The Best & Worst of Australian Football...we mean Sydney vs Ulsan

Paulo Retre's shooting...in fact, all their shooting

He's been good this season but he should have scored that chance in the first half. He didn't look like he ever fancied himself which is insane for a Graham Arnold graduate, I thought they were all trained to believe they were Lionel Messi.

In the second he cut inside beautifully within the opening few minutes just to offer this lackadaisical cross-cum-shot-cum-whatever. He wasn't the worst on the park, even Josh Brillante was arguably a little more sporadic. 

But Sydney needed him to be better and he wasn't, which is a shame for both of them. As mentioned, Caceres was equally to blame, but Danny De Silva can't hold his head high after a lapse effort in the second half either.

A-League club's dismal Asian record worsens

The Sky Blues are now eliminated along with Melbourne Victory and Australia stands a very real chance of exiting the Champions League without a win.

The loss leaves Sydney with just one win in their past 15 Champions League encounters but the statistics are dire across the board. Due to A-League club's porous performances in the competition, Australia now sits behind Thailand in the AFC ranking coefficient.

There are no Australian clubs in the top 20 ranked sides in Asia. To make matters worse for the Aussies, AFC plan to eventually remove FIFA ranking points as a factor for their club rankings, which could see Australia drop dramatically.

Ranking			Member Association	Total Points	FIFA Points		Club Points		2018	2017	2016	2015
2018	2017	Mvmt			Points	(10%)	Points	(90%)
1	6	+5	Qatar	98.494	1258	8.494	74.250	90.000	19.850	13.400	22.000	19.000
2	3	+1	China	95.277	1317	8.893	71.267	86.384	16.200	24.567	14.750	15.750
3	2	-1	South Korea	89.245	1405	9.487	65.800	79.758	18.350	9.950	20.750	16.750
4	1	-3	United Arab Emirates	84.536	1309	8.839	62.450	75.697	8.100	11.350	18.000	25.000
5	5	—	Japan	84.033	1414	9.548	61.450	74.485	13.850	21.850	10.500	15.250
6	7	+1	Iran	81.879	1481	10.000	59.300	71.879	18.850	16.200	13.000	11.250
7	4	-3	Saudi Arabia	73.681	1335	9.014	53.350	64.667	10.000	18.600	9.500	15.250
8	10	+2	Thailand	59.045	1160	7.833	42.250	51.212	16.200	15.050	1.000	10.000
9	8	-1	Australia	51.757	1436	9.696	34.700	42.061	7.300	5.900	14.000	7.500
10	11	+1	Iraq	45.632	1271	8.582	30.566	37.050	8.633	8.933	9.833	3.167

(Source: Wikipedia)

This could mean that the A-League loses its two automatic Champions League qualification places, even with an extra team set to enter the competition at the beginning of next season.

To recap Australia's recent performances in Asia:

- Socceroos slump out of Asian Cup at the quarter-finals
- Both A-League powerhouses exit the ACL at the group stage and could leave winless
- Australia now ranked behind Thailand (9th) in AFC club coefficient
- A-League clubs have seven wins in their last 38 ACL matches
- Sydney just one win in their last 15 matches