2010 World Cup Qualifier - Japan v Australia

[fish eel]

So, where will our points at the World Cup come from if we're too scared to attack against teams as bad as China and Indonesia?

How many players from those matches will get on the field at a world cup?

Even if you don't mind our tactics and are satisfied with the result, you have to admit the Cahill-As-Target-Man decision was utterly stupid, and it should raise serious questions about whether PV is up to the task.

I picked playing Cahill up front before the game and stand by it.

The problem was though, the midfield sat to deep, which meant he was far to isolated. If Holman and Bresciano pushed forward more, perhaps Tim may have been more effective. He was the best option considering Kennedy isnt playing, McDonald cant score for Australia and Kewell was injured. Maybe Djite could have been given another chance as he has scored a few recently in Turkey?

I agree. Kennedy was only on the field for 10 minutes and yet he showed ALOT more up forward than Cahill did. Why Kennedy didnt start is beyond me as he is a better lone target than Cahill and then we could have moved Cahill to the midfield.

Kennedy didnt start because he hasnt scored a goal for his club in over a 1000 minutes, hasnt played since mid december and now cant even make the bench for his club.

While he is tall and good in the air, he is not a target man. He isnt strong enough to hold the ball up and bring others into the game

 

[RUNVS]

Kennedy didnt start because he hasnt scored a goal for his club in over a 1000 minutes, hasnt played since mid december and now cant even make the bench for his club.

While he is tall and good in the air, he is not a target man. He isnt strong enough to hold the ball up and bring others into the game

His record in the green and gold is very impressive and the 10 minutes he was on the field he did alot more up forward than Cahill did in 80 minutes. Cahill is not suited to the role he was asked to play last night and Kennedy was the better option.

 

[hybrid_tiger]

How many players from those matches will get on the field at a world cup?

How many times have we even looked interested in attacking under Verbeek?

In the 14 months that he's been in charge, and of the 15 games we've played under him, we are yet to see a concurrently competent attack AND defense against a reasonable side.

Even when he's tried a balanced formation we've either had a good attack and an awful defense (South Africa) or a good defense and an awful attack (Bahrain).

While he is tall and good in the air, he is not a target man. He isnt strong enough to hold the ball up and bring others into the game

And Cahill is? :lol:

 

[fish eel]

How many times have we even looked interested in attacking under Verbeek?

In the 14 months that he's been in charge, and of the 15 games we've played under him, we are yet to see a concurrently competent attack AND defense against a reasonable side.

Even when he's tried a balanced formation we've either had a good attack and an awful defense (South Africa) or a good defense and an awful attack (Bahrain).

Friendly v Netherlands?

TBH, I dont care how we play away v Japan as long as we come home with a point.

Some of Pim's tactics and selections at times have confused me, but at the end of the day, he was hired to do a job - world cup qualification.

And Cahill is? :lol:

I think he is a better option at that type of game than Kennedy.

 

[RUNVS]

How many times have we even looked interested in attacking under Verbeek?

In the 14 months that he's been in charge, and of the 15 games we've played under him, we are yet to see a concurrently competent attack AND defense against a reasonable side.

Even when he's tried a balanced formation we've either had a good attack and an awful defense (South Africa) or a good defense and an awful attack (Bahrain).

At the very least it would be nice to see 2 strikers on field at the same time.

Also against alot of Asian teams we should try and exploit our teams physical and techniqual superiority with a 4-1-3-2 formation.

 

[Red Bear]

To be fair our forward depth is not exactly brilliant. Kennedy cant score or play in germany, Im a fan of McDonald but he hasnt scored for Australia and i dont think Verbeak rates him, Kewell out and who else is there? Seriously doubt Dukes will play for us again.

 

[Russell Crowe's Band]

yeah were very thin upfront.

 

[hybrid_tiger]

I think he is a better option at that type of game than Kennedy.

I think last nights game proved that was a terrible decision.

By the way, excluding matches against Qatar, Verbleak's for and against record in the other eight competitive matches (not friendlies) reads 3 goals for and 2 against. IN EIGHT MATCHES. :sarcasm:

Japan in Yokohama and Iraq in Dubai are the only two matches where a defensive mindset was understandable. But three goals in eight matches against China, Iraq, Japan, Bahrain, Uzbekistan and Indonesia has to lead to some serious questions about the man in charge. Simple as that.

 

[fish eel]

I think last nights game proved that was a terrible decision.

As I said, Cahill would have been better if he had more support from the midfield who sat too deep.

I still think he was a better option than Kennedy who hasnt played for nearly 2 months nor scored for his club in more than 1000 minutes on field, and Scott McDonald who cant score for Australia.

 

[hybrid_tiger]

If the midfield sat too deep then whose fault is that? Obviously the players had instructions to do so, i.e pack 10 behind the ball and leave Cahill up front to chase shadows.

Kennedy was the better option, regardless of his lack of playing time or goals at club level. He has always performed reasonably well in the NT and his height can trouble the Japs provided he gets some sort of service. But Pim in not even remotely interested in us crossing the halfway line.

 

[fish eel]

If the midfield sat too deep then whose fault is that? Obviously the players had instructions to do so, i.e pack 10 behind the ball and leave Cahill up front to chase shadows.

Yeah sure, but Holam and Bresciano could have gotten forward more.

Kennedy was the better option, regardless of his lack of playing time or goals at club level. He has always performed reasonably well in the NT and his height can trouble the Japs provided he gets some sort of service. But Pim in not even remotely interested in us crossing the halfway line.

No, I dont agree he was the better option.

He doesnt do well playing as a lone striker, and would have been easily contained last night. His height is an advantage on set pieces, but as a solo striker he'd have been easily contained last night

At the end of the day though, it was a good point. They'd been in camp 5 weeks, are a good side and had how many chances? The guy is being paid to get us qualified and is doing that.

 

[hybrid_tiger]

He'd have been more effective than Cahill.

They aren't a good a side as we treated them. We showed them far too much respect. Like I said before, cowardly is the best way to describe it.

We are capable of better and Verbleak is not the man to bring it out.

Assuming he gets us to the WC - do you want him to coach us once we get there?

 

[fish eel]

He'd have been more effective than Cahill.

They aren't a good a side as we treated them. We showed them far too much respect. Like I said before, cowardly is the best way to describe it.

We are capable of better and Verbleak is not the man to bring it out.

Assuming he gets us to the WC - do you want him to coach us once we get there?

I would have preferred someone else to be appointed, but if he gets us to the world cup, he should be the coach

 

[Misanthrope]

But three goals in eight matches against China, Iraq, Japan, Bahrain, Uzbekistan and Indonesia has to lead to some serious questions about the man in charge. Simple as that.

Indonesia was played using A-League players. Even Guus couldn't work miracles with what's available, especially when half of the decent players were immediately ruled out due to leaping to Asian clubs. An away loss to Iraq isn't an ideal result, but they're not some minnow. They're ANC champions. And while the loss at home to China wasn't pretty - it was an experimental team in a dead rubber.

Our Uzbekistan performance was far from bad. We never looked threatened, scored early, and probably could have scored once more had Bresciano not butchered what was essentially a given in front of goal just before half-time.

You conceded just one sentence earlier than Iraq in Dubai and Japan in Japan were acceptable - so why are you also including them in your list of unacceptable performances?

Basically, our showings against Bahrain and Singapore have been poor. But they were away. At least we didn't do a Saudi Arabia and lose to a sh*tty team like DPKR.

 

[Follow Me Up To Carlton]

I was disappointed with how little possession we had in the second half and how Cahill couldn't play a Viduka like role in holding the ball. The defense was great and handled Japan with ease.

Verbeek has done an outstanding job overall. This team isnt as strong as the one Hiddink had.

OT: How good did the Aussie fans look down the end there?

 

[Tom Shines]

Holman. Still.

Seriously.

Why?

Holman FFS...

 

[Misanthrope]

Needs more Carle tbh

 

[CC_Eagle]