Australia 1-0 Paraguay
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Australia’s new coach, Holger Osieck, continued his good start to his tenure with this creditable 1-0 home win over Paraguay at the Sydney Football Stadium.
That makes it two wins and a draw from three starts for the German supremo.
Paraguay looked good to begin with and dominated possession in the opening 10 minutes, but their only chance of the first half came when Nelson Valdez’s snap shot early on almost beat Mark Schwarzer, but the Australian captain was up to it. Valdez had scored both goals recently when Spanish La Liga newcomers Hercules beat Barcelona 2-0 at the Nou Camp.
Australia soon got into their stride, however, and midway through the first half created some excellent chances.
Tim Cahill got onto the end of Luke Wilshire’s free-kick and his header was well saved at the far post by Diego Barreto.
Jason Culina then sent in a fierce shot that Barreto did well to save, while Josh Kennedy headed another good chance wide.
Near the end of the first half, Australia had a genuine claim for a penalty when Mile Jedinak was pulled down inside the box by Victor Caceres, but referee Yuichi Nishimura waved play on.
Australia’s goal came in the 53rd minute. A cross from the right came off the back of Kennedy as he fell and dropped into the path of Blackpool fullback David Carney, who hit a bending left-footed volley inside the near post for the fourth international goal of his career.
Australia had only one scare after that, apart from a few incidents in which Paraguay players grabbed Australian opponents by the throat. In the 77th minute, Santander released Edgar Benitez down the left and he rounded Schwarzer on the left of the box and squared the ball across the goalmouth, but it was cleared by Jon McKain.
Australia survived the remaining quarter of an hour without difficulty to record a fine win over the highly rated World Cup quarterfinalists.
Before the match, Paraguay was ranked 17th in the world by FIFA, while Australia was ranked 24th.
The countries have now met five times, with Australia winning twice and three matches ending in draws.
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Australia: Schwarzer - Wilkshire, North, McKain, Carney - Garcia (Brosque 90), Jedinak, Culina, Kewell (Vidisic 87) - Kennedy (McDonald 60), Cahill (McKay 76) [Substitutes not used: Thwaite, Valeri, Galekovic] [Coach: Holger Osieck]
Booked: Cahill
Goals: Carney 53
Paraguay: Barreto - Bonet, Da Silva, Veron, Rodriguez (C Benitez 81) - Camacho (Martinez 54), Perez (E Benitez 66), Caceras, C Riveros (Vera 77) - Valdez (Santander 76), Orue (M Riveros 52) [Substitutes not used: Molinas, Villar] [Coach: Gerardo Martino]
Booked: C Riveros
Att: 25,210 [Sydney Football Stadium]
Ref: Y Nishimura (Japan)
10 comments:
Great game to watch with plenty of feeling bewteen the teams (unlike some other international friendlies). Good to see Australia taking the game to the opposition without allowing too much freedom to its opponents. Good atmosphere from the 60% full stadium and full strength beer on sale!
Thought Australia conceded space in the midfield area between the attacking line of the 2 in a 442 and the midfield screeners. The full pressing of Paraguay was consistent and intense throughout the game, which made it difficult for Australia.
Australia was unable to sustain possession in the middle of the pitch, like it was able to do under Verbeek. The modulation from defence to attack was often quicker than under Verbeek with his 4-2-3-1 system, but it lacked the control.
Carney is a problem. He is a decent player, but needs to play further forwards. His offensive qualities transcend his defensive qualities. I think he is handling the body on body contact better, but his distancing with the centre backs continues to be a problem.
Also, Kewell's defensive cover on the left wing, was not as effective as Garcia's on the opposite flank. Paraguay almost scored a goal from Harry's failure to chase his opponent on one occasion when he lost the ball.
Instead Kewell looked at the referee demanding a free kick, as he is often guilty of doing, whereas Holman or Vidosic would have pursued the Paraguayan who almost set up a goal. Kewell needs to play as a central striker or he should not be in the team as a winger anymore.
Decentric
It was disturbing to see such a small crowd, 26 000, in Sydney on a poor, slippery pitch.
Surely the message should be getting though to FFA -Sydneysiders per capita head of population can't be bothered attending live sporting fixtures.
Casual Observer
Is the Asia Cup on SBS or on PTV? Noticed that Japan had a great result in beating Argentina 1:0. Should be great tournament with Sth Korea also playing good soccer.
I thought the performance by the Japanese referee was one of the best I've seen. He didn't put up with the diving crap that we're usually subjected to & let the game flow.
I must say, I was shocked at the poor attendance though. Very disappointing!
Chris McKenna
Unfortunately, the Asian Cup is on pay TV. I resisted subscribing for the first A League season, but then after the 2006 World Cup I realised I would view little football without pay TV.
I'm also a cricket supporter. The best test cricket I've seen has been in India, yet only 30% of Australians have the chance to watch it.
I recently had a few weeks without pay TV access. I now realise what limited access most Australians get to football featuring Australian players. I don't know that Walter agrees, but I think there has been a marked amelioration in the standard of the A League this year. It seems to be occurring at the same time as crowds are waning.
I think a minimum sports package is equates to $10 per week. If one is a genuine football supporter, it is worth the money, even though it annoys me we have to pay for it.
Tasmania did very well against the CCM. Given that the Mariners have improved under the tutelage of Arnold, put into context, it was a significant performance by a local side.
Decentric
Kewell played well, why does everyone always have a go at Harry whenever he plays for Australia.
Go read this article on him.
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/football/attacks-on-kewell-are-out-of-bounds-20101009-16cyn.html
Also Harry has been playing really well in Turkey for the last couple of seasons and mostly playing out wide left.
The problem with the tv rights was that FFA made the contract to FOX way to long, like I've heard recently from other Football lovers, that people who have FOX are already the Football supporters and that's not the market FFA need to tap into. Would be brillant if the A-league had 1 live game a week and a highlights package on Free to air.
Regarding the Crowd at Sydney, what do you expect from that city? If Australia want to get serious about Football there should be a national stadium and obviously should be in Melbourne. What other countries play there national games in all different stadiums?. Imagine England not playing qualifiers at Wembley.
Anonymous 12.04pm, FFA obviously went for the money. It's a world-wide problem. TV dictates the game and even determines kick-off times in leagues and at World Cups.
While England may play internationals only at Wembley (it was a little different while the new Wembley was being built, of course), it is the practice in many other countries for the national team to play in a variety of cities. Germany doesn't always play in Berlin. Die Mannschaft plays in a whole range of cities so that all Germans can watch their team.
It's the same in Brazil. The Selecao play in many different cities scattered throughout Brazil, although they are a bit like us in that TV requirements and sponsors' money mean that many of the friendly internationals are now played outside Brazil, to the disappointment and anger of the home fans, who rarely see their side in friendlies. Brazil recently played in Iran because of the money!
What I was trying to say was that playing the qualifiers in Melb would guarantee and vocal big crowd and a better home ground advantage for our qualifiers coming up.
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