r/socceroos

FIFA just sold whatever credibility it had left

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Just Aussie fans having fun while taking over a Walmart in Dallas, TX!

As a tottenham fan, i watched ange postecoglou coach my team through some pretty rough times and also the best of times. So i wondered if he was our socceroo coach right now, would he have done a better job?

Attacking wise we’d look so much more dynamic, irankunda, toure and metcalfe would be playing off each other and would feast in terms of goal scoring oportunities.

In midfield we’d have to play volpato as Australia really seems to struggle developing any creative midfielders. However with a runner like irvine it shouldn’t be to bad. Pair him with okon and thats a decent midfield.

Defense. Now i know alot of you must have heard about ange’s reputation in regards to his defensive strategies. However i’d like to highlight that in competitions like the europa league for example. Tottenham played in a way that gave us the same opportunities to attack but in a more conservative way. It really helped us in the last few games we had in the competition. He would love bos and circati. Souttar would play the romero role, and a behich would do just fine.

Beach would definitely be comfortable in a ange postecoglou setup with his brilliant shot stopping.

What do you guys think? If ange’s stint in saudi ends should we pick him up and give him a shot at the 2030 world cup?

Is Poppa the right guy for the next four yr cycle?

I know he’s signed on for Asia Cup,but contracts change all the time this is football…

I feel we need at least a Steven Gerrard/Lampard level type head gaffa for the next four yr cycle.

*I’m not saying we can afford a Hiddink or Ancelotti.

But can FA afford a Gerrard/or Lampard level gaffa?

Hot take, but someone has to say it: until football becomes Australia’s national sport, we won’t go deep in a World Cup. Honestly, we don’t deserve to.

Every four years the bandwagon rolls out. Mainstream media and half the country suddenly become die-hard Socceroos fans, and yet even during the World Cup itself, the nightly news gives us our highlights after the NRL, AFL and rugby union results. Read that again. During the biggest sporting event on the planet, football still can’t crack the top of an Australian sports bulletin.

Meanwhile junior participation is at an all-time high. More Aussie kids play football than any other sport, and still the funding, the media coverage, and the government priorities flow elsewhere. We produce the players, then starve the pathway.

Then you look at a country like Egypt. Football isn’t a sport there, it’s the national heartbeat. It’s lived and breathed in every street, every café, every household. When they turn up on this stage, they’ve earned it. The whole footballing culture behind them earned it.

None of this is a shot at our players. They were phenomenal and gave everything with the support structure they had. But heart alone doesn’t beat culture, investment and priority. That’s just the reality of it.
Until football matters here 365 days a year, not just one month every four years, this is our ceiling.

With the Asia Cup kicking off early January it makes perfect sense to keep Popovic as coach.

Hopefully the experience learned by everyone will give us a chance of winning this.

So my micronation ionland needs footballers for our national team. So we are using this subreddit to recruit pepole for our football team.

Now the dust is settling, which players are going to be in top leagues, and where?

Everyone in the office wanted to talk to me for a few weeks coz I know about soccer. Won't get this chance again for 4 years. Gonna have to go back to being invisible.

Is O’Neill single ?

Noticed him only yesterday and his corner kick went straight to my heart.

Belated Happy Birthday 🎂

Didn’t realize he’s the MOTM against Paraguay.

Can somebody explain the logic behind playing irankunda up front instead of his natural position on the wing?

This is just my opinion, but besides the Turkey game, in which Irankunda obviously performed excellently, he didn’t do a single memorable thing, defenders had him in their pocket, he struggled with aerial balls and always was late to meeting the ball when crossed into the box from Bos or Volpato. So after Popa and the coaching staff saw him have no impact in both the US and Paraguay game, why would they not revert back to the original template that worked so well in the only game we scored in?

I think a lot of people on social media were overreacting, as is to be expected in the immediate aftermath of a gut-wrenching defeat. I think the Socceroos played reasonably well, while I was naturally nervous watching the match I thought they controlled the ball well and nullified any threat Egypt showed with the ball for much of the game so there was a level of control for most of it. A few gambles regarding the penalty shootout didn't pay off and now many are saying this is a failure of a campaign, but I think it's been pretty solid. International football's always a bit of a crapshoot and the match against Egypt was always going to be a coin toss. Our FIFA rankings are similar, the bookies had us at similar odds, the underlying stats were even and the scoreline after 120 minutes was even.

Ultimately, it is still the closest the Socceroos have come to winning a knockout match in the World Cup. Some people are also being obtuse in my opinion by saying that exiting in the Round of 32 is the equivalent of exiting in the group stage of the 32-team World Cups in the past, since making the last 32 is much harder when you have to play teams outside the AFC. In my view, the Socceroos' group at this World Cup was honestly more difficult in terms of the average quality of each team than their group in 2022, yet the Socceroos still managed to finish second over Paraguay and Turkey which is no mean feat. Paraguay and Turkey, the two teams against which we got points at this World Cup, seemed far more impressive to me than Denmark and Tunisia from 2022, who were both very lacklustre then and now.

I also understand that people don't want the Socceroos to be seen as gallant underdogs anymore, but there is a reason that Popovic played such a defensive shape during this tournament, As I mentioned previously, international football unfortunately can only ever be a crapshoot because the tournaments are only a handful of games, and mostly knockouts if you make it far. In such a format, one moment can end your campaign, so all the incentive is to play in a manner that enables you to win in the short-term. While the Socceroos' didn't score many, we also conceded only one goal from open play in 4 games, which was the foundation that enabled us to finish second in a difficult group and nearly make it to the Round of 16. I certainly don't regard the approach highly for club football, but that just demonstrates why club football is far superior to international football, since it actually rewards teams for playing positively. Whereas in international tournaments you can have fairly limited teams such as Croatia at World Cups 2018 and 2022 and Portugal at Euro 2016 who forced their way via extra time and penalties to be finalists and champions.

In short, the style of play often sucks because the dynamic of international football often sucks.

I actually think this would be a good angle to promote the A-League. One of the things I realised watching this tournament after watching most Perth Glory games this season is that it's actually somewhat annoying   how every game at the World Cup is do or die. While obviously that's where the tension and drama comes from, it doesn't have that nice ebb and flow between games of lesser and greater significance that a full club season does. Furthermore, you actually get your season's worth of fun regardless of how good your team is, as opposed to the frustrating feeling we're all feeling now where we would have loved the Socceroos to just have one more game at least at this tournament, but instead there's this emptiness. 

So the Roos in a utopia could adopt the Japanese model of developing players to attack and play with the ball, and Australia as a country could fund and promote the game accordingly, but that itself is no guarantor of success at these tournaments. There are basically no guarantors of success at World Cups because of how fluky knockout football is, apart from maybe just having lots of obscenely good players like France has, although that is extremely rare. Japan played much more beautiful football in this tournament, they scored more goals, but ultimately they fell short in the knockouts again because they lacked that defensive grit and stubbornness, and also the fortune required to make it through, As long as those sorts of games such as Brazil vs Japan keep happening, I understand why Australian coaches will continue to ensure that teams prioritise defence, even if that is 'negative' or unpleasant to watch.

Onto the Asian Cup and Women's World Cup 💛💚

It was hard to accept the Socceroos going out in the Round of 32 yesterday v. Egypt, immedietly I think we were all high on emotions. Now it's probably a round or two earlier than most of us expected. But after the disappointment settled, I think it's pretty clear there's something to build upon.

What we need now is direction and resolve. We need a stronger football identity, especially when it comes to developing young players. We have talent coming through, but there has to be a clearer pathway and a long-term vision that everyone buys into.

The A-League also needs our full support. If we want better Socceroos, we need a stronger domestic competition. That means fans getting behind clubs, watching games, creating atmosphere, and helping the league grow rather than constantly talking it down.

We also need to back our national team the way Australia has embraced the Matildas. That connection between fans and the team matters. We should know our players, celebrate their stories, and create a football culture people genuinely want to be part of.

For too long, it feels like we've lacked a consistent identity, both on and off the pitch. We need to decide what Australian football stands for. Our genuine brand and style of play, our culture, and our values, and commit to them over the long term instead of constantly changing direction.

This World Cup campaign hurts, but I don't think it's all doom and gloom. There are positives to take away. Now it's about learning from it, backing our players, investing in youth, supporting the A-League, and building a clear identity that can carry Australian football forward over the next years to come.

Let me know your thoughts on things we must do moving forward.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie: Oi, Oi, Oi!!!