WCQ: Japan v Australia

[pennywisealfie]

Did anyone else go off at the referee for the foul on Vidosic without realising the ball was in the goal?

hahaha yep, i was like "PENALTY!!!!.......YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSS!

Was upset with the last minute penalty. However, I would have taken the draw before the game.

We played really well, I thought the Holman-Kruse combo was awesome, they looked really in-sync.

Surely we qualify from here.

 

[Tonearm Terrorwrist]

Lol all these wrist slittlers that had us penciled in for a thrashing.

Absolute stupidity to give away that penalty for a ball that didn't particularly look threatening. A point was the minimum we had to get and fate is in our own hands.

 

[Tonearm Terrorwrist]

Looking at the table now:

Japan 7 4 2 1 +10 14
Australia 6 1 4 1 0 7
Jordan 6 2 1 3 −6 7
Oman 6 1 3 2 −3 6
Iraq 5 1 2 2 4 −1 5

We will need a draw between Oman vs Iraq in a few hours time. A win to either team will put a lot of pressure on Australia to win their match against Jordan next week.

The way things have been going and Australia's ordinary 2014 WC qualification campaign, looks like we may be battling to get 3rd spot, meaning we will have to qualify the hard way with two home-and-away legs (one vs 3rd place in the other Asian group for a spot to play the 5th highest South American side for the last spot in the World Cup). At the moment, that other 3rd team maybe Iran (shades of 1997 all over again??)

We get 3rd spot and I don't like our chances of making it

Dafuq? We're in the box seat for a second place finish. Oman are 1 point behind playing their 7th match, the maximum they can attain is 12 points and we can get to 13. Who cares what they do when all we have to do is get the job at home.

We should never, ever have any mindset other than to defeat Jordan at home.

 

[pennywisealfie]

worst case scenario tonight is if Iraq win.

 

[Big Sam]

Oman 1-0 at HT. Not ideal but certainly better than an Iraqi win.

 

[Tonearm Terrorwrist]

We know what we have to do - win our final 2 games.

I fear that now we'll have the majority of the possession we won't be able to break either team down like we did with Oman. The service from Oar and Wilkshire was particularly poor which will need to drastically improve when we have more time on the ball. See how Osieck tweaks the mentality I guess.

 

[BDR]

Oman win 1-0

Pretty straightforward, beat Jordan and we're assured of 3rd. Beat Iraq and we're at Brazil. Anything less and Oman should get there, which would be a national embarrassment.

 

[Misanthrope]

Dafuq? We're in the box seat for a second place finish. Oman are 1 point behind playing their 7th match, the maximum they can attain is 12 points and we can get to 13. Who cares what they do when all we have to do is get the job at home.

We should never, ever have any mindset other than to defeat Jordan at home.

This. We are in an excellent position to progress as our fate remains entirely in our own hands. We're in a position where all we need to do is win games. We aren't relying on anybody dropping them.

Given the teams we are playing, there are no excuses. Not to rubbish Jordan or Iraq, but they should be a rung below us if we're at all serious.

 

[Twizzle]

been a while since I've seen a Socceroos team play that well

 

[Mong]

Lol all these wrist slittlers that had us penciled in for a thrashing.

Absolute stupidity to give away that penalty for a ball that didn't particularly look threatening. A point was the minimum we had to get and fate is in our own hands.

Based on previous games it was hardly "wrist slitting" to think things may not go so well last night TT.

 

[Mong]

Oman win 1-0

Pretty straightforward, beat Jordan and we're assured of 3rd. Beat Iraq and we're at Brazil. Anything less and Oman should get there, which would be a national embarrassment.

Should have been 3 or 4 nil.

Ordinary game to watch.

 

[Tonearm Terrorwrist]

been a while since I've seen a Socceroos team play that well

Very reminiscent of the Hiddink era. Disciplined to the game plan and positional play. I hope we can do it while we control the ball more. Breaking down teams has proven difficult in recent times.