fourth-placed teams from the third round are divided into two groups of three teams each. The teams will play against each other once in acentralized venue. The winners of each group qualify for the World Cup, and the runners-up of each group advance to the fifth round.
Fifth round: The group runners-up in the fourth round will compete home-and-away over two legs to determine the Asian representation at the inter-confederation play-offs.
