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Australia @ 2015 Asian Cup


Tesla
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Not sure picking Antonis in the squad and not using him was the smartest idea, so many games in close succession and you have Herd and Jedinak going down injured, Luongo should've been rested and Bresciano or Antonis given a run if Luongo is going to be starting in the quarter final.

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Should we have won? Maybe, taking into consideration playing on home soil. But from another perspective no, as we are playing a team 31 positions above us in the rankings.

Did we play well? I believe overall yes we did, we dominated the game and were lacking the final finish. Had Kruse put that one on one away we would be commending a solid performance against a descent side without our best players starting.

Were the player decisions by Ange sound or questionable? Milligan had to come in for Jedinak. Not starting Timmy was to protect him for a garunteed quarter final spot so that made sense. It may have been overkill not starting Kruse regarding his previous injury problem.

Do Australians tend to overestimate the capabilities of their athletes? Absolutely, and I see this not only in football but in other sports.

Overall I don't see this game as being a real problem in our ability to progress in this tournament.

Couldn't agree more. Predictions of how far we're going to go even before a ball is kicked. Who's going to make the finals after about 3 rounds have been played. How far so-and-so is going to go in the Australian Open. Every up-an-and-coming 13-year-old tennis player, golfer or athlete is going to be the next world champion. Just goes on and on.

 

Must be some sort of national inferiority complex, this need to justify ourselves in sporting prowess when in fact we have had, and still have, so many over-achievers in many branches of human endeavour.

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Either that or that's the reason we overachieve in so many things. Push our top players to be the best and give them the best coaching and facilities to try and achieve it. Football is probably the only major sport where our infrastructure and youth development is way behind the world leaders.

We are no different to any other country that we pump up our youngsters who show some talent. We don't tear them down half as bad as the likes of England does either.

Inferiority complex would be sitting back and saying 'oh we overestimate our players and shouldn't expect much from them were only a small country after all'. We are hosting a major continental tournament and should be questioning and pointing out deficiencies. Is how Australian sport has punched above our weight for so long and will continue to do so. Anything less than a finals birth is a failure here.

Edited by perthheart
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It's not the end of the world. Cahill, Kruse and Leckie got a bit of a rest. Jedinak is over his injury and should be able to see out the rest of the tournament. Spiranovic gets a forced rest in the next game which we should win. I think we can still win the tournament. We always do well against Japan and could take them out in the semis.

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Tesla, the whole Korean team pretty much suffered from fever, took out two class players and another was rested. Point is imagine coming up against Japan with a full squad? Ange should take a leaf out of Sir Alex Ferguson's book where he states "possession is pointless without penetration"

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Tesla, the whole Korean team pretty much suffered from fever, took out two class players and another was rested. Point is imagine coming up against Japan with a full squad? Ange should take a leaf out of Sir Alex Ferguson's book where he states "possession is pointless without penetration"

Are you sure that wasn't Jimmy Carr?

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Honestly, coming up against Japan in a semi-final shouldn't matter. If we are good enough to win this thing then we will beat Japan and make it through to the final.

But we won't beat them.

To claim the title of the best team in Asia you must beat Japan.

Playing on home soil winning the lot is the only satisfactory outcome, so loosing to them in final or semi final is no different.

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Honestly, coming up against Japan in a semi-final shouldn't matter. If we are good enough to win this thing then we will beat Japan and make it through to the final.

But we won't beat them. To claim the title of the best team in Asia you must beat Japan.

Playing on home soil winning the lot is the only satisfactory outcome, so loosing to them in final or semi final is no different.

Yes but the point is the more games Japan play before us the more chance we don't play them at all. Sounds a bit silly but anything can happen in a semi and I'd rather play Iran/Iraq/Uzbeks rather than Japan in the final.

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