Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Socceroos qualify for 2011 Asian Championship


Australia qualified for next year’s Asian Championship in Qatar by beating Indonesia 1-0 in Brisbane tonight before a crowd of 20,422.


It was a dismal performance by the home side, who had the lion’s share of possession but were too indirect in their play.


The beanpole Josh Kennedy was the target man up front, but the service he received was abysmal.


When he did get to the ball, his headers were weak.


Jason Culina had a lot of possession in midfield and had more shots on goal than anyone, but they were invariably directed straight at Indonesia’s goalkeeper, Markus.


Australia managed five shots at goal in the first six minutes, but after that opening flurry, the dust settled and they preferred to retain possession without any real purpose.


Indonesia, which is ranked 136th in the world, looked technically adept and they did create two or three fine attacking moves, but these were snuffed out by Australia’s superior physical presence.


Tommy Oar, wearing the amazing shirt number of 121 (does this mean we can field about ten completely different teams?) made his debut for the Socceroos.


The goal came in the 42nd minute and it was very fortunate and sloppy.


Luke Wilkshire took a free-kick from the left and Mark Milligan used his shoulder to turn the ball against the crossbar.


The ball rebounded wide of the left-hand post and Milligan was the first to reach it. He turned and slotted it through the keeper’s legs for the only goal of the game.


Markus can take a large share of the blame for the goal.


Commentators and players talked up the win, saying that the result was more important than the performance and that qualification was all important.


Well, if that is the case, the Socceroos may as well play behind closed doors because the entertainment factor is non-existent.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

It was a second string team Walter. I reckon the team will do surprisingly well at the WC. Maybe they will be end of some sound thrashings given that Serbia just thrashed Algeria 3-0. Who knows

Brian Young said...

An honest assessment of a very mediocre performance against a very poor Indonesian side.
Australia will have to really buck up for the World Cup; the personnel were different in this match, but the style was the same. The onorous plodding attacks were just asking for the drawbridge to be drawn up by the Indonesian defenders in front of goal, which it duly was.

Where is the next generation of Socceroos to match those of the mid-2000s? Unfortunately, those ageing, declining players are still the backbone of the team.

Anonymous said...

Oar had a good debut but everyone needs to be honest the Indonesian team that was fielded was a joke. Everyone is acting like Oar scored 5 goals and setup 5.

If Kewell is inj for the cup we are in a bit of trouble for scoring goals, Himself and Cahill are our only hopes at this stage.

I can only see Pim taking 2 aleague players in Culina and maybe a 3rd choice keeper.

Anonymous said...

apparently the shirt numbers cannot be changed during the tournament - AFC rules. So if Australia uses 121 players during the tournament someone has to wear 121. Have we used that many players??

I thought we were Ok. Shows how far we have come when #121 plays and we're still upset with a win. We could have played Cahill, Kewell, Neill, Emerton, Grella, Bresciano, Garcia, Schwartzer, Moore, MacDonald, Williams, Jedinak, Holman, Chipperfield, Carle, Carney ...

Walter said...

Anonymous (10.11pm), I realise the AFC rules insist on every player having a distinct number, but what this shows is that we have a squad of over 120 players! Which coach or country would list so many players in a squad? Not even Brazil, and they have more worthy players than we have. Surely one would have a foreign-based squad and a home-based squad, which would mean 50 at the most. But over 120? That shows a sad lack of judgement of players' abilities.

Anonymous said...

or maybe something to do with the dispersement of our players - over a hundred playing on the other side of the world. I must agree tho Walter it's a bad look ...

smithers ol man said...

Walter maybe were trying to scare the opposition into thinking its an aussie invasion and all our country is on its way haha

Anonymous said...

Was the Indonesian side so poor?

They were appeared fatigued and diffident.

Indonesia had very close games against Kuwait and Oman. Both these teams gave Australia a lot of trouble. It was a very even group.

Australia recorded the highest number of passes for year as and years.

They recorded 544 passes.
Indonesia recorded 190 passes.

Australia won 37 more one one duels against than Indonesia did.

The amazing statistic was that Oar dribbled around Indonesian defenders on 13 occasions. This is higher than any team aggregate of Australia for some time. The highest in other matches in the last 16 months has been 3 by an individual Australian player, Archie Thompson and Vidosic.
Oar may have misdirected some of his 10 crosses, the same number as Wilkshire, but importantly he beat defenders. This created an extra player in attack, creating a numerical advantage for Australia.

The Verbeek objective of starving the opposition of the ball worked. Walter questions the entertainment factor. Australia had 25 shots on goal compared to Indonesia's 3. That is percentage football.

I would argue, Walter, if three or four more shots had been converted, it would have been considered an entertaining game. Profligacy in front of goal from many chances was the achilles heel for the Socceroos. In the past they've been more clinical.

Quantitatively, there were many crosses provided for Kennedy. Qualitatively, they weren't as accurate as they could be. The point is that many crosses were put in to dangerous areas in areas Kuwait would have found uncomfortable.

Kennedy missed some powerful headers at goal, because of misdirection. If Jesus had been able to attack the ball with more forward impetus, he could have been more effective for more of those goal attempts. Often he was jumping vertically from a stationery position.

Kennedy still had 6 shots on goal, which is a lot for any striker. His first touch in the stationery position is excellent. This can be observed in Socceroo training sessions.

I thought there wee positives to come from the game. The A Leaguers prevailed. The pressure has been expunged from Australian domestic footballers playing for the national team. Moreover, the teamwork was pretty impressive particularly as the match progressed.

Indonesia defending with a compact shape with most players in their defensive half, assisted Australia's cause.

Anonymous said...

Was the Indonesian side so poor?

They were appeared fatigued and diffident.

Indonesia had very close games against Kuwait and Oman. Both these teams gave Australia a lot of trouble. It was a very even group.

Australia recorded the highest number of passes for year as and years.

They recorded 544 passes.
Indonesia recorded 190 passes.

Australia won 37 more one one duels against than Indonesia did.

The amazing statistic was that Oar dribbled around Indonesian defenders on 13 occasions. This is higher than any team aggregate of Australia for some time. The highest in other matches in the last 16 months has been 3 by an individual Australian player, Archie Thompson and Vidosic.
Oar may have misdirected some of his 10 crosses, the same number as Wilkshire, but importantly he beat defenders. This created an extra player in attack, creating a numerical advantage for Australia.

The Verbeek objective of starving the opposition of the ball worked. Walter questions the entertainment factor. Australia had 25 shots on goal compared to Indonesia's 3. That is percentage football.

I would argue, Walter, if three or four more shots had been converted, it would have been considered an entertaining game. Profligacy in front of goal from many chances was the achilles heel for the Socceroos. In the past they've been more clinical.

Quantitatively, there were many crosses provided for Kennedy. Qualitatively, they weren't as accurate as they could be. The point is that many crosses were put in to dangerous areas in areas Kuwait would have found uncomfortable.

Kennedy missed some powerful headers at goal, because of misdirection. If Jesus had been able to attack the ball with more forward impetus, he could have been more effective for more of those goal attempts. Often he was jumping vertically from a stationery position.

Kennedy still had 6 shots on goal, which is a lot for any striker. His first touch in the stationery position is excellent. This can be observed in Socceroo training sessions.

I thought there wee positives to come from the game. The A Leaguers prevailed. The pressure has been expunged from Australian domestic footballers playing for the national team. Moreover, the teamwork was pretty impressive particularly as the match progressed.

Indonesia defending with a compact shape with most players in their defensive half, assisted Australia's cause.

Anonymous said...

If Kennedy is anywhere near the starting 11 in South Africa we are doomed. Big Germans and Serbs will be laughing at him.

Stats don't tell the whole story said...

For Australia to record 544 passes and score one fluke goal says it all. They are inefficient in the extreme and are going to get hammered every time by better teams. The number of passes doesn't mean a thing. Okay, Brazil sometimes score a nice goal after 22 passes, but most teams score them after five or six. Kennedy is a waste of space. He was against a mediocre team such as Indonesia. The Germans, Serbs and Ghana are going to reveal him as excess baggage if he plays against them.