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Past Socceroos Chat

ah for sure - he knew considering he had already played so many UK games you don't go to ground but the split second nano brain fart due to playing for the country in a first time R16 he went all in so to speak - IF only he stayed upright.
Alas water under the bridge.
Don't hold it against him again he deserves more credit than the crap he copped later and not even spoken of nowadays.
 
Cunningstunt said:
This is not how I recall it being at the time. Ange wanted Neill to go but was not going to take him if he was not playing. Neill could not get a contract anywhere where he would start and play. Ange didn't take him. Neill could not fathom the idea that a player like Wilkinson would get picked ahead of him (given their careers). But it wasn't his behaviour, it was match time / form.
Our opposition let Wilkinson have the ball in build up and forced him to make a pass because he was the weak link on the ball. Spiranovic was seen as far better on the ball and was immediately pressed. Neill would have been a better outlet in possession, but he just wasn't playing. Wilkinson would have been far better had he been integrated earlier by Osieck.

I believe both Wilkshire and Schwarzer retired from internationals rather than continue on with Ange. Again Ange would have taken both, but if they didn't want it, he wasn't selling the shirt to them haha.

It wasn't tall poppy syndrome. He was the very old captain of a very old team who struggled to qualify and were playing badly. He couldn't get a game anywhere. If you think Popa is holding onto Boyle or Duke, this is nothing on what we went through over two cycles with Verbeek, Osieck and the GG. There was almost zero regeneration of the side. Whatever went on in the media was nothing compared to the animosity of the fans towards Neill at the time. It is really unfortunate it ended the way it did for him because he gave a huge amount to the cause and should be an icon of the Socceroos.
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This brings back a few memories of the time, and makes sense. I think the way it all went about led to the tall poppy syndrome though I think - there was an extent of that in the media - but I think this was the crux of it.
 
Schwarzer said he couldn't do it anymore after the Brazil friendly. I think he wanted to try and keep his club career going that bit longer.

I agree Ange didn't exactly oust Neill or Wilkshire but Ange wanted things on his own terms so it made the player changes easy. I think the press had a real go at Neill about the fan outburst and his club situation.

Remember Holman retired a month before the squad was picked too while Kennedy, Sainsbury and Rogic got injured.

At the time I think many were glad some of the underperforming deadwood had moved on but then we saw how raw the next generation were.

Holman probably would've suited Ange's style.
 
Quicky said:
Neill copped a lot of bad press at the end of his career. I can't recall if it was warranted but my vibe is it was tall poppy syndrome. There was all the Luca$h Neill stuff. We're bad at that. The guy was a winner.
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Holger struggled to see that if u dont blood youth there is a chance that your whole team declines quickly all at once and sadly thats what happened

For some reason the frustration of fans got taken out on older legends
 
LFC said:
Putting aside LN's age and lack of playing time late in his career Ange's game didn't fit him period.
All just bad timing in the end for Lucas - for I agree as mentioned above he was imo a good brave Captain and done dam well us being under dogs near on every game - he punched above his weight and did deserve being an icon with many of them.
My main regret for him was being Grossod - I kept screaming don't go to ground don't go to ground I knew what was coming :(
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I feel a younger niell wouldve thrived in anges system mind u

Very strong ball skills
 
LFC said:
ah for sure - he knew considering he had already played so many UK games you don't go to ground but the split second nano brain fart due to playing for the country in a first time R16 he went all in so to speak - IF only he stayed upright.
Alas water under the bridge.
Don't hold it against him again he deserves more credit than the crap he copped later and not even spoken of nowadays.
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Reckon if we qualified through asia and were match hardened it wouldve been different

Really rough the players getting so few games together
 
grazorblade said:
Holger struggled to see that if u dont blood youth there is a chance that your whole team declines quickly all at once and sadly thats what happened

For some reason the frustration of fans got taken out on older legends
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We'd have to pinpoint a time when it was right for Holger to start introducing youth. I think also picking Brosque, Thompson, Cornthwaite, Holland and Thwaite frustrated many as that Oman first half was woeful. I can't recall all the young names but we had Leckie and Davidson to excite us. I don't think it was until we'd made the world cup that Halloran and Troisi hit some good form.
 
JS96 said:
We'd have to pinpoint a time when it was right for Holger to start introducing youth. I think also picking Brosque, Thompson, Cornthwaite, Holland and Thwaite frustrated many as that Oman first half was woeful. I can't recall all the young names but we had Leckie and Davidson to excite us. I don't think it was until we'd made the world cup that Halloran and Troisi hit some good form.
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Well it was clear already in 2010 the next generation was much weaker pretty early. I argued at the time that international players improve after around 20 games or so. So probably needed to start a lot of players aged 22 to 26 in the 2nd round of qualifiers who werent in our best starting xi, plus do the same a lot of friendlies and sub the players on late in the third round
 
grazorblade said:
Well it was clear already in 2010 the next generation was much weaker pretty early. I argued at the time that international players improve after around 20 games or so. So probably needed to start a lot of players aged 22 to 26 in the 2nd round of qualifiers who werent in our best starting xi, plus do the same a lot of friendlies and sub the players on late in the third round
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I'd have to have a thorough look but I think that was a rotten time for our production line despite the hype around Amini and others who escape me. The AEFF Championship squad had Mooy. It was when Mooy, Rogic and Juric started appearing that the optimism came back. We won the Asian Cup but just before that seeing Luongo, Sainsbury and Wright growing was positive as we'd had to deal with Cornthwaite, Holland and a few other randoms. Thwaite was actually a quality footballer.
 
What changed between the 2011 Asian Cup and the 2014 qualifiers?

Here is our goalless draw opener in Oman which we hadn't matsered before nor after that with Asian away difficultes.

web.archive.org

2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™: Oman-Australia - Overview - FIFA.com

2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™: Oman-Australia - $SLOTTITLE$
web.archive.org web.archive.org

A sad note is that was Kewell's last ever cap. See we played players like North over Spiranovic and look at the bench. Og was great for the period and the occasionally fit Rhys Williams wasn't being played. The dream future defence was Williams, Spiranovic, Sainsbury and either Davidson or Smith.
 
Milligan aged like fine wine for the national team but it was something of an annoyance in that it hindered bringing in someone new in defence.
 
JS96 said:
What changed between the 2011 Asian Cup and the 2014 qualifiers?

Here is our goalless draw opener in Oman which we hadn't matsered before nor after that with Asian away difficultes.

web.archive.org

2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™: Oman-Australia - Overview - FIFA.com

2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™: Oman-Australia - $SLOTTITLE$
web.archive.org web.archive.org

A sad note is that was Kewell's last ever cap. See we played players like North over Spiranovic and look at the bench. Og was great for the period and the occasionally fit Rhys Williams wasn't being played. The dream future defence was Williams, Spiranovic, Sainsbury and either Davidson or Smith.
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Link doesnt work

Was excited because i thought i could finally rewatch the 2009 asian qualifiers
 
grazorblade said:
oh weird need to put a vpn on to see it

do you know anyone that has a copy of the 2010 australian world cup qualifiers? I have a couple of games in the archive but not much
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Info is scarce. How does our Socceroos match archive look?
 
A summary video of other campaigns would be great. We used to have single long video files but now a lot are just shorts and social media snippets.
 
Ha' Australia are decimated without Grella, Bresciano and Kewell'. How true it was but also we had Jacob Burns, Sterjovski and Holman all fighting for spots. We had plenty of quality reserves.
 
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