Hey there.
Lurked on the forum for the past couple of days, and particularly this thread. Thought I'd sign up to discuss the Asian Cup and of course Mas.
He's pretty much the toast of Australia at the moment. Had always read he had talent but we've never really been given the opportunity to see it aside from a couple of friendlies.
Just a few thoughts on the tournament, the Socceroos, Mas and what he offers us.
As one poster noted after watching a game the quality of many Asian teams is quite poor. I think the comment was made about the Iraq v Jordan game. I watched it and it was pretty scrappy.
That was two of the poorer teams however. And while you often have an entertaining contest, the quality of football is not that high.
What you have when one of those poorer teams plays one of the powerhouses of Asian football -- Japan, South Korea, Australia or Iran (the teams that were at the WC in Brazil) -- is a situation where the minnow will play with 11 men behind the ball and park the bus Mourinho-at-Anfield-from-last-season style.
When you have two powerhouses playing each other, you typically get much better football. So the upcoming game that will decide who tops our group -- South Korea or Australia -- will likely be a lot better. Still, it won't be Germany vs Spain.
However, despite the fact that many Asian teams are quite poor, we've often struggled to break them down when they play ultra defensive football. And they've often been adept at hitting us on the counter or nicking a goal from a set piece.
However, our tactics at the moment and with players like Mas we're breaking them down with ease.
We're playing with a single striker, but with a series of mobile attacking mids/wingers who are all rotating and causing mischief. Making runs and pulling defenders out of position. Our full backs are also overlapping and providing attacking outlets as well.
Testament to this threat-from-anywhere-strategy is that we've scored 8 goals in two games this tournament and all have come from different players.
The best of these attacking mids so far has been Mas. He is picking up the ball between the lines and playing incisive little balls as well making runs behind the lines (with and without the ball) and he is tracking defensively. He's proving a nightmare for the Asian defences. It seems like he's everywhere.
I'd love to know how this compares with what he does at Swindon?
In the first game he obviously got MoM with his assist and goal and general great play. If he had of played the full 90 vs Oman he may have got the MoM for this game too. His assist was real quality and his general play couldn't be faulted.
Subbed on 51 with Cahill. Commentators said another very decent performance, 3 nil and game over. Rest time
He
was subbed off very early, with Cahill. Though as you can probably tell this wasn't because of poor perfomance. To the contrary. Postecoglu, our coach, has said that he wants to rest and rotate players early in the tournament to keep the whole squad fresh.
And I think it's a testament to how well he's considered that he came off with a player considered to be our most important. Timmy Cahill.
Anywho. You've got a new Swindon fan and I hope you guys can stay in an automatic promotion spot till the end of the season. And I hope Mas can help keep you there. And in the summer land you a big transfer fee as he makes the move to the Premier League (as he looks like he has the quality).
