Is South Africa 2010 a road to nowhere?
Roar Guru By Jesse Fink, 13 Feb 2009 Jesse Fink is a Roar Guru
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- 2010 World Cup, Craig Moore, football, Lucas Neill, Pim Verbeek, Socceroos
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That was one of the most disappointing Socceroos performances in recent memory. Far from being a result we can take some comfort from (in that it’s getting Australia a step closer to South Africa 2010), it’s actually highlighted how dangerous the gambit of what I would call containment is becoming for our national team looking ahead to the World Cup.
For the second match in succession Australia created barely anything made up of more than three passes. There was one real shot on goal, but it was hardly something for the highlights reels.
For the entire match the Socceroos were on the back foot, flummoxed by Japan’s silky repertoire of short passes and their extraordinary positional acumen.
How many times a Japanese player would skirt the sideline, looking for all money like he was fighting a lost cause for possession of the ball, only to come up with it and scamper away from his opposite number.
The only thing the Japanese lacked in their game was a striker of the ilk of Bare or Lucas to finish off their wonderful lead-up play – no wonder they import so many Brazilians into the J-League.
Had they a Brazilian up front, we would have been destroyed.
The Socceroos for their part looked lethargic, devoid of ideas and singularly incapable of constructing an attack worthy of the name.
Defensively we were fine, Craig Moore and Lucas Neill standing tall yet again, but defence is just one part of what a football team needs to do. Defence plus attack is what makes it whole. The Japanese could do it. We could not.
It’s all well and good to have players who can fit into a “system”, though what is that system’s efficacy if it involves just pushing the ball to one another in midfield and never pushing into an area on the field that permits a shot on goal?
At least Pim Verbeek had the honour to say after the match that he was “pleased with the result but not always with the performance”.
But is that good enough?
What is the purpose of World Cup qualification if we are to play so one-dimensionally when we get there? A good team will cut us to pieces. We will not last long if performances like Wednesday night’s are tolerated as acceptable.
I’m not about to relaunch the argument for the inclusion of Nick Carle, but Australia is badly missing a playmaker. It desperately needs one. Mark Bresciano is not cutting it and Brett Holman – well, his charmed run must surely be up?
This is not an exercise in bashing the Australian team or excoriating Verbeek. I have all the time in the world for both of them. As many pundits have exclaimed, “they did their job”.
Rather what I want to see, even if only in short bursts, is simply a national side that plays with the same attacking and technical brio of which it is capable. The current one is playing to a level far less than the sum of it parts and arguably not laying the foundation for the kind of “total football” it will need to play in South Africa to be successful.
The Socceroos might be getting results, but they’re not winning any new fans.
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- 2010 World Cup, Craig Moore, football, Lucas Neill, Pim Verbeek, Socceroos
February 13th 2009 @ 8:59am
Derryn said | February 13th 2009 @ 8:59am | Report comment
I was at the game on Wednesday. Heard one of the supporters say that Holman is the worst ever player they have seen for the socceroos and I am inclined to agree. Nearly every time he gets the ball he seems a class below the other players and frequently gives up possesion. Scott McDonald should have been given another go. Even if it was just as a lone striker, put Cahill back into midfield. Cahill did have a good game as the lone striker, never stopped running and good at challenging for headers. We need to get someone else to take our free kicks, too often Bresc skies them over the bar by miles. You need to at least force the keeper into a save.
Pim played the Japan game tactially very well. A draw is a great result for us. It was not pretty to watch but Japan never really looked like scoring. 4 clean sheets in as many games would not happen very often in international football.
Would like to see us attack a bit more against Bahrain, Qatar and Uzbekistan. We have far superior depth then those teams, this is where we can flex some muscle and put a few goals away.
If we do not qualify from here then it would go down as nearly a bigger choke then the Iran debacle in ’97. Football has come a long way in this country since then. Playing for a nil all draw away might be dull but it’s that sort of composure that we need. Bring on South Africa 2010!
February 13th 2009 @ 9:06am
Greg said | February 13th 2009 @ 9:06am | Report comment
Can’t agree with you Jesse. Accumulating points is currently the aim of the game. Pim is a specialist at this, and his man management and media management is supreme. You can’t expect jogo bonito away in Japan in a mid week in season fixture. To Wunderkid, who is clearly a Guus Hiddink fan, aren’t we all, by playing Archie T in the 1st 30 minutes up front with Dukes away to Uruguary, Guus was actually doing so with defence in mind. His reasoning was something like this; play a pacy forward to keep the otherside’s back 4 in place at the back, he did the same thing in the friendly against the Dutch just prior the Germany 06 after we were reduced to 10 men when Luke Wilkshire lashed out in a tackle. Speaking of Luke, he is the most improved Australian player by the length of a football pitch.
February 13th 2009 @ 9:19am
Midfielder said | February 13th 2009 @ 9:19am | Report comment
Jes
Fancy someone from the SBS stable argueing the technical thing … SJ is right …. also remember Guss had a couple of shockers at the start as well.
Having said all this as Pim himself pointed out we lost way to much ball in midfield and that put heaps of pressure on our defence.
As others have said let us wait until we are through and in some friemdlies to determine whether we have lost that holding ability… Remember also Pim’s task and a task so important to footballs development in Australia is to make the WC…
As an aside the Japanese press had nothing but praise for Pims game plan … but what would they know … they also rate him as the best coach in Asia … but hell what would they know…
February 13th 2009 @ 9:40am
Koala Bear said | February 13th 2009 @ 9:40am | Report comment
Jesse,
precisely what I was also thinking.. The problem with Pimbo’s caution and tactics, is that, you leave yourself open for defeat; forget about winning .. As luck would have it .. it was with us on this occasion .. with Schwarzer in goal with an outstanding goalkeeper’s display.. As it was also luck we came home with a point against China.. When Schwarzer stuck out his right leg to make that penalty save… But what if Schwarzer was having one of his off days…? Boy I hope Pimbo’s luck will continue as we are going to need it in South Africa without a play-maker…
Aaah but some would say let’s worry about that, when we qualify for 2010 … Well unfortunately by then, it will be far too late to try and find a play-maker for the WC ..
We could have had one in Nicky Carle .. But even now, if he was promoted in that role, he may find it too hard to create, in this team, that is, so, so, negative…
Luiz Felipe Scolari, ex Chelsea manager has suddenly become available and needs an appointment… Can we get him on board as Pimbo’s assistant.? Surely that makes good sense ..
~~~~~~~~~
KB
February 13th 2009 @ 9:52am
Los Oso said | February 13th 2009 @ 9:52am | Report comment
I don’t see the point of bemoaning the Socceroos’ peformance in Yokohama. Pim wanted to play a defensive game and get a point from the fixture and that’s exactly how it panned out. Why isn’t everone happy with this outcome, one that was clearly planned and hoped for?
I expected Japan to prove much more challenging to be honest, I thought we would be bombarded relentlessly. As it turned out, Schwarzer only had one real save to make, and even then it was fairly strightforward for him.
I’m sure and Jesse knows that when we play at home we will play a much more attacking style, but in World Cup Qualifying you simply must be pragmatic in your approach. If Australia, top of their qualifying group, went to Japan trying to dominate and win the game (with an injury-hit squad devoid of any preparation, no less) and ended up losing then you can bet your house everyone, including Mr Fink, would be asking why didn’t Pim take a more conservative approach and lambast his tactics.
It was simply unrealistic to go there and try to win. The idealists can rue the lack of meaningful attacking play all they want, they will quickly realise they are fortunate to have a realist as NT coach when we qualify for the World Cup after going unbeaten in the qualifiers.
February 13th 2009 @ 10:00am
Pippinu said | February 13th 2009 @ 10:00am | Report comment
It’s a big mistake to look at Australia’s possession in the Italy game, and assume that we somehow dominated the game, in fact, it’s a nonsense.
Italy were all over us the first 20 to 25 minutes – Luca Toni had three guilt edged chances – he’d normally put at least two of those away.
Australia had plenty of possession when Italy went down to 10 men – but so what! That’s the way the Italians will play at the best of times, Australian created one or two half chances, but to be honest, they never really bothered the Italians.
I’m not saying Australia didn’t play well – they did play well – but the Italians were always pretty much in control.
Actually, it’s not bad that we mention that game because Australia played an Italianesque game the other night (but without the quality in many respects) – even playing a trequartista!!
Everyone should take a deep breath and relax – plenty of time yet to play some “pretty” stuff.
February 13th 2009 @ 10:01am
Slippery Jim said | February 13th 2009 @ 10:01am | Report comment
KB, I like the way you think – The Gene Hackman for next Socceroos assistant coach. With Chippers and Emo as overlapping fullbacks?
February 13th 2009 @ 10:03am
Luke W said | February 13th 2009 @ 10:03am | Report comment
I agree with SJ, Kazama and sledgeross.
Pim played his cards exactly right. There was no need for Australia to attack. Playing away from home in front of 70,000 screaming Japanese with limited preparation and two of our best attackers injured, no coach in the world was going to play an attacking game.
Oh, and KB, let’s not go over the top with Australia not having the attackers come WC time. An attacking quintet of Kennedy, McDonald, Cahill, Kewell and Emerton is good enough to take on any defence in the world.
February 13th 2009 @ 10:05am
Mark said | February 13th 2009 @ 10:05am | Report comment
The result is satisfactory but the performance goes against the Aussie spirit of “having a go”. It’s hardly something that makes us proud.
If we keep playing like this every time we play against strong teams at Africa 2010, the Socceroos will win “the most boring team” award. This performance was not due to the players and it came down to PV’s team selection and strategy.
Pim, please revisit the games played under Guus and hope you will learn that Australia is more than capable of performances against, Japan, Iraq, Bahrain under you.
February 13th 2009 @ 10:07am
sledgeross said | February 13th 2009 @ 10:07am | Report comment
F*ck me sideways. Im sick and tired of hearing about Nicky Carle. I agree he should be given a chance, but with a fully fit team where do you play him? Kewell, Bresc, Grella, Culina, Cahill, Emerton and Wilkshire are all ahead of him. I agree Pim should have a better look at him just in case, but fair dinkum, you have have to be an absolutely pretentious wanker to suggest he is the saviour.
Koala, the only thing negative in Australian football at the moment are the people who are bagging Australia who sit ATOP their qualifying pool. Im sick to death hearing about the things we are doing wrong. The 06 World cup seems to have done nothing but imply that we are world beaters. We are far from it. People have to pull their heads out of their arses and be realistic. Yes, we have been lucky, but there have been several times when the luck has gone against us as well. Thats sport.
We are a weird mob, we love to kick people in the balls when they are doing well. We practically have a foot on the plane to South Africa and all people want to do is bag everyone involved. I understand that everyone here is a proud Aussie and wants us to do really well at the WC, especially when we have such talented players approaching their twilight. But lets give credit where it is due lads, and save the bagging until we fail.