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Socceroos vs Canada/USA Oct 25

booney52 said:
Maybe because they played hoofball.As you know RC are a tiny club who have over achieved by making it into the SPL 1 on several occasions.Nisbet was often rated amongst their best players but in reality it was not a good career choice going there and likewise going to a Dutch 2nd Division club has dented his chances in Popa's eyes.However with McGree always injured a clever AM like Nisbet would be an asset in the NT.
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Just, remember, they were the ONLY club to offer him anything.
 
tsf said:
Personally I think Izzo inspired more confidence. Respect your answer though and understand your angle. You definitely know more about keeping than I do.

At the end of it all, our stocks are quite thin in this area.

On a side note, why are all our keepers so small?
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TBH I'll argue with anyone about keeping. I even had a go at Bozza. He'd always saw when facing a free kick you should be on the goal line. I'd always been taught to be slightly in front.

His reasoning was that it gave you a split second longer. Mine was that even if you couldn't catch you could turn it round the corner or over the top. I was sick of keepers stopping the first attempt and just batting it out for a second attempt which was often put away or otherwise pushed into the post and then go in.
 
Cunningstunt said:
Yeah I would think so. At least Eredivisie 1, low to mid table team. But I don't think he is 2 or 3 levels below his ability. He isn't a Top 5 League starter being missed by the whole world, as such, it isn't any kind of injustice when he misses out for Aus, it's just reality.
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I've posted this before...

I spoke with John Hutcho about him before he went to Ross County. He said: I love Nizz, he's a brilliant player, but his height's against him. Coaches overseas won't even look at him. If an OS coach buys an Australian, they want strength, athleticism, power and the unrelenting Aussie will to win. They don't need tidy ball players like Nizz, they've already got thousands of those.

He went on to make me a bet that Nizz will never play 50 matches in Europe.

I happily made that bet and he must be at least halfway to winning it for me.
 
Sutherlandbear said:
Just, remember, they were the ONLY club to offer him anything.
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As Mr Cleansheets pointed out his height would have been looked upon as a handicap.Football,particularly in Europe,is about pace and power allied to skill.This goes for the upper echelon leagues.Coaches would have seen he had the skill but would have felt he would not be strong or quick enough to cope with top level football.Those of us who watched him marvelled at his strength and ability to match it against bigger players so those Europeans sold him short.
 
patjennings said:
This

As for height - Gauci is a decent height - as is Dylan Periac-Cullen.

One of our best was Ron Corry at 172cm

OS the scorpion kick keeper René Higuita was only 175rcm. Iker Casillas was only 185 cm, and Fabien Barthez was 181cm. However, many clubs still only accept keepers over 193cm into their academies
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I'm 175cm and played NPL3 as a keeper - not that I was ever on the escalator to pro level but that's still a decent level.

Height was never an issue for me as one of my first coaches drummed into me the importance of timing your jump. With your arms above your head and taking the ball at its highest point (for you) meant that strikers were always running a different line on the ball's trajectory.

In other words, I was only ever in danger of not getting to the ball first if someone was deliberately running at me instead of the ball. And yes, of course that happened but it also happens to much taller keepers.

You could say that height is also important re reaching high shots but that's more than balanced (I think) by the faster agility of shorter keepers who can down more quickly.

Cool topic.
 
Mr Cleansheets said:
Not true. I haunted the RC forum last year and he was widely regarded as one of their best and it was lamented that they didn't have any strikers on his wavelength.
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He barely played the full 90 minutes.

I somewhat get the blind love on this forum for anyone Australian, But ! So, he is now in the Dutch second division, hardly setting the heather on fire.
 
Scotland was the worst possible league to go to when his biggest liability is his height. Hopefully he can rebuild his career from here

But some players will make bad moves and we just have to produce enough players to handle those sort of losses

Wish he stayed at ccm and helped with the acl campaign tho
 
Sutherlandbear said:
He barely played the full 90 minutes.

I somewhat get the blind love on this forum for anyone Australian, But ! So, he is now in the Dutch second division, hardly setting the heather on fire.
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Roda is doing much better this year and a lot credit is going his way as well as strong speculation there that he is likely to be picked up by a Dutch first division side as soon as January. I'd love him to go to NAC Breda and reconnect with Balard. We'll see what happens but career is still to hit the 'heights'.
 
Sutherlandbear said:
He barely played the full 90 minutes.

I somewhat get the blind love on this forum for anyone Australian, But ! So, he is now in the Dutch second division, hardly setting the heather on fire.
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Wrong again. He played lots of 80+ minutes for RC and has had a couple of MOTM ratings for Roda.

It's hardly blind. I watched (almost) every minute he played for CCM. He was absolutely the most important player in our triple winning season.
 
grazorblade said:
Scotland was the worst possible league to go to when his biggest liability is his height. Hopefully he can rebuild his career from here

But some players will make bad moves and we just have to produce enough players to handle those sort of losses

Wish he stayed at ccm and helped with the acl campaign tho
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I heard an interview with him. In some ways he claimed the physicality of the league was what attracted him. i.e. to prove he could mix it in a rough league. I thought it was a strange move but if he can score a move to the Dutch first division they will have no doubts that he can handle the rough stuff.
 
Keeper66 said:
Agree, it's good to have a couple good options, plus hopefully Gauci can keep developing.
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I would have said Gauci was definitely Ryan's successor but Izzo has impressed the crap out of me in recent times.

If Popa picks him over Ryan at the WC I'd have no issue with it.
 
Mr Cleansheets said:
I would have said Gauci was definitely Ryan's successor but Izzo has impressed the crap out of me in recent times.

If Popa picks him over Ryan at the WC I'd have no issue with it.
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I think we will know more in 6 months time. He looks to be a definite for the plane but to me he needs to have an outstanding season at Randers - better than Ryan at Levante given the the quality of the elite players like Mbappe and Vinicus Jr that Ryan will face at Levante and to be honest Ryan has out performed him even this early in the season in a tougher league.

That said he has improved a lot in the past three or four years. I thought he was a poor keeper when he was with the Mariners. couldn't set a wall, wouldn't trust a wall, didn't command his box, distributed poorly. He has come a long way since then. Ryan is different, he matured a lot earlier and is probably having to rely on hard physical work a la Schwarzer to maintain his form as he ages.

Gauci is another one - still young but huge potential yet he wasn't even the standout in our Academy when he was with us. Can't remember who that was now but Maty was similar with us. He was one of two standouts - the lesser one - but the one that worked harder. Can't remember who that was either.
 
Watched the game on replay last night and enjoyed pouring over all the comments since the game on this thread.

My few takeaways:
- undecided on who is the number 1 keeper and luckily there is plenty of time to find out and what a great problem to have between the sticks!
- May be unpopular opinion but I think that was O'Neill's best game for us possibly ever. I'm not a fan of him but I think he actually got stuck in for a change and did much more creatively to move us forward than usual. That glancing craned necked headed pass was sublime!
- Thought Italiano did a great job and showed us that he very well could be an option on the right. Thought he looked solid 1v1 even when Pulisic was still on and clearly we will need the wing backs to provide a fair bit going forward in this system at the WC.
- Boyle will never succeed in this system as he simply just doesn't fit into it...period.
- Hrustic to be taken out the back of the barn and put down.
- Great to see us employ a full press at times although still work to do there.
- Cannot wait for Souttar to return as I think he will be the key centrally with Circati RCB and Burgess (or Rowles) at LCB.
- Bos is an absolute freak and he will be putting defenders on their arse for years to come!!
 
onedaywinners... said:
- May be unpopular opinion but I think that was O'Neill's best game for us possibly ever. I'm not a fan of him but I think he actually got stuck in for a change and did much more creatively to move us forward than usual. That glancing craned necked headed pass was sublime!
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100%, One of his best if not his best... has hit that sweet spot now with 25 or so games for the Socceroos now.... that's normally how long it takes for these guys to show their level.

I think its a big reason we need to keep playing the younger guys to get their caps up before the world cup.
 
jas88 said:
100%, One of his best if not his best... has hit that sweet spot now with 25 or so games for the Socceroos now.... that's normally how long it takes for these guys to show their level.

I think its a big reason we need to keep playing the younger guys to get their caps up before the world cup.
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Good observation. Just on that I think the draw may play a role in the number of younger players. While they may be more explosive - at altitude when Popa brought them on they didn't have the impact he was looking for. That core buildup stamina is not yet there. During the World Cup you will have a longer break to acclimatise so it may not be the issue that Popa noted.
 
I'll watch again and monitor O'Neill. I missed the first 20. Being in midfield he's certainly going to be involved. Maybe he should try more pass variations.
 
Mr Cleansheets said:
I've posted this before...

I spoke with John Hutcho about him before he went to Ross County. He said: I love Nizz, he's a brilliant player, but his height's against him. Coaches overseas won't even look at him. If an OS coach buys an Australian, they want strength, athleticism, power and the unrelenting Aussie will to win. They don't need tidy ball players like Nizz, they've already got thousands of those.

He went on to make me a bet that Nizz will never play 50 matches in Europe.

I happily made that bet and he must be at least halfway to winning it for me.
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Tbf, Ross county isn’t what is on the mind when someone says ‘playing in Europe’ 😂

My friend, her husband played there and was even asking me if I reckon he could get a game in our league 🙃
 
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