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

JS96 said:
It's just the rules of the competition. Why sprint at the stage a jog is required? France Denmark 2018 was a draw on purpose.
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Absolutely it is, but you realise it was ONE moment in the final 2-3 mins of extra time that could have brought everything unstuck? Thank Christ it went through Herringtons legs and was miss-hit.
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
Absolutely it is, but you realise it was ONE moment in the final 2-3 mins of extra time that could have brought everything unstuck? Thank Christ it went through Herringtons legs and was miss-hit.
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I know at it was bloody scary. It would be a good case study for kids in a school lesson for framing and bargaining. So many outcomes.

Paraguay did seem very content to slow it down while we felt if we can just nudge forward a but it keeps then at bay... Austria Algeria will be interesting and didn't 1982 involve both in the Gijon scandal?
 
ClockworkOrange said:
Ok. That is the easiest we’ve ever qualified for the next phase. Never under pressure against a side that beat Brazil and Argentina in qualifying. Against us they were basically prepared to settle for a draw. That’s a huge rap for us.
When was the last time we dominated possession and had twice as many shots on goal playing a South American side?
First half was as good as I’ve seen us play against quality opposition.
We played well. It’s not surprising we struggled to score … we haven’t experienced having that much possession in final third against quality defence.
Beach’s disposal was generally top notch … supposedly a weakness?
I think we have a real shot against Belgium …
Beach
Bos, Circati, Souttar, Herrington, Italiano
Volpato, O’Neil, Metcalfe
Irankunda, Toure
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I like this side, I think that we need to play a striker to partner Irankunda.

I'm not a soccer expert, but when the oppositon has 3-4 players in their half and our forward attacking player is in our half, I think we are being too defensive.

We played well in the first half, our best chance of winning games is to be more attacking.
 
I know of hundreds of schools that cancelled classes for this game. I can only imagine it would have had quite a few kids wishing they were back in class.

When you be as defensive as we are, you create those moments like we did at the end where one moment can end up resulting in us losing. I know everyone says that is what Popa does, but then maybe Popa isn't the right guy.
 
zimbos05 said:
I know of hundreds of schools that cancelled classes for this game. I can only imagine it would have had quite a few kids wishing they were back in class.

When you be as defensive as we are, you create those moments like we did at the end where one moment can end up resulting in us losing. I know everyone says that is what Popa does, but then maybe Popa isn't the right guy.
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Then sit the kids down and play footage from Iran 97 and they'll be forever traumatised. The lesson is about game management.

Popovic isn't the right person to get the absolute best out of this group but we got the Turkey result and hopefully we'll get to see one more good performance in the next round.
 
JS96 said:
Then sit the kids down and play footage from Iran 97 and they'll be forever traumatised. The lesson is about game management.

Popovic isn't the right person to get the absolute best out of this group but we got the Turkey result and hopefully we'll get to see one more good performance in the next round.
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You can manage a game by still being attacking and winning.

The battler mentality is so freaking draining. One win against Turkiye and carrying on like we shouldn't bother trying in any of the other matches.
 
zimbos05 said:
You can manage a game by still being attacking and winning.

The battler mentality is so freaking draining. One win against Turkiye and carrying on like we shouldn't bother trying in any of the other matches.
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It was the first half against the USA that went so wrong. I think the group panned out a lot as expected with our 3 games. A win on the first or last.

Tournament football is a bit of a grind at times and going back through all tournaments many teams aren't pretty early on but I want to see us attack more cohesively.
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
Oh FFS same old bullshit take every single time.... WHAT progress?
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I think the fact that we expect to make the World Cup every year now is progress in terms of us expecting more of the team as supporters.

Even if we doubt our team's likelihood to do well in every World Cup group and tournament most people, on here at least , would consider that if they got to pick our squad and Popa played the way they want us to that the Socceroos should be able to get good results.

I think that is the sort of progress he was talking about from his comment - rather than "Australian football has progressed" holistically.

I could be wrong mind you. I thought I was wrong that one time, but it turned out I was mistaken.
 
I thought we were pretty good in the first half. On the front foot-ish. Volpato and Bos combination was great. Not lots of chances but still mostly positive. Second half less so, but I do get that both teams were probably content with proceedings. Just not a great game for the nation to stop and watch 🤣
 
This is the brutal reality from where I sit. We are hands down one of the most boring teams to watch at this tournament. Yes, we got through. But perhaps the biggest audience for a football game involving players from this country got a horrible dose of Popaball and that will have done the code in this country no end of harm.

That really pains me, because it didn't have to be this way, I can only wistfully imagine how this all would have gone with Ange and not Popovic, who defines the concept of constipative coaching.
 
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Cunningstunt said:
Only because you cared about what happened. I was the same. But for a neutral they probably turned it off.
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Even if you were a neutral it was intriguing because of what was hanging on the game. In World Cups past there were a lot of deadly 0-0 draws in the group phase, playing it ultra safe. This was not one of those. There was plenty of attacking intent and a few decent chances created. Remember that in CONMEBOL WC qualifying, COL, URU, BRA and PAR all finished equal on 28 points, only separated by goal difference. Ecuador conceded the fewest goals, only 5 in 18 qualifying matches. PAR was equal second as a defensive team with ARG on only 10 goals conceded. My point is that for 2 reputedly defensive teams today there was more action than anticipated.
 
Popa is probably reasonably tactically happy but Paraguay were poor and I am a bit meh, we will need to have the ability to stretch teams down both flanks if we wish to increase our chances in the next round.

In my opinion we have the young players to hurt any team but don't have the ideal players for Popa's formation.

Maybe McGree and Volpato are the only ones I believe can truely excell in those W/AM roles.

We should tweak to a front two, i do not mind Irankunda at centre forward as I believe his pace does keep opponents honest..... and or have Yengi or Toure drop deep out of possession with defensive responsibilities.
 
socceroosmad said:
Even if you were a neutral it was intriguing because of what was hanging on the game. In World Cups past there were a lot of deadly 0-0 draws in the group phase, playing it ultra safe. This was not one of those. There was plenty of attacking intent and a few decent chances created. Remember that in CONMEBOL WC qualifying, COL, URU, BRA and PAR all finished equal on 28 points, only separated by goal difference. Ecuador conceded the fewest goals, only 5 in 18 qualifying matches. PAR was equal second as a defensive team with ARG on only 10 goals conceded. My point is that for 2 reputedly defensive teams today there was more action than anticipated.
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I think the term Neutral in the sense of this thread covers more of the people who watched because they had heard the World Cup was the pinnacle of global sports - and they may not have found it at all intriguing due to a lack of interest in, or understanding of the ramifications across all the groups.

As opposed to the Neutral who already follows football and does appreciate how much hung in the balance. For them the game would have been intriguing because it was still played in a sense of open football without full on commitment to goals by either team.
 
JS96 said:
I know at it was bloody scary. It would be a good case study for kids in a school lesson for framing and bargaining. So many outcomes.

Paraguay did seem very content to slow it down while we felt if we can just nudge forward a but it keeps then at bay... Austria Algeria will be interesting and didn't 1982 involve both in the Gijon scandal?
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Algeria were the victims, it was West Germany and Austria who conspired to agree on a 1-0 result which took both teams through at the expense of Algeria who had shocked West Germany 2-1 in game 1.
 
Not wanting to take this thread off track, but peeking ahead it would be a fair bet we will face Argentina if we get past our next game.

I have to agree - this would have to be one of the best feeling nil all draws we have had.

Carn the bloody Roos!
 
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