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Socceroos vs Paraguay 2026 World Cup match thread 🇦🇺🇵🇾

Somebloke said:
Agree, however knowing that a draw gets us there, Poppa will stick to Poppaball, and hope to get them on the break.
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Paraguay is also a very defensive team. An ideal scenario would be both teams tacitly agreeing on a draw and playing out a drab nil all. That way they'll both go through and everyone will be happy. Plus we avoid Germany in the next round.
 
Looking forward to Paraguay. The USA game we were junk and truth be told I thought we were going to be the wrong side of most calls today up against the home team so to speak. Destiny in our hands if we are good enough and we want it 2nd place is there for the taking.

I’ve knocked Volpalto in the past but I though he looked a threat - I think we need to score first otherwise Paraguay shut us out.
 
So. My thoughts.

Fuck i was livid during the US game. Worst performance since ive seen from a socceroos team in that first half since..... maybe our friendlies against Brazil and France back in 2013? Maybe too harsh but I'm still fuming.

BUT. I can appreciate Poppas view on fitness and rotation. We are in quite decent shape as a squad. Volpato... two games in and just 45 minutes played. Irankunda just over 90. Toure rotated and similiar with Irankunda. In terms of minutes.

We have Irvine, one of our best midfielders slowly coming back into full fitness and he's only going to get stronger and can be so useful for us. Metcalfe getting some rest atleast, anything helps. These ARE atleast some positives to take away.

I can appreciate this. Our best and brightest players have not been run into the ground and we are still holding strong in second place where now only a loss can displace us. And even in the worst case of a loss we still stand a good chance to progress (DONT LOSE THOUGH POPPA). Taking some time to think. We are still matched on points as we were in 2006 and 2022. Today sucks. But get a result against Paraguay and we're going to be jubilant. We CAN get a result againt them.

Where In 2018 we play the same line up in both games with no rotation and very little sub work and we are just flat out exhausted in that third game. Same in 2014. 2022 not as bad but when we got the round of 16 we were exhausted, we just had nothing left in the tank.

I can appreciate Poppa taking this into account. And I think we will actually look more fitter and and more dangerous as the tournament goes on thanks to this, and not have our star players tired and exhausted and worn out. Giving us a real shot at making the round of 16.
 
Socceroofan4life said:
So. My thoughts.

Fuck i was livid during the US game. Worst performance since ive seen from a socceroos team in that first half since..... maybe our friendlies against Brazil and France back in 2013? Maybe too harsh but I'm still fuming.

BUT. I can appreciate Poppas view on fitness and rotation. We are in quite decent shape as a squad. Volpato... two games in and just 45 minutes played. Irankunda just over 90. Toure rotated and similiar with Irankunda. In terms of minutes.

We have Irvine, one of our best midfielders slowly coming back into full fitness and he's only going to get stronger and can be so useful for us. Metcalfe getting some rest atleast, anything helps. These ARE atleast some positives to take away.

I can appreciate this. Our best and brightest players have not been run into the ground and we are still holding strong in second place where now only a loss can displace us. And even in the worst case of a loss we still stand a good chance to progress (DONT LOSE THOUGH POPPA). Taking some time to think. We are still matched on points as we were in 2006 and 2022. Today sucks. But get a result against Paraguay and we're going to be jubilant. We CAN get a result againt them.

Where In 2018 we play the same line up in both games with no rotation and very little sub work and we are just flat out exhausted in that third game. Same in 2014. 2022 not as bad but when we got the round of 16 we were exhausted, we just had nothing left in the tank.

I can appreciate Poppa taking this into account. And I think we will actually look more fitter and and more dangerous as the tournament goes on thanks to this, and not have our star players tired and exhausted and worn out. Giving us a real shot at making the round of 16.
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“2022 not as bad but when we got the round of 16 we were exhausted, we just had nothing left in the tank”
Strange, I remember us having about 40% possession against Argentina and coming hard at them at the end of the game and almost grabbing an equaliser. Weird, eh?
 
Unleash Volpato and Hrustic Popa. Would love to see them at some point together, with metcalfe at 6 with Okon. Prob the best ball playing midfield we could put out.
 
Bunch_of_hacks said:
Unleash Volpato and Hrustic Popa. Would love to see them at some point together, with metcalfe at 6 with Okon. Prob the best ball playing midfield we could put out.
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I simply don't know what anyone sees in Hrustic.

He used to be okay - in the final third - but does nothing in the back two thirds. Doesn't do enough in the front third anymore either, in my view.

I'd have him way behind Metcalfe, Irankunda and Volpato.
 
I think we will stick to our style and force Paraguay to change their game.

Our best chance of scoring is on the break or off corners.

They don't seem to have the skill levels of Turkey or the US.

Just keeping posession and passing it around is also good, as it eats into the game clock and they need to score to win.

I am happy with X-0 where X is any number.
 
Paraguay have really emptied their tank in this game. They made some changes to the USA game and more changes might come.

They'll probably want to win as 4 points and negative GD may not be enough but we'll know a little more once group A-C and E finish ahead of us.
 
I posted in the general thread. I'm not sure Paraguay will be content with a draw. I anticipate group A and C will be 3 or fewer with negative GD. B and E will be 4 and 0 to Plus GD.

Paraguay on 4 may leave it very tight. We'll know a lot more in the coming days.
 
Mr Cleansheets said:
I'd be confident that a 4 pt third place will advance.

Wouldn't that beat any 3 pt third place?
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Oh total points yes. The problem is surprise draws for Saudi Arabia and a few in group G, means they can win against another weaker group opponent and finish on 4. Ideally it was 2 strong teams to beat off the other 2 then the weak 2 draw and both end on 1 point.

Group A is looking that way. Hopefully Qatar can draw with Bosnia.

A draw for Australia against Paraguay is fine so that'll be our goal. With the information available at kick off, we will have a clearer indication of the third placed table. Advancing is priority but the pathway does come into mind.
 
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