In a evening of homecoming celebration, topped off with a seventh straight clean sheet and victory over Bahrain, last night was also the nadir of frustration for one of Australia’s most talented players but least successful Socceroos.
Much has been said of Australia’s lack of goals. Plus, aside from Josh Kennedy, our shortage of decent strikers and more specifically six-yard box poachers. In an ideal world we’d have some 25-year old striker who averages 20 domestic goals a season in a European league. The aggravation is we do.
Scott McDonald has spent the last five years hitting the back of the net in the Scottish Premier League with the sort of regularity you expect from Swiss public transport.
Forty-two goals at Motherwell has been followed up by a further 41 goals at Scottish giants Celtic. He scored 25 goals in 36 league appearances in his first season at Celtic as his team won the title. He top scored for the Hoops last season with another 19 goals.
Before you disparage McDonald’s quality through virtue of the SPL’s standard, admittedly one of Europe’s more underwhelming leagues, it is worth noting Macca also has Champions League experience under his belt.
To perfectly illustrate the point of McDonald’s class was the visit of a certain Manchester United in November last year. Celtic took the lead through a composed, delicate lob from Macca that was befitting of any stage.
However what shines in Celtic’s green and white has failed to glitter in Australia’s green and gold. Twelve international caps has yielded no goals for a player who averages nearly a goal every two games domestically.
Frustration is building and McDonald’s international duck has become the elephant in the dressing room.
“Obviously I'd like to get a crack at them (Qatar) and this elusive goal that keeps haunting me now apparently. This is the last time I'm going to talk about it,” said a visibly vexed McDonald at the Socceroos training camp in Dubai last week.
For the large part McDonald has been misused by Pim Verbeek. Deployed as a lone striker against Uzbekistan in April, Macca looked stranded and off the pace.
But last night was supposed to be different. In the absence Kennedy, McDonald was given the perfect window of opportunity. With qualification secured the pressure was off and Australia were even nearly playing a 4-4-2 system (the actual formation, not one devised by this title).
His strike partner/player in the hole behind was Brett Holman, not a natural goal scorer and a player more than content to drop back and create chances for McDonald. Once again McDonald drew a blank.
There were three defining Macca moments of note from the game:
26 mins – A clever and incisive ball by Holman found McDonald in space on the edge of the box. His goal cherry seemed ripe for plucking, but he snached at his chance and fired over the bar. Macca had more time and could have taken a touch. Poles apart from the composed finish against Manchester United.
74 mins – With Australia leading 1-0, McDonald has the ball on the break. Instead of laying off to Kewell for an almost certain second, McDonald tries to go alone and is dispossessed. His frustration is only matched by that of Kewell’s. However, it’s difficult to blame Macca too much. He was a goal scorer trying to break his duck in a dead rubber that his team was already winning.
88 mins – David Carney adds a second after Jason Culina’s acrobatic overhead kick rebounds off the post. Carney wheels off to celebrate his second international goal. He is finally greeted by McDonald who attempts to be pleased for his teammate with a half-hearted hand slap with his head slumped towards the ground.
The first incident can be put down to a player struggling to settle into international football, the second is more worrying as while Macca is still trying to prove himself, he might be concentrating less on team results and more on personal justification.
The third incident is the most alarming. It was like McDonald was acknowledging a consolidation goal. It bordered on pure petulance. Strikers, even in the face of the worse goal droughts, need to remain confident in their own abilities and work for team success. They always need to exude some arrogance in their talent, but never such petulance.
“I think he's putting a little bit too much pressure on himself,” said Kewell after the game. “He's got to relax.”
In the year before the main event in South Africa, McDonald simply has to get into his Celtic habit of scoring for the Socceroos. With his point proven, he can stop being an individual trying to prove his worth and concentrate on being an asset to the team and country.
Much has been said of Australia’s lack of goals. Plus, aside from Josh Kennedy, our shortage of decent strikers and more specifically six-yard box poachers. In an ideal world we’d have some 25-year old striker who averages 20 domestic goals a season in a European league. The aggravation is we do.
Scott McDonald has spent the last five years hitting the back of the net in the Scottish Premier League with the sort of regularity you expect from Swiss public transport.
Forty-two goals at Motherwell has been followed up by a further 41 goals at Scottish giants Celtic. He scored 25 goals in 36 league appearances in his first season at Celtic as his team won the title. He top scored for the Hoops last season with another 19 goals.
Before you disparage McDonald’s quality through virtue of the SPL’s standard, admittedly one of Europe’s more underwhelming leagues, it is worth noting Macca also has Champions League experience under his belt.
To perfectly illustrate the point of McDonald’s class was the visit of a certain Manchester United in November last year. Celtic took the lead through a composed, delicate lob from Macca that was befitting of any stage.
However what shines in Celtic’s green and white has failed to glitter in Australia’s green and gold. Twelve international caps has yielded no goals for a player who averages nearly a goal every two games domestically.
Frustration is building and McDonald’s international duck has become the elephant in the dressing room.
“Obviously I'd like to get a crack at them (Qatar) and this elusive goal that keeps haunting me now apparently. This is the last time I'm going to talk about it,” said a visibly vexed McDonald at the Socceroos training camp in Dubai last week.
For the large part McDonald has been misused by Pim Verbeek. Deployed as a lone striker against Uzbekistan in April, Macca looked stranded and off the pace.
But last night was supposed to be different. In the absence Kennedy, McDonald was given the perfect window of opportunity. With qualification secured the pressure was off and Australia were even nearly playing a 4-4-2 system (the actual formation, not one devised by this title).
His strike partner/player in the hole behind was Brett Holman, not a natural goal scorer and a player more than content to drop back and create chances for McDonald. Once again McDonald drew a blank.
There were three defining Macca moments of note from the game:
26 mins – A clever and incisive ball by Holman found McDonald in space on the edge of the box. His goal cherry seemed ripe for plucking, but he snached at his chance and fired over the bar. Macca had more time and could have taken a touch. Poles apart from the composed finish against Manchester United.
74 mins – With Australia leading 1-0, McDonald has the ball on the break. Instead of laying off to Kewell for an almost certain second, McDonald tries to go alone and is dispossessed. His frustration is only matched by that of Kewell’s. However, it’s difficult to blame Macca too much. He was a goal scorer trying to break his duck in a dead rubber that his team was already winning.
88 mins – David Carney adds a second after Jason Culina’s acrobatic overhead kick rebounds off the post. Carney wheels off to celebrate his second international goal. He is finally greeted by McDonald who attempts to be pleased for his teammate with a half-hearted hand slap with his head slumped towards the ground.
The first incident can be put down to a player struggling to settle into international football, the second is more worrying as while Macca is still trying to prove himself, he might be concentrating less on team results and more on personal justification.
The third incident is the most alarming. It was like McDonald was acknowledging a consolidation goal. It bordered on pure petulance. Strikers, even in the face of the worse goal droughts, need to remain confident in their own abilities and work for team success. They always need to exude some arrogance in their talent, but never such petulance.
“I think he's putting a little bit too much pressure on himself,” said Kewell after the game. “He's got to relax.”
In the year before the main event in South Africa, McDonald simply has to get into his Celtic habit of scoring for the Socceroos. With his point proven, he can stop being an individual trying to prove his worth and concentrate on being an asset to the team and country.
