In what was one of THE games of the World Cup, Australia have made it into the Round of 32!
I wasn’t very hopeful for this game following our loss to USA — I don’t think anyone is when your team loses — though the suspension of Almirón provided me with more hope that we could get a positive result; and that we did.
The great thing about a 48 team World Cup is that while every game is important, there is more leeway to experiment which Popovic has utilised well; each game has featured a different formation and/or players.
I was quite happy with the starting eleven, particularly as Lucas Herrington and Cristian Volpato started.
As the game progressed, it was clear Irankunda needs support rather than playing as an isolated striker. Maybe having Volpato playing as a second striker would work? I trust that Popovic will make the right decision.
Additionally, a promising takeaway from the lacklustre games was Jordy Bos’ impressive runs into the box; we’ll need more of those in the next game.
Looking to the next game, we’ll face the runner up of Group G: Belgium or Iran. Both are strong teams so we’ll need to play with the intensity of the Turkey game, though I like our odds against bigger teams with strong performances against such teams being part of our country’s DNA.
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