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

verrelli said:
Yeah, was thinking this too. Based on the below, Iran had a 93.8% chance of progressing:



Ended up like death by a thousand cuts for Iran. Never thought I'd feel sorry for their football team!
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I'll never feel sorry for their team and it's not just because of 97. I find them a highly insular, fortunate AFC team that has had lucky draws for 20 years. They get their nemesis South Korea and then a bunch of lying down ME teams.
 
WhatAmIWatching said:
Lots of Germans across the south of Chile (never seen so many blond indigenous people), Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and the south of Brazil.
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Lots of Europeans in general in that part of South America. Lots of people have English, French, German, Irish, Italian, Scottish, Spanish and Welsh surnames there or have heritage from those countries (e.g. Alexis Mac Allister is of Irish and Italian descent but speaks Spanish as his first language, has an Argentine accent in English and Spanish, and doesn’t speak Irish or Italian).
 
Quicky said:
Where did you think Volpato lacked game sense?
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Compared to Bos, who chose the best times to dribble and when to pass, Volpato chose to dribble, and, after the first 15 mins, the canny Paraguayans closed him down quickly, and often dispossessed him.

In contrast, with Metcalfe, not as proficient a dribbler, but still a good runner with the ball in space, Paraguay only had one person closing him down. Paraguay also sat off Metcalfe and didn’t commit. Met couldn’t beat them dribbling.

Meanwhile, 3 Paraguayans Squeezed Volpato.

From what I’ve read about Volpato, he hasn’t played a lot of football. He has been subbed on a lot in Serie A.

Notwithstanding, Volpato has a high level of skill. I think he will go far if he plays more club football in the imminent future.

Hrustic is another player whose skill level exceeds his game sense. When I go through their comparative skills and game sense, I can’t see what Hrustic has over Arzani - who is very skilful and has a great brain. Actually, Hrustic is more two footed and both side of the body proficient.

Because most Roos don’t have skills exceeding our opponents, or even as good, it is imperative that the team unit works well, and, Roos have to have a high level of game sense to be competitive.

Paraguay are probably the same, relative to more skilful South American teams who they compete against in WCQ.

One of the things those in the know, who are opponents, recognise, is how quickly Aus regains defensive compact shape when we lose the ball - in our Defensive Transitions.

From what I’ve read, Volpato is blown out by this phenomenon, and other team unit facets of football with Popa and the Roos.
 
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I haven’t watched the Paraguay v Germany game apart from highlights, but our draw over a really smart, battle hardened, tactically astute Paraguay, is another huge Aus WC achievement.

Credit to USA for blowing them off the park! However, Paraguay bounced back brilliantly.
 
Decentric said:
Compared to Bos, who chose the best times to dribble and when to pass, Volpato chose to dribble, and, after the first 15 mins, the canny Paraguayans closed him down quickly, and often dispossessed him.

Meanwhile, 3 Paraguayans Squeezed Volpato.
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I don't think this tells us a lot. As you say, he's not had a tonne of minutes and he is new to this setup.

They obviously saw him as a threat and 3 players squeezing Volpato is at least 2 of them not marking elsewhere. Pretty much all of our incursions, and certainly any that involved more than a couple of passes involved him down that right hand side. Bos was a beneficiary of that. Meanwhile next to zero incursions down the left where Metcalf was.

I did find that odd though. There was basically no intent on our side to switch the point of attack and get Metcalfe involved. It was almost as if we set up to risk nothing and gain nothing on the left.
 
WhatAmIWatching said:
Lots of Germans across the south of Chile (never seen so many blond indigenous people), Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and the south of Brazil.
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Amazing how many races of people look alike since the 40's & 50's, with Errol Flynn having done the rounds when he travelled.
 
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HonestSpursFan said:
Lots of Europeans in general in that part of South America. Lots of people have English, French, German, Irish, Italian, Scottish, Spanish and Welsh surnames there or have heritage from those countries (e.g. Alexis Mac Allister is of Irish and Italian descent but speaks Spanish as his first language, has an Argentine accent in English and Spanish, and doesn’t speak Irish or Italian).
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Lots of Jewish and middle eastern migration as well.

South America is a hugely diverse place and as much as it makes for funny memes it isn't just because of the Nazis. MacAllister's family go way back in football. But you look through lists of internationals - Jose Louise Brown, Julio Asad, Carlos Babington, José Chamot, Nestor Clausen, Claudio Husaín, Marco Ruben, Walter Samuel, Daniel Willington, Enrique Wolff, Claudio Yacob, Vladislao Cap.

And my personal favourite, the comically latinised german - Juan Esnáider
 
Punchanello said:
I don't think this tells us a lot. As you say, he's not had a tonne of minutes and he is new to this setup.

They obviously saw him as a threat and 3 players squeezing Volpato is at least 2 of them not marking elsewhere. Pretty much all of our incursions, and certainly any that involved more than a couple of passes involved him down that right hand side. Bos was a beneficiary of that. Meanwhile next to zero incursions down the left where Metcalf was.

I did find that odd though. There was basically no intent on our side to switch the point of attack and get Metcalfe involved. It was almost as if we set up to risk nothing and gain nothing on the left.
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Punchanello said:
I don't think this tells us a lot. As you say, he's not had a tonne of minutes and he is new to this setup.

They obviously saw him as a threat and 3 players squeezing Volpato is at least 2 of them not marking elsewhere. Pretty much all of our incursions, and certainly any that involved more than a couple of passes involved him down that right hand side. Bos was a beneficiary of that. Meanwhile next to zero incursions down the left where Metcalf was.

I did find that odd though. There was basically no intent on our side to switch the point of attack and get Metcalfe involved. It was almost as if we set up to risk nothing and gain nothing on the left.
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Agree with the last paragraph.

Was surprised Popa did not rotate the front 3, given Irank prefers being wider.

It would have kept Para guessing. Arnie and Bert used to do it.
 
Punchanello said:
Lots of Jewish and middle eastern migration as well.

South America is a hugely diverse place and as much as it makes for funny memes it isn't just because of the Nazis. MacAllister's family go way back in football. But you look through lists of internationals - Jose Louise Brown, Julio Asad, Carlos Babington, José Chamot, Nestor Clausen, Claudio Husaín, Marco Ruben, Walter Samuel, Daniel Willington, Enrique Wolff, Claudio Yacob, Vladislao Cap.

And my personal favourite, the comically latinised german - Juan Esnáider
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The English, Irish and Scots have been there since colonial times (The Cilean Vice-roy had the surname O'Higgins and he was a Catholic fleeing persecution from the Protestants, teh Scots went over en masse to teh America's when Bonnie Price Clyde got scared and English pirates were the norm). The Germans and Yugoslavs arrived in mass post WW2. I am not sure where teh Jewish diaspora came from but I presume they would have been fleeing the pogroms in Russia and the Catholic church was not as anti-semitic as the Russians. The Chinese and Japanese arrived at the end of the 1800s.
 
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