I went to the Australia v Oman game on Tuesday night. It was the best I've seen Australia play live ever, and I've been going to Socceroos games for 30 years or more. In fact the first game I went to was versus Czechoslovakia in about 1978. Anyway. Ange Postecoglou has the team playing a very fast tempo pressing possession based style, coupled with our natural aggression and work rate. I think Ange is easily our nation's best coach. After the next World Cup it would be great for him personally if he was rewarded with a job at a good European team. he could easily take on someone like Wolves or Reading and take them into the Premier League I think.
Despite not having great touch or a left foot at all Matt Leckie did well and looked threatening. Robbie Kruse also looks to be getting into shape, while Massimo Luongo has come from nowhere, well, Swindon, to be a genuine classy midfielder. I think he could easily make the step to the Premier League for a mid to lower ranked team. Tomi Juric is a bit of a favourite in our family and it was pleasing seeing him score from Leckie's outside of the boot cross. I'm disappointed he looks to be taking the Chinese yuan instead of battling into Europe. Oh well.
Mat Ryan pulled off a great save early and hopefully his ordinary World Cup is well behind him. The rest of the defence also looked good. South Korea will be a much tougher test on Saturday, although they are struggling with injury and illness.
Other teams to impress include China, Iran, the UAE and of course Japan, even though some of those have still only played once. The Japanese cruised against Palestine - great to see them here.
Personally it's a shame Al Shamrani from Saudi Arabia went home injured. We were looking forward to booing the headbutting, spitting, diving cheat but never mind.
It's shaping up as a very open tournament. The Aussies have 8 goals from 2 games but haven't really been tested. At this stage it would be a surprise if the final wasn't between us and Japan, but there are bound to be upsets along the way.
