The Socceroos simply must defeat Peru to stay in contention and hope France triumphs against the Danes...and that's just the start of the potential permutations. As we head towards crunch time what are the major takeaways so far?

Group C has taught us a lot about the state of world football. With these lessons learned Australian football could come out of the Cup on a better path.

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Asensio's Screamer Vs FC Barcelona
In one of Real Madrid's most outstanding performances at the Camp Nou, Los Blancos beat FC Barcelona 3-1 in the Spanish Supercup. Real were leading 2-1 after Cristiano Ronaldo's 80th minute goal, but just before the final whistle, we sealed the win with this beautiful Marco Asensio strike.
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1. Australian football fandom is a bit toxic

Now a lot of nations have problems with their football fans - there have been riots, racist chants murders and even a war (although that had several complex political causes as well). Australia now joins this list. Albeit way, way down there, somewhere between booing a national anthem and the Japanese showing their displeasure by not cleaning a stadium. You see our problem is with keyboard warriors. Online attacks on Lucy Zelic for pronunciation and Robbie Kruse’s family for the player’s performances leave a sour taste after two good showings by the Socceroos.

Robbie Kruse was the victim of online attacks

It’s never OK to attack a player’s family. Never. And it’s a little off to criticise Lucy Zelic for something Les Murray did for decades.

There’s more to it than that too. It seems like there are a lot of negative Australian voices out there. So called fans who take every opportunity to cut their team down, ‘oh the A League is rubbish, that’s why Arzani looked good, he won’t do it against decent defenders’ - he did. ‘Australia doesn’t have any decent players at the moment, they all either play for bad teams or even worse, the A League.’ You can’t judge a player entirely on who they play for.  ‘We barely qualified against easy Asian teams, we’ll get pumped’ - we’ve more than held our own against two good European countries.

It seems like there are a lot of loud and ignorant Australian football fans. Fans that don’t understand the complexities Australian players overseas have faced. Things like how the lure of Middle Eastern or Chinese money hindered promising European careers. Or that Asian opponents effectively parked the bus against the Socceroos. Even calls for the inclusion of Tim Cahill show a lack of understanding of where the veteran’s game is at right now. Cahill’s form for Millwall was quite disappointing. He didn’t play many minutes and when he did play he only threatened to get himself carded.

The internet has given the ignorant and the nasty a loud voice and the world is suffering, Australian football is no exception.

2. VAR isn’t ready to be at the World Cup

Group C has really highlighted something that many in the football world have been thinking. The VAR, as it is used now, is not up to scratch. The French penalty against Australia is still being debated by many commentators around the world. As is the Australian penalty against Denmark. There have been some other dubious VAR calls and non-calls at this world cup but these two in Group C highlight these issues.

Risdon gets the wrong end of VAR for this tackle

In the first instance Josh Risdon’s tackle is fair if he touched the ball. In some camera angles, he’s touched the ball, but not in the angles VAR used. This is ridiculous.

The Denmark handball happened awfully quick without much chance for Yussuf Poulsen to get his hand out of the way. According to the laws of the game, handball occurs when the player ‘deliberately’ uses his hand or arm. Now this one is a little murkier because the next thing that has to be considered is that the law states it involves a deliberate act of a player making contact. Now that deliberate act may not necessarily be deliberately touching the ball. It might be deliberately putting ones hands where the ball is likely to go. Its sort of a ‘your right to swing your fists ends where my face begins.’ Interpretation of this law must take into account players attempting to circumvent the rules and that it’s impossible to prove or disprove a player’s intent.

3. Market value doesn’t always determine results

If the price players were worth and the wages players are paid determined results then France would have absolutely thumped both their Group C opponents and Denmark would have accounted for lowly Australia. With the French squad worth over a billion Euros the players should be like men coming up against children.

Peru gather in a huddle before taking on France

But football economics is a dumb business. National teams that make it to a World Cup are not amateurs going up against professionals (Iceland excepted). There are only small margins that separate one professional footballer from another. These margins can seem monumental at times but on most occasions they are not. Big clubs with billion dollar budgets mostly win by one or two gaols, with only an occasional blow outs.

In Group C, Peru’s 30 or so million Euros of value should have been flattened by the weight of the French largesse. Instead it was a tight result.  

4. It’s still special just to be at the Cup

Peru and to some extent Australia really prove this. Reaching the World Cup Finals, as they are now, is in and of itself, an exceptional feat. Peruvian fans have waited 36 years just to get back to the big time. Fans have sold their houses just for the chance to see their team take on the best.

Before a ball is kicked, fans of even the lowliest minnow, harbour dreams of somehow, somehow lifting that cup. Their brain tells them it’s impossible but their heart holds hope.

Heartbreak: A young fans cries after Peru are knocked out of the World Cup

Fans from these two minnows have been fabulous in Russia. Australian fans have have managed to drink all the beer in the local pubs. Peruvian fans have brought so much passion just for being a part of the tournament.

The last time this many Danes were in Russia, they were Viking raiders. And for the French, the last time this many of them were in Russia they were marching behind a Corsican.

5. Australia needs to produce more strikers 

We knew this a bit going into the tournament but these two games have really confirmed it. At the moment we have great midfielders. Aaron Mooy and Mile Jedinak have been world class. Tom Rogic has been tough to handle as a classic number 10 and he had the world's best number 6 sweating for 70 minutes.

Nabbout sidelined with a dislocated shoulder

But up front we don't have a 9 to match the quality of our other 10 players. Andrew Nabbout has worked hard and put his body on the line for the shirt. Full credit to the lad he's in for a bright career. However, in this formation he doesn't have all the attributes the number 9 needs. His positioning in the box needs a lot of work and he isn't as effective with his back to goal as he is when he can turn and face it. Tomi Juric hasn't had much time but he's been off the pace a bit in his cameos. Cahill hasn't played enough football lately and we can't rely on him much longer. And finally, Jamie Maclaren is a goal sneak more suited to the older fashioned second striker role.

Let's face it, since we've gone to a lone striker in a 433 we haven't produced a player to play the role.