The time for talking ended yesterday. A very healthy Aussie contingent fantastically watered by their ever accommodating Thai hosts at various pre game watering holes arrived expecting a strong showing from the boys in green & gold and three points to open their Asian Cup campaign. Instead they left the pitch lucky to get a point and a very clear message went out to players and supporters alike - this is not going to be an easy ride on or off the pitch with the supporters facing a torrential downpour 10 minutes from time.
It’s difficult to really say why they didn’t perform as we all know they can. The conditions were as favourable as they can expect. Watching from “Aussie Corner” it really looked like the Socceroos felt they just had to turn up and go through the motions to pick up the points but as the Aussies should know better than anyone after their exploits in Germany when the whistle blows reputations and bookies odds count for nothing. It comes down to the individual and collective performance in the 90 minutes and yesterday they were, for large period found wanting. You can’t even claim that Oman put 10 men behind the ball, to protect their lead…they didn’t. They went on to create three or four better chances than the Socceroos created in the whole game and bar an inspired performance from Mark Schwarzer, Oman could have run out comfortable winners by two or three goals.
There was frustration all over. The players showed their frustration at the injury feigning of their opponents (not that this should have come as a surprise though) and the supporters were quick to show their frustration at the quality of their teams showing. There are many amongst the traveling army who have big question marks over Graham Arnold and a chorus of boos rang out as the half time whistle blew - little premature and counter-productive in my view - but football's about results on the pitch and Arnold’s team showed little sign of being capable of getting one last night.
Too often the second ball in the midfield was not just won by an Oman player but picked up by that player with 10 yards of space… no better was this seen that for the Oman goal where the scorer had time to pick is spot unchallenged around the penalty spot. Too many Socceroos players looked off their game with precious little running of the ball to create space. Too often the receiver was closely marked, isolated and dispossessed. Australia kept the ball in patches but always in areas where they weren’t going to cause any damage and they didn’t manage any real period of sustained pressure with the Oman team always seeming to find an outlet wide which is always the danger with a three man back line. The lack of defensive depth means it’s difficult to construct a back four as the squad has no recognised full backs bar Lucas Neill who’s too critical at the heart of the defence to shunt out wide. In contrast the Aussies struggled to find any width particularly on the right where Brett Emerton fought his natural instinct to plough forward and overlap for fear (rightly) of leaving his side exposed to the counter attack. Too often it was Bresciano out wide and he’s not a winger by any stretch and his first movement was always to cut back inside.
Up front Viduka battled gamely for possession but was surrounded by two or three players and Harry Kewell struggled to get into the game and showed a number of uncharacteristic basic errors. As the game dragged talk on the terraces naturally turned back that day in Kaiserslautern just over a year ago and the sight of Cahill entering the game only heightened this… The end result was not to be quite as emphatic as that day but the Socceroos should be thankful for Cahill’s knack of being in the right place at the right time which again got them out of jail and in the end this was a point won if not deserved by the Socceroos.
All the traveling fans got absolutely soaked in the downpour towards the end of the game and the hour trip back on the coaches saw groups of fans perform their own post mortems and I heard more than one enquiry as to the Visa situation in Vietnam which is where Australia could now be heading for a quarter final. But after yesterday they should be taking one step at a time and taking nothing for granted…they have two games to play first and much work to do.
As much of the traveling support today heads out to the nearby beach resorts for some R&R taking advantage of the five day gap before the Iraq game; they will hoping they return to find a similarly rejuvenated performance from their Socceroos on Friday.
BTW - My concerns yesterday at the ticketing situation proved unfounded... the set-up was quick and efficient with one envelope per person with all the tickets there for them to collect... a quick look at some photo ID and the credit card used to book them and we were away with all our tickets for all the games we'd booked.
It’s difficult to really say why they didn’t perform as we all know they can. The conditions were as favourable as they can expect. Watching from “Aussie Corner” it really looked like the Socceroos felt they just had to turn up and go through the motions to pick up the points but as the Aussies should know better than anyone after their exploits in Germany when the whistle blows reputations and bookies odds count for nothing. It comes down to the individual and collective performance in the 90 minutes and yesterday they were, for large period found wanting. You can’t even claim that Oman put 10 men behind the ball, to protect their lead…they didn’t. They went on to create three or four better chances than the Socceroos created in the whole game and bar an inspired performance from Mark Schwarzer, Oman could have run out comfortable winners by two or three goals.
There was frustration all over. The players showed their frustration at the injury feigning of their opponents (not that this should have come as a surprise though) and the supporters were quick to show their frustration at the quality of their teams showing. There are many amongst the traveling army who have big question marks over Graham Arnold and a chorus of boos rang out as the half time whistle blew - little premature and counter-productive in my view - but football's about results on the pitch and Arnold’s team showed little sign of being capable of getting one last night.
Too often the second ball in the midfield was not just won by an Oman player but picked up by that player with 10 yards of space… no better was this seen that for the Oman goal where the scorer had time to pick is spot unchallenged around the penalty spot. Too many Socceroos players looked off their game with precious little running of the ball to create space. Too often the receiver was closely marked, isolated and dispossessed. Australia kept the ball in patches but always in areas where they weren’t going to cause any damage and they didn’t manage any real period of sustained pressure with the Oman team always seeming to find an outlet wide which is always the danger with a three man back line. The lack of defensive depth means it’s difficult to construct a back four as the squad has no recognised full backs bar Lucas Neill who’s too critical at the heart of the defence to shunt out wide. In contrast the Aussies struggled to find any width particularly on the right where Brett Emerton fought his natural instinct to plough forward and overlap for fear (rightly) of leaving his side exposed to the counter attack. Too often it was Bresciano out wide and he’s not a winger by any stretch and his first movement was always to cut back inside.
Up front Viduka battled gamely for possession but was surrounded by two or three players and Harry Kewell struggled to get into the game and showed a number of uncharacteristic basic errors. As the game dragged talk on the terraces naturally turned back that day in Kaiserslautern just over a year ago and the sight of Cahill entering the game only heightened this… The end result was not to be quite as emphatic as that day but the Socceroos should be thankful for Cahill’s knack of being in the right place at the right time which again got them out of jail and in the end this was a point won if not deserved by the Socceroos.
All the traveling fans got absolutely soaked in the downpour towards the end of the game and the hour trip back on the coaches saw groups of fans perform their own post mortems and I heard more than one enquiry as to the Visa situation in Vietnam which is where Australia could now be heading for a quarter final. But after yesterday they should be taking one step at a time and taking nothing for granted…they have two games to play first and much work to do.
As much of the traveling support today heads out to the nearby beach resorts for some R&R taking advantage of the five day gap before the Iraq game; they will hoping they return to find a similarly rejuvenated performance from their Socceroos on Friday.
BTW - My concerns yesterday at the ticketing situation proved unfounded... the set-up was quick and efficient with one envelope per person with all the tickets there for them to collect... a quick look at some photo ID and the credit card used to book them and we were away with all our tickets for all the games we'd booked.
