Australian Soccer Thread (A-League/FFA Cup/Socceroos/Matildas) (Part 1)

Nope, he has always been a decent domestic coach but was a terrible coach at international level and he had lost the playing group at the time so it was the correct choice to move him on.
As for the J league its probably a top 20 ranked league but miles off the decent leagues. Asian football as a whole is fairly dire though so who knows

I support the Marinos & have taken my lad to a few games here. And am mates with an ex-player (who was given the flick at the end of last season). Ange has done an excellent job in only two seasons. Brought in a stack of new players this season, has backed younger players in & adapted their game style. Impressive effort.

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Best coach we’ve ever produced.
That said, I think we did need to freshen up. Can’t go on forever in that role.

Zvonimir “Rale” Rasic OAM was our best ever Socceroos coach.

Fantastic person who was a PE teacher a Glenroy Tech as his real job.

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Ange has 2 NSL titles, 2 A league, 1 x J league, 3 x Oceanian under 17 titles, 3 x Oceania & 1 x Asian under 19 titles. A league coach of the year, NSL coach of the year, Asian confederation coach of the year, PFA coach of the decade.

Oh and the Asian cup, literally the only bit of silverware the ‘Roos have ever brought home.

The 70s guy is better though, because boomer.

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Very hard to compare them IMO.
Ange was lucky enough to have coached in a era where soccer was a bit more professional and financial. Both good coaches in the respective eras. Ange had ran his race though at International level and a change was needed

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I liked ange, thought he was treated poorly by certain people (slater), however he did himself no favours by “experimenting” with the line ups in qualifiers well before we even qualified which left us very close to missing out altogether.

Socceroos (invited guests) drawn against Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile and Paraguay for next year’s Copa America.

Easy peasy! :flushed:

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I like it, great way for the players to get experience ahead of the World Cup

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This is massive for the Socceroos!

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Good experience but geez they are going to get mauled, massive step up from playing some of the rubbish sides in Asia. Probably prepares them more for a WC tho as you’ll most likely be playing against quality throughout the tournament

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We should get mauled by the Argies and Uruguay, not so certain about the rest.

It should be a good opportunity to practice playing for the draws against the good sides, and playing to win when we’ve got a live chance. We’ve been pretty bad at that in the last few WCs.

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If we can win one or two games here, draw a couple and hold our own against Uruguay and Argentina it will be huge for us. Playing South Americans IN South America is no walk in the park. It will be good experience for the squad ahead of (hopefully) Qatar

Edit: We get to play Argentina in Buenos Aires…

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Chile and Paraguay wont be a walk in the park, Chile came 4th at the 2019 COPA America and have a strong side, will be lucky to get a point out of that group. Perhaps against Bolivia

Of course they’re no mugs, but Chile and Paraguay are the level of sides we can beat.

Look at who these sides have played recently. They’ve lost/dropped points to Honduras & Qatar respectively. They’re gettable.

We need to scrap like mongrels against Uruguay & Argos, and try and beat the other 3.

Top 4 go through, so 2 wins and a draw should do it.
Then hope like anything we don’t run into Brazil or Colombia.

Stranger things have happened but I can’t see them getting out of that group.
Either way it’ll be a chance to come up against some decent sides and not the mediocre sides (with the exception of 2-3 teams) the Aussies face in Asia.

4 go through from each group.
So 6, 7 points should do it.

Bolivia just don’t win away from home - and only won 1 of their last 10 odd games. we should bank the 3 points there. Win one out of Chile and Paraguay. It’s no sure thing, but it’s definitely doable.

I get that, I just don’t see them getting any points against Chile and Paraguay. Anyhow time will tell

Socceroos and Bolivia the 2 teams to miss out on progressing in my opinion

Chile beat Argentina reasonably regularly. You’d have thought Operation Condor would have brought them together.

And we always want Paraguay to win. That uber-fan stunner knows how to celebrate.

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Can Kurz ■■■■ off already