Socceroos confident of overcoming Oman
By Guy Hand, 14 Oct 2009 Guy Hand is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- A-League, football, Lucas Neill, Oman football, Socceroos
A competition and an opponent which managed to reduce the Socceroos’ standing in Asia from giants to goats won’t be allowed to do so again, says skipper Lucas Neill.
The Socceroos must beat Oman in their Asian Cup qualifier at Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night or risk missing the 2011 finals in Qatar.
The 2007 edition of the tournament proved a disastrous first foray into Asian football for the Socceroos, sent packing in the quarter-finals after coming into the region boasting star billing.
Along the way, they were outplayed and humbled by Oman in their opening group game in Bangkok, only scraping a 1-1 draw thanks to an injury-time Tim Cahill equaliser.
But much has changed since.
Graham Arnold has been shunted sideways on the bench to make room for Asia-savvy coach Pim Verbeek.
And the Socceroos have made next year’s World Cup finals by dominating both their Asian qualifying groups and are easily Asia’s No.1 team – ranked a lofty 14 in the world.
Yet the Asian Cup standings tell a different story – Oman currently top of Group B with four points from two matches and Australia struggling with a draw and a loss.
“If you look at the table at the moment, they have more points than us and that’s a true reflection of how the group is – we haven’t performed, they have,” Neill said.
“The lessons we learned in the Asian Cup in Bangkok is something we take into games like this to give us a reminder that we have to make sure from the very first whistle that we’re ready.”
Verbeek has left nothing to chance as Cahill and Harry Kewell lead a near-full strength squad after relying on A-League selections for the two previous Asian Cup qualifiers.
Three changes loom to the starting line-up which pinched a 0-0 draw with the Netherlands in Sydney last weekend.
Carl Valeri will replaced the injured Vince Grella in midfield, while veteran left-back Scott Chipperfield is set to step in for David Carney.
And Brett Emerton could be the surprise and make a return to the Socceroos’ starting side following a serious knee injury.
Brett Holman is most likely to miss out should that happen.
Emerton played a key role at the Socceroos’ final training session at Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night.
Verbeek said he expected Oman to play a defensive game and chase a valuable away point rather than chase the win.
“Everybody is here, everybody is ready. I think we can do a very good job tomorrow,” Verbeek said.
“Oman has four points so a point away is enough.
“I expect them to be very well organised in defence, wait for the right moment and try to score a goal from a counter-attack.
“Oman is a very good team, but I think that is the way they will come – they’ll be happy with a point.
“We have to beat them, that’s our job.”
© AAP 2012Likely teams:
Australia: Mark Schwarzer, Luke Wilkshire, Craig Moore, Lucas Neill, Scott Chipperfield, Jason Culina, Carl Valeri, Brett Emerton, Tim Cahill, Harry Kewell, Josh Kennedy.
Oman: Ali Al Habsi, Fauzi Basheer, Khalifa Ayel, Mohammad Al Sheeba, Hasan Mudaffar, Ahmed Hadid, Hashem Saleh, Ismail Al Ajmi, Emad Al Hossani, Badr Al Meymani, Hassan Rabea.
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Pippinu said | October 14th 2009 @ 3:06pm | Report comment
Big game tonight.
An unlikely slip up would virtually mean we’re out of the Asian Cup.
And no – I haven’t forgotten our pathetic performance against Oman when we met in the Asian Cup proper – but it was another time and place – I don’t think it has any bearing on tonight except to know that we don’t take them lightly.
The Oman manager (who looks like a character out of a Harry Potter movie), made the very valid point that in this current series of qualifiers, there are only two FIFA dates (like tonight), and it just so happens that Oman plays Australia on both dates.
He is correct that that is completely inequitable, because they become the only ones in the group who will be up against a full strength Socceroos outfit (as opposed to playing blokes who have number 69 and number 111 on their back – and play like it).
They are probably the second best team in the group – but will most probably miss out because Australia will need to earn six points against them with a full strength team.
whiskeymac said | October 14th 2009 @ 3:15pm | Report comment
well let’s hope that Australia play too their potential (and Oman dont play like we did against the Dutch)
Midfielder said | October 14th 2009 @ 3:20pm | Report comment
Can hardly wait for the match to start … go the Socceroooooooooooosssssss
Pippinu said | October 14th 2009 @ 7:19pm | Report comment
Ordinary first half – Man O Man – it’s like the Asian Cup revisited.
AndyRoo said | October 14th 2009 @ 9:38pm | Report comment
I thought the first half was good entertainment wise. I enjoyed the whole game but was a little bit frustrated with ellements of the Roos play.
Oman were good value and played well. Probably close to shading the first half.
They had a few really strong outfielders but most teams have that, the big difference with Oman was they have a great keeper and predictable hoofs into the box weren’t as effective as when we play the teams with calamity jane as keeper (about half the teams in the AFC)
They were pretty attacking for an away game so I hope they end up getting through with us to the competition proper.
Pippinu said | October 14th 2009 @ 9:41pm | Report comment
Yeh – I put that up at half time – when I said ordinary first half – I meant we were ordinary – Oman were excellent.
AndyRoo said | October 14th 2009 @ 9:59pm | Report comment
Well I understand the frustration at that time. Shared by a lot of Aussie fans I expect.
This game was so important for Australia as the Asian cup is the perfect opportunity to forge our new team in preparation for the qualifing campaign for 2014.
Guys like Milligan, Williams, Mooy (hopefully), Vidosic, Kennedy, Macdonld and Spiranovic will all benefit from playing together under the blow torch.
Would have been devestating to lose and frankly when they put up that Oman were paying $8 something for the win at half time down from $10 I couldn’t believe it.
And thankfully that list for the next generation looks a lot better than it did just 6 months ago. But other Asian teams are doing better than us at youth tournaments (UAE and south korea) so it’s interesting times.
Pippinu said | October 14th 2009 @ 9:23pm | Report comment
Geez – talk about just falling in over the line – and this was hardly Holland we were playing.
General observations:
1. Some of the discussion we had on Timmy the other day was there in stark relief tonight – he’s always a threat near goal, we know that, and he came up with the winner yet again – but otherwise, he can be pretty anonymous in that CAM role. This will be particularly noticeable at WC level. You might argue that Timmy played more as a second striker tonight – true – but are we going to be able to rely on Jase to come forward and provide some decent ball?
2. Oman showed us a glimpse of why some teams in the A-League have such a dismal record at home. The away team comes with one big advantage – it knows that the pressure is generally on the home team to win, and is likely to set up accordingly – and Oman was ready – with Harry and Timmy always in advanced positions, they were able to share it around on their right and absolutely gang up on poor old Chippers, hold on to it for lengthy periods, probe some holes, and generally give the Australian back line some grief. There were moments there in the first half where it was hard to work out which team was actually ranked 14th.
3. Luckily for Australia, Oman had that Asian knack of absolutely crumbling when the goal was at their mercy.
4. Josh had his moments, but I can’t shake this nagging feeling that he’s not the answer in that sole centre-forward position. Man o man, do we miss Dukes at times. Nothing will be clearer than when we face two (maybe three) teams in SA of the calibre of Holland.
AndyRoo said | October 14th 2009 @ 9:53pm | Report comment
1. I think that goal showed why we have to play him, he is a winner. It does however mean we have to play one real striker and one mini striker (Tim) and that effects our teams ability to link up. I enjoyed after the goal Timmy coming back and playing as a midfielder, would have been nice if he did that at times when the game was in the balance. I really think Macdonald could do Timmy’s role and he Pim tried him their in Seoul and I think he did well. Not that I would drop Timmy of course.
The two screeners Valeri and Cullina didn’t offer much. They did a little bit defensively with a lot of back passes and sideways balls.
I don’t blame Josh, it was a complete lack of anything decent coming from our midfield. I remember Emerton being in plenty of space in the Oman half and he just crossed a ball into a well marked Kennedy. I would have hooked Emmo right then and there but the next times he got the ball he started running with it and that started oppening up Oman.
cab711 said | October 14th 2009 @ 10:04pm | Report comment
Fantastic result. Anything less and we could kiss this campaign goodbye. Oman are great to watch. Australia definately belongs in Asia, we are by no means outclassing our opposition.
How ugly is Claude Le Roy BTW? Someone needs to tell him a Bidet is not for washing your face.
Shahsan said | October 14th 2009 @ 10:11pm | Report comment
That’s not very nice.
Wasnt he the guy that discovered George Weah? And took Cameroon to a World Cup?
AndyRoo said | October 14th 2009 @ 10:28pm | Report comment
I was actually thinking Le Roy would be a decent replacement for Pim when he leaves after 2010….but then i thought he would cop so much stick from some of the media that best not go there.
Perhaps Dragan Stojković from Nagoya would be an interesting choice. After all Nagoya play better football and use Kennedy better than Australia does.
David V. said | October 14th 2009 @ 10:14pm | Report comment
Unlike the useless clown Verbeek, Le Roy has actually WON SOMETHING- that in a much, much tougher region than Asia.