Let's be serious - there can be no excuse for the Socceroos not beating UAE in their AFC Cup semi-final on Tuesday night.
UAE shouldn't even be there. Japan should be, but the defending champion blew it in its quarter-final against UAE and the opposition took advantage.
After the group stage of the tournament was completed, ACRO tipped Japan to go on and win it from there. It wasn't rocket science - the Japanese looked the best team.
But, at the same time, ACRO pointed out Japan had an issue with its accuracy when shooting, saying: "That is the main thing that stands in the way of the Japanese team taking the title - it is not the greatest finisher."
Japan got even worse in front of goal against UAE. Even as flat as Japan strangely looked in general play for much of the match, it still should have won it in normal time.
UAE took the lead in the seventh minute and Japan didn't equalise until the 81st. Japan could have still easily won the game late in normal time, but wasted a couple of the best chances it had all night.
The 30 minutes of extra-time went scoreless and UAE advanced by winning a penalty shootout. It said it all about Japan that it was finally eliminated as a result of not being good enough in that most basic of one-on-one situations.
Statistics taken from the official AFC Asian Cup website show Japan had 35 shots at goal in the match, eight of which were on target and 12 were blocked. UAE had three shots - two on target and one blocked. Yet the two teams came up with the same number of goals.
Japan had a shot accuracy percentage (excluding blocked shots) of 34.8 per cent, as opposed to UAE's 100 per cent.
That's football. It's all about taking chances and if you don't take your chances you've got no-one to blame but yourself for the result.
The Socceroos are the hot favourites now - not just to win this match, but the tournament.
They are a better team than UAE. They will create more chances and take more shots at goal than the opposition. It's whether they can capitalise on opportunities and take control of the game that is the question.
If they don't, they risk going the same way as Japan.
Goalkeeper story #1
When Iraq goalkeeper Jalal Hassan Hachim , he reminds ACRO of the late, great.
To celebrate the great exploits of Hachim in this tournament so far, ACRO brings you The Ramones in full flight with Rock 'n' Roll High School, going all the way back to 1979.
Goalkeeper story #2
Iran goalkeeper Alireza Haghigh set a record for this tournament that is going to be pretty hard to beat from here when he went down under a challenge from Iraq's Marwan Hussein in an epic quarter-final.
Haghigh clutched his face with both hands as he hit the ground after the pair collided when Hussein stuck a boot out at the ball at the same time as Haghigh went for it.
And after hitting the ground Haghigh embarked on what ACRO counted as no less than six body rolls - all the while holding his face as if it would otherwise fall off.
It was a splendid performance, especially when you consider the subsequent replays showed Haghigh had been hit on the hand or arm and nowhere near the face.
Telling it as you see it
Trent Sainsbury has always been a confident type who is prepared to say something in interviews, going right back to his rookie days at Central Coast Mariners, so it didn't surprise ACRO that in the lead-up to the semi-finals he called out UAE star Omar Abdulrahman for being lazy.
"Very tidy on the ball, not the hardest worker and I think we can exploit that," Sainsbury said of Abdulrahman.
Abdulrahman likes to receive the ball with his back to goal and Sainsbury made it clear the Socceroos would be up in his back and trying to put him under instant pressure.
It's going to be interesting to see who wins that battle.
The Twittersphere
Not everyone was sticking it to controversial referee Ben Williams for his decision to give Iran's Mehrdad Pooladi a yellow card for simulation against Iraq, which resulted in a second-off since it was the player's second yellow.
Former Newcastle Jets and Adelaide United and now Sarawak FC (Malaysia) forward Ryan Griffiths went the other way, congratulating Williams for clamping down on divers.
