We lost because in 30 years we haven't learnt that in tounrament football you need to lift your game to a higher level with each game. You just can't simply rely on your form from the group stage to take you right through.
Excuse after excuse is simply not good enough. Yes the core of our squad is young and inexperienced but what of Korea Republic then? Their oldest goal scorer this tournament is a 21 year old!
The tactics were obvious from the first few minutes. This was a game we were only ever going to win on penalty shoot out! Fucking pathetic and sad as the tactic has not changed from the last 2 tournaments. We simply do not know how to approach knockout games.
We can blame the coach, blame certain players, blame the ref but these are just excuses, excuses excuses. Bottom line is we have not worked on our shortcomings for over 30 years. Nothing will change until we do. We're lucky also, the likes of Japan and KSA didn't give a crap about football until the last couple of decades and Australia has only just recently joined Asia, otherwise we probably wouldn't even have the 3 titles in the trophy cabinet!
Excuse after excuse is simply not good enough. Yes the core of our squad is young and inexperienced but what of Korea Republic then? Their oldest goal scorer this tournament is a 21 year old!
The tactics were obvious from the first few minutes. This was a game we were only ever going to win on penalty shoot out! Fucking pathetic and sad as the tactic has not changed from the last 2 tournaments. We simply do not know how to approach knockout games.
We can blame the coach, blame certain players, blame the ref but these are just excuses, excuses excuses. Bottom line is we have not worked on our shortcomings for over 30 years. Nothing will change until we do. We're lucky also, the likes of Japan and KSA didn't give a crap about football until the last couple of decades and Australia has only just recently joined Asia, otherwise we probably wouldn't even have the 3 titles in the trophy cabinet!