A game of two halves.

Saying Thailand controlled the first half isn’t doing their performance justice.

The host nation dominated proceedings across the first 45, threatening to overrun the Australians as they seemingly won every 50/50 contest, chased down every loose ball and launched attack after attack after attack.

The ‘super’ triumvirate of Mueanta, Jaided and Supachok Sarachat, aided by some smart play from left-back Aksornsri, swarmed the Australian back four in both attack and defence – applying the type of fierce forward pressure that, had it not been happening to his team, would have brought a smile to the face of Arnold.

Yet, lucky to not be down by a goal or three at the half, the Australian gaffer’s introduction of the steady hand of Genreau, perhaps combined with breaking out the hairdryer during the halftime talk, augured a change in fortunes for the side in green and gold.

While not immediately swinging the pendulum totally back around until roughly the hour mark, the Olyroos performance clearly improved as they lifted their intensity to match and eventually better the pace and power of their opponents.

The substitutions of Suphanat Mueanta and Jaided also aided in the turnaround, as the junior War Elephants lost two of their most potent attacking weapons to the bench.

Running out of both ideas and juice, the hosts – playing in front of 20,000+ home fans – failed to match the Australians in the game’s dying stages – lucky that Australia was rather blunt when presented with chances to add to their lead.

Nonetheless, a strong finish that owed just as much to Thailand's follies as their own play shouldn’t paper over the cracks of what was a concerning first half for the Australians.

Outhustled and outplayed by their opponents, the Olyroos found themselves struggling to get anything going when they were unable to bring their physical capabilities to bear and, predominantly, were only able to get back into the game when the Thais began to fade away.  

Given their second-half fadeout, perhaps the Thais simply poured everything into the first half in the hopes of taking a lead into the second that they could sit back and defend.

Perhaps the Australian XI - featuring six new faces after the Iraq game - needed time to gel. Maybe it was a lack of time spent under Arnold that led to misunderstandings about player roles that were subsequently fixed at halftime. 

Whatever the causes were, ahead of what should nominally be the most straightforward of their three group games against Bahrain, Australian fans will be hoping that their side will be able to be more convincing in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.

PLUS...

Olyroos vs Thailand: Player Ratings

The Olyroos shocked tournament hosts Thailand with a come-from-behind 2-1 win in Bangkok. There are still things to work on, but that result puts Australia in a more comfortable position to make the quarter-finals.