Football Thread!

[Liberator of Makedonija]

Athletic Club Maccabi, founded in Solun 1908 by the Jewish community.

[Soldier of Macedon]

World Cup 2018 has had a pretty good start, a 5-0 thumping dished out by the Russians (Putin was sitting near the Saudi prince, their facial expressions were priceless lol) and a fantastic 3-3 draw between Iberian rivals Portugal and Spain, with a hat trick for Ronaldo - it could finally be his time to shine at a world cup.

Australia vs France in about an hour. Odds are heavily against the Aussies so even a draw would be a sufficient result. But anything is possible. Come on boys!!

[Bill77]

a 5-0 thumping dished out by the Russians (Putin was sitting near the Saudi prince, their facial expressions were priceless lol)

Priceless alright

You could tell Putin wanted to celebrate at every goal but had to put in all his efforts to act diplomatic and respectful. Even apologetic at one stage where Putin extended his hand for a handshake as if to say he is sorry lol

[Tomche Makedonche]

Priceless alright

You could tell Putin wanted to celebrate at every goal but had to put in all his efforts to act diplomatic and respectful. Even apologetic at one stage where Putin extended his hand for a handshake as if to say he is sorry lol

The shots of Putin shrugging his shoulders were better than the goals, and that 4th goal was a cracker

[Soldier of Macedon]

Not a bad game, the French seemed to be whinging a lot about the physical nature of Australia's style. They received a penalty and scored, and Australia struck back with a penalty of their own. With about 10 minutes left the French scored another to seal it. Honestly, Australia did pretty good, but like usual, it's their execution up front that is lacking. They should've put Tim in. But the French team, with one of the most expensive lineups, barely scraped in their victory against a team they should have beaten comfortably, at least on paper.

[Karposh]

Not a bad game, the French seemed to be whinging a lot about the physical nature of Australia's style. They received a penalty and scored, and Australia struck back with a penalty of their own. With about 10 minutes left the French scored another to seal it. Honestly, Australia did pretty good, but like usual, it's their execution up front that is lacking. They should've put Tim in. But the French team, with one of the most expensive lineups, barely scraped in their victory against a team they should have beaten comfortably, at least on paper.

I can't believe they didn't put Tim in. It didn't look like it was going to be Tomi Juric's day to be honest.

[Tomche Makedonche]

Not a bad game, the French seemed to be whinging a lot about the physical nature of Australia's style. They received a penalty and scored, and Australia struck back with a penalty of their own. With about 10 minutes left the French scored another to seal it. Honestly, Australia did pretty good, but like usual, it's their execution up front that is lacking. They should've put Tim in. But the French team, with one of the most expensive lineups, barely scraped in their victory against a team they should have beaten comfortably, at least on paper.

Well can’t say it wasn’t an expected result, particularly when you set out with a defensive strategy. It was always going to be a long shot to end up with a positive result but I have to say the boys played well, even though France seemed to underperform, for a moment I thought we could of got away with a draw.

Definitely need someone like Cahil up front, or at least someone with a bit of pace, Nabbout tried to push on the long ball (which seemed to be the main play) but he was consistently out paced by the French defenders. The biggest worry is how bad the team dropped off in the last 20 minutes, so many errors and free give aways, you could see they were starting to really struggle.

Unfortunately Australia has a rep for being a physical team and all our oppponents capitalise on that rep, cause they know if they drop, 9 times out of 10 the Refs will back them. Having said that, I can’t say the calls were all one way

Hopefully we can do better in the next two games, but we need to find some solutions up front cause I’m not seeing any goals if we continue with the same defensive strategy like we did today

[Phoenix]

I thought it was an encouraging result for Australia, nobody gave the Aussies a chance and if it wasn't for what I considered a fortunate second goal by the French, we may just have shared in the spoils.

The penalty goal for France was also a very contentious moment in the match for me...I wonder if it had been France playing another top 10 powerhouse of world football, rather than lowly Australia, whether the VAR would've come into play over the same incident...???

At times Australia set up really well defensively and maintained good shape which I don't think I've seen for a while...they weathered the initial storm and settled into the game reasonably well.

I hope they can bring that defensive composure and discipline into the next couple of games, whilst playing with a little bit more freedom up forward.

I haven't seen much of Denmark but I did watch Peru in a friendly against Croatia recently and Peru look like a handful...I'm hoping by the time we play Peru a little bit of fatigue starts to set in and Australia can use their superior fitness to negate some of Peru's technical prowess...

Go Aussies!!!

[Tomche Makedonche]

FYI - for all Australian viewers, Optus announced that SBS will now be showing all group matches

[kompir]

FYI - for all Australian viewers, Optus announced that SBS will now be showing all group matches

Fun fact about the Optarse issues, they went to IBM to provide the content delivery system...

[Bill77]

FYI - for all Australian viewers, Optus announced that SBS will now be showing all group matches

Not the same without Les

Cant stand that Hrvatka and the way she pronounces names with a deliberate Croation accent. I know its SBS but fark...... she doesn't have wog things up.

[kompir]

Not the same without Les

Cant stand that Hrvatka and the way she pronounces names with a deliberate Croation accent. I know its SBS but fark...... she doesn't have wog things up.

That's Ned Zelic's sister, she has a very thick "ethnic" accent

[Bill77]

That's Ned Zelic's sister, she has a very thick "ethnic" accent

Yeh i don't mind Ned as commentator during
Aleague games. He sounds like a drunk at times but he is entertaining.

Lucy...... her voice, pronunciations, just irks me for some reason.
If they needed a woman for the stupid sake of diversity.... they should have gone for Mel McLaughlin

[kompir]

yeh i don't mind ned as commentator during
aleague games. He sounds like a drunk at times but he is entertaining.

Lucy...... Her voice, pronunciations, just irks me for some reason.
If they needed a woman for the stupid sake of diversity.... They should have gone for mel mclaughlin

Лична е, ама дали е домајкинка...

[Bill77]

Лична е, ама дали е домајкинка...

rofl........