Australia vs Norway

[Rc]

Australia - $2.37 (and dropping)
Draw - $3.20
Norway - $2.75

C'mon aussie! ;D

[mrtimotae]

Hopefully we can win and win comfortabley.

I'm predicting 2-0 or 3-1 our way, can't make up my mind which score yet.

[MattO]

No need to predict...

Australia 2 - Norway 2

[maxie]

Geez we're going to need a big slice of luck to beat the 5th placed SAmerican team, based on this morning's performance. If our defence performs like it did today, i can see a repeat of the U R GAY game. Tiatto, Muscat, Vidmar etc are not gonna cut it for us. Not sure what other options there are, just have to hope that Moore is fit and maybe the likes of Foxe and Ljubo Milicevic are fit and in some kind of form. Also Kewell's performance was kind of bizarre, for a guy who has so much class, he was bloody hopeless, i know he's unfit/out of form, but this was embarassing. At least the midfield is looking strong with plenty of depth, but i think we need another out and out striker to partner dukes (Aloisi or Agostino, or even Scotty McDonald, b4 the scots snap him up), he always seems to struggle playing alongside Kewell.

[MattO]

We were in for a good chance to win the game but Norway ended up scoring off the free kick to tie the game. All thanks to Tiatto's deliberate hand ball!
He is a top player but he is a bit of a suss thingy in regards to hard and stupid tackles and giving away free kicks which he did again in this game.. :/

[Rc]

Have to agree the defending was extremely ordinary at times and i'm not sure this 4-3-3 deal is working for us.

Kewell and Emerton are wingers and that's where they should play, Emmo had a great game though.

I don't know if the defensive errors were that of bad players or just lack of concentration, but against better teams that kind of thing will see us get hammered.

There were definately some positives to come out of it, though i'd like to see a shuffle of the defense.

Anyway, what do I know? ;D

[SFCNutter]

I thought we made a couple of shocking tactical errors. I know it is about giving everyone a run but its about confidence and creating a positive culture within the team. Taking off Emerton and Cahill was a blunder-

I thought Dukes had a good game. I thought our defense was ok-Schwarzer should have stopped the first one- the second was a defensive blunder but I agree we have to improve to have a realistic chance of making it to Germany [/quote]

[nickkar]

I thought Australia completely dominated the game. Australia should have won 3-0. Its easy to say their defence was bad based on a few occasions , but they were hardly tested in the whole match.I thought Norway were pretty ordinary, but there were was one area where they completely were superior , and that was the quality of their crosses. There is no use being so dominant, and then wasting so many opportunities. One of our corner kicks landed just inside the penalty area with no Australians within 5 metres of it. Look at Greece, one of the reasons they won Euro 2004 was because of the quality of their corner kicks. The ideal corner kick in my opinion should be hit very hard and should approach head high just before the near post, and not be too far from goal. Being hit hard the goalkeeper will not be able to reach it, and he will move to the near post so if the ball is flicked across goal then there is a chance for someone to score as well as directly. Norway's second goal was a good hard cross, its easy to say the defense was bad but the attacker was under a bit of pressure and just outpaced his defender,. I am not sure if the attacker flicked it but a goal keeping blunder of anticipating a perfect near post header was the real cause.

[marinermick]

It's hard to say that our defence was poor when they had three shots on goal in which they converted two.

I thought Popovic did an awesome job on Carew and Neill was solid.

The weak link I saw was Vidmar who will be replaced by Moore.

[Tancred]

I thought we put in a good show against Norway, but I cannot see us getting to Germany 2006 at the moment.

I have watched a number of the South American qualifiers
on ESPN and with our defensive lapses we will get punished.

[Arlo]

I think that Frank Farina is being strong-armed into playing a 4-3-3 because it would be utter stupidity to bench our surplus of genuine attacking players to make room for defenders, which currently we are in a deficit of.

The 4-3-3 can, and does work, if our two wingers/forwards have the fitness and discipline to stay back and do defensive duties for much of the game. Another thing I noticed is that the back four played relatively well, save for one or two glaring lapses, but have just too much of a workload, making up for the missing fourth midfielder, to keep the gaps shut for 90 minutes of football.

Maybe its a formation that Farina needs to use to maximum effect for the first 45-60 minutes only, with opportunities for 'smash-and-grab'-type goals and pressure, before reverting to a conventional 4-4-2, or even a conservative 4-5-1, in the closing stages of the match.

[Robbie]

Tancred said:

I have watched a number of the South American qualifiers
on ESPN and with our defensive lapses we will get punished.

I agree, our opponent will always have 20+ more game experience with other south american countries. That's 20+ more games played as a team then we ever will.

[Blues]

Thats one defence any reasonable person cant deny.

A team thats played 2 games together will always have an uphill battle against a team thats just played 20 together.

[Robbie]

It's great we have friendlies with European countries and the Confederation cup coming up, but at the end of the day we are going to have to play above our expectactions, play away first and win with at least two goals and come home and finish the job, otherwise play a team that has full of injuries, no confidence and in bad bad form.

[Alaric]

I think he's playing the 4-3-3 just so we have it up our sleeves as well as the 4-4-2.So that if circumstances require we ca n shift between formations and still know where we are.