SOCCERO Robbie Kruse won rave reviews for his man of the match performance against Jordan from everyone - except Australia coach Holger Osieck.
“Normally I don’t single out anybody but our central defence was so solid. There was Lucas as captain and Sasa (Ognenovski) he complemented him pretty well.
“And in midfield both Bresh and Millsy they did a great job – they again complemented themselves almost perfectly. We had good pace along the flanks.
“Brett Holman, despite the lack of game practice he showed what he could do for the team. And I don’t have to talk about Timmy (Cahill) he’s always there and he’s always dangerous and he’s always in a position to score.”
Osieck added: “You can never dream of a score like 4-0 but I think overall the performance was excellent, there were some outstanding individual contributions to the game and I think we presented ourselves pretty well as a unit."
But he said the impact of fielding an unchanged first XI couldn't be underestimated.
“One aspect shouldn’t be forgotten, today and the last game for the first time for a long long period we played in the identical line up," he said.
“Looking back I always had to change the formation be it to injury, be it through suspension and I always had to put in players who are not really used to playing on the international level, who made the first appearance in a qualifying campaign.
“And I mean we all have to consider that, it shouldn’t be an excuse but all the coaches know, that consistency is a major element for let’s say stable team performance.”
Osieck said there was no room for complacency despite the comfortable victory, with a misstep against Iraq is Sydney still capable of seeing the Socceroos cede the vital second spot to Oman.
"It’s not all glory today – I just had some very serious words with the group,” Osieck said. “There’s no chance now to celebrate or whatever. We take it, it’s in the books and now we have to focus for the next game.
“The preparation for that starts here already the players are in the ice bath and the recovery starts. We have another training tomorrow morning before we get back to Sydney so recovery for the starting eleven and some intensity for the boys who were on the bench.
“I always have a great deal of respect to any opponent we play and if we have our noses up we definitely don’t see what’s on the ground. I don’t allow anyone to lose the ground under their feet.”
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