September 2017 – Australia Football Fans

Aaron Mooy failed to make an impact in English football when he was at Bolton Wanderers, but the Australia international central midfielder is taking the Premier League by storm at the moment. Now on the books of Huddersfield Town, the 27-year-old has been one of the best and most instrumental players in the English top flight so far this season.

Huddersfield have made a stunning start to the 2017-18 Premier League campaign, and the early signs are that they will stave off the drop to the Championship at the end of the season. The Terriers have picked up some important points in the opening weeks of the season, with Mooy playing a key role.

Mooy is destined for bigger and better things

The Australian scored one goal and provided one assist in the opening five Premier League matches for Huddersfield.

One of the main reasons why David Wagner’s side got promoted from the Championship at the end of last season was Mooy’s displays in the centre of midfield. The former Melbourne City star scored four goals and provided seven assists in 48 appearances in the Championship last season. If Mooy continues this form for the rest of the season, then it will be hard for Huddersfield to keep hold of him beyond next summer.

Huddersfield, who are 2.50 to get relegated to the Championship at the end of the season, according to latest football betting odds on bet365, paid an initial transfer fee of £8 million in order to make Mooy’s loan deal from Manchester City permanent in the summer transfer window. It does now look like a bargain signing, and one should not be surprised if a bigger club in England come knocking on the Yorkshire outfit’s doors at the end of the season.

Mooy has adapted to the Premier League perfectly, and given his experience with the Australia national football team, he would make a good addition to a club aiming to finish in the top six or the top four. Of course, at the moment most of the big clubs in England are stocked with good midfielders, but things could change next summer. West Ham United could do with a player of Mooy’s quality especially if Mark Noble fails to regain his form. Stoke City, too, would be a better team with the Australian at manager Mark Hughes’s disposal.

Mooy, though, should focus only on Huddersfield for the time being. The Yorkshire club need to make sure that they get to the 40-point mark as soon as possible in order to retain their Premier League status for the 2018-19 campaign.

The Australian will be a key player in their quest and will be especially important in big games. Despite making a strong start, Wagner’s side cannot be complacent, as things could change in a matter of weeks. The key to Huddersfield escaping the drop and finishing above the bottom three in the Premier League this season is to be consistent and pick up as many points as possible at home.

Australia’s World Cup hopes are in dire straits following their disappointing performance in the World Cup qualifier against Japan last week.

The Socceroos were convincingly beaten by a 2-0 scoreline by their Far East opponents, and they must register a convincing win over Thailand in their final group game in order to qualify automatically for the World Cup.

Australia’s World Cup hopes are in dire straits following their disappointing performance in the World Cup qualifier against Japan last week.

Australia must score big against Thailand to qualify for the World Cup

Australia are currently behind Saudi Arabia on a goal difference of two with the same number of points (16) and they will have to beat Thailand by a comfortable margin – while hoping that the Middle East nation either drop points or win by a close scoreline against Japan.

One advantage for the Socceroos would be that they would be playing their game prior to the Saudi-Japan encounter, and a huge win could put immense on Saudi who suffered a somewhat surprising loss to the United Arab Emirates in their last qualifier.

Former Socceroo goalkeeper Mark Bosnich was pretty disappointed with the lack of effort in the 2-0 defeat in Saitama on Thursday, and he launched a scathing attack on the performance, he said: “We were well beaten … we are far too predictable. Once again, we put (Tom) Juric and (Tim) Cahill on and still had to wait four or five minutes to get an actual decent cross into the box. The penetration was poor.”

Australian head coach Ange Postecoglou also admitted that he was distraught by the defeat and took full responsibility for his side’s lack of competitiveness against the Japanese. Aaron Mooy missed the previous game against Japan through illness, and his availability will be a huge boost to the Socceroos following his impressive form in the Premier League with Huddersfield Town, who remained unbeaten.

Despite having qualified for each of the last three World Cups, Australia have reached the knockout phase just once in Germany 2006 which they were unfortunate to lose out to Italy in the round of 16. The Socceroos are in a good position to qualify for the competition via the playoff round as well, but Postecoglou would want to avoid such an instance.