Ghost Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 Some interesting games this week. Japan-Australia, Aussies in big danger of even missing out on a play off place if they lose, not a huge shock to me when the average age of their team seems to be about 36. Japan v Australia will be a massive game for both countries. Australia needs at least a draw to maintain hope of qualification, while a draw will be enough for Japan to seal their place at Rio. Japan has got poor form coming into this game losing to Jordan and Bulgaria but I'm sure they will go all out against us to prove a point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 1-0 Australia at moment wiht minutes left Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted June 4, 2013 Moderator Share Posted June 4, 2013 Ooh 90th minute peno and it finished 1-1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted June 4, 2013 Moderator Share Posted June 4, 2013 And Jordan beat New Zealand on her own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 Happy for Japan, have said for a while they could be a interesting dark horse come the World Cup. Was impressed at last World Cup by them and have added Kagawa to that team now and players like Honda maturing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 Japan could be a real threat if they had a world class striker up forward. At the moment, for all their lovely play, they just couldn't put the game to bed when they had their chances earlier. Cracking game though. Japan are my second favourite team. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 I think of all the none-favourites I'm looking forward to Colombia the most. The likes of Armero, Cuadrado and Zuniga can be great to watch. Not sure if Perea is till any good, but he/Yepes alongside Zapata aint too bad, then you obviously have Falcao. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voinjama Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 Australia might not qualify. They are 3rd behind the mighty Oman at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFCforever1991 Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 I think of all the none-favourites I'm looking forward to Colombia the most. The likes of Armero, Cuadrado and Zuniga can be great to watch. Not sure if Perea is till any good, but he/Yepes alongside Zapata aint too bad, then you obviously have Falcao. Colombia also have that James Rodriguez, looked very good.. He'll be linking up with Falcao at Monaco as well.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 Colombia are a dangerous outfit but have a creaky defence. Freddy Guarin, MacNelly Torres and Jackson Martinez are also handy players Pekerman is a good manager but made a balls of the 2006 World Cup when Argentina really should have won it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 Japan could be a real threat if they had a world class striker up forward. At the moment, for all their lovely play, they just couldn't put the game to bed when they had their chances earlier. Cracking game though. Japan are my second favourite team. whatever happened to morimoto? can remember him being linked with a fair few big clubs (including utd iirc) but now he's in the middle east? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 He had a few injuries in Italy but never really lived up to the hype. Happens a lot these days Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 Australia might not qualify. They are 3rd behind the mighty Oman at the moment. They finish with two home games so will probably scrape through. Looking at their team though...do they actually have any young players?! I just see the same old names like lucas Neill,Bresciano and Cahill. Bit like Sweden in that respect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 lad that scored Oar is a youngster but not sure about anybody else in their squad thats a young talent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voinjama Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 Australia now qualify through the Asian section so they should really be more comfortable in the tables then they are. The irony is that they moved to the Asian section to avoid the playoffs against top South American sides etc, but it looks like they might have to go through that again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 Yes looking like Chile or Venezuela (come on Vinotino!). Thin Uruguay are out of it unless they win next week. Would fancy the South americans over either aussies or Iran. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 (edited) Australia might not qualify. They are 3rd behind the mighty Oman at the moment. They finish with two home games so will probably scrape through. Looking at their team though...do they actually have any young players?! I just see the same old names like lucas Neill,Bresciano and Cahill. Bit like Sweden in that respect. Like Zatman said, Tommy Oar - who scored the goal - is only 21. There are a few young players that have been hovering around the squad for a while, but haven't gotten their chance yet. Players like Mitch Langerak (Dortmund), Rhys Williams (Middlesborough), Michael Zullo (Utrecht), Tom Rogic (Celtic) and Robbie Kruse (Bayer Leverkusen) are all relatively young. Plus a bunch of others in the A-League and abroad. A lot of pundits and fans have been calling for the younger players to get more game time, but for whatever reason, Holger Osieck hasn't wanted to blood them earlier. Edited June 5, 2013 by Ghost Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPower_14 Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 We (Australia) are in a bit of a flux period at the moment. All our stars of the last decade are aging (Schwarzer, Bresciano, Cahill, Emerton) or retired (Kewell and Viduka), and apart from Tommy Oar we just haven't had anyone come through, and I completely and totally blame the A league. The A league will be a good thing for Australia 20 years from now because it generates interest in football, a heap more interest than there was before. Theoretically this should mean that in 20 years, more kids have grown up watching football as their first sport, and we have more youngsters playing football instead of Aussie Rules or the two Rugby codes. However at the moment, all it's doing is providing an avenue for talented kids to stay in Australia and make a living playing football when they really, really need to be going to Europe as young as possible and spend as much time playing in high quality leagues under high quality coaching as they can. If I have a son and he's a soccer genius i'll be doing whatever I can to get him into a European academy. We've been shit in these qualifiers, but we should still qualify with the games we have left. We'll get annihilated at the WC, we'll probably lose all 3 games comfortably. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted June 5, 2013 Author Share Posted June 5, 2013 I think of all the none-favourites I'm looking forward to Colombia the most. The likes of Armero, Cuadrado and Zuniga can be great to watch. Not sure if Perea is till any good, but he/Yepes alongside Zapata aint too bad, then you obviously have Falcao. I have a soft spot in my heart for Colombia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted June 5, 2013 Author Share Posted June 5, 2013 If I have a son and he's a soccer genius i'll be doing whatever I can to get him into a European academy. I believe there's a young Aussie kid signed with Benfica, and trains with their youth set up when school is out. He was spotted playing in a park in Portugal while on holiday with his family. Pretty cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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