By Mike Tuckerman
November 10th 2009 @ 1:12am
Trip to Oman a litmus test for Socceroos
Australian and Oman players clash after Josh Kennedy is knocked down during a FIFA Asian Cup qualifying match, played at Docklands Stadium in Melbourne, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009. Australia beat Oman 1-0. AAP Image/Joe Castro
The story of Pim Verbeek being hired to steer Australia to the World Cup finals has been done to death. We all know that the Asian Cup was originally somewhat of an afterthought for the laconic Dutchman.
Qualification for the 2011 Asian Cup in Qatar may not have been high on the agenda when Verbeek put pen to paper in December 2007, but it’s at the forefront of everyone’s thoughts going into Australia’s clash with Oman on Saturday.
The Socceroos can breathe easier following their laboured 1-0 win over Oman at Etihad Stadium last month.
Indeed, another win in Muscat would virtually seal qualification – barring unforeseen disaster – to Australia’s second successive Asian Cup finals.
Yet, the match is unlikely to reveal anything particularly new, at least in terms of tactics, with Verbeek set to field his tried and tested 4-2-3-1 formation.
We’re likely to see Bruce Djite receive at least some game time up front, with Josh Kennedy ruled out by a back injury, while on-loan Plymouth Argyle defender Shane Lowry and Sydney FC striker Alex Brosque are late additions to the squad.
Vince Grella is still missing through his thigh injury, but the big news of course was the decision to drop Celtic striker Scott McDonald.
Whether that means McDonald’s dreams of going to South Africa are over is anyone’s guess – although it doesn’t look good for a striker yet to open his account for the national team – but why Verbeek didn’t select the pacy Nikita Rukavytsya is a frustrating source of mystery.
Much could rest on the talismanic shoulders of Harry Kewell, who has been in goal scoring form for club side Galatasaray of late, while the usual crew of big names will also be expected to leave their mark – including the fit-again Brett Emerton.
How much longer Australia can rely upon the likes of veterans Emerton, Kewell, Chipperfield et. al. remains to be seen, and the squad that travels to Qatar in 2011 is likely to be much different from the one that finishes the tournament in South Africa twelve months earlier.
But the loss of target man Josh Kennedy in Muscat could prove a more immediate blow, in what is only Australia’s third Asian Cup qualifier on foreign soil.
Missing their usual target man, Australia may need to find another source of inspiration – including, one would imagine, a source of goals not derived from knock-downs and winning second balls in dangerous positions.
It would be marvellous to see some fluid interplay involving Brett Holman, not to mention some accurate set pieces from Mark Bresciano, and no doubt we would all love to see Jason Culina pass the ball forward every once in a while!
But with coach Verbeek sticking steadfastly to his “results-first” mantra, we may just have to settle for another dogged performance against a team that didn’t necessarily sit back as expected in the corresponding clash in Melbourne.
I just wonder whether this trip to Muscat might not prove somewhat of a banana skin for the Socceroos.
The win over Oman last month was professional, but it was hardly a showcase of attacking football, and the Omani’s will be fired up following last month’s Gary Moretti debacle.
It’s a long trip to the Gulf, conditions will be hot, and the Socceroos may just have to take the game to the Omani’s if they are to come away with all three points.
So far he’s ticked all the boxes, so there’s no reason to doubt that Pim Verbeek can get the job done once again in Muscat.
But he may just need to be on guard, as an Australian team that likes to talk the talk, looks to finally walk the walk in another tricky-looking Asian Cup qualifier.
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(39)
Maestro> said | November 10th 2009 @ 3:38am | Report comment
Good article Mike. Will be interesting to see if Holman and Brosque can deliver the goods. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Omanis draw a bigger crowd than the pitiful numbers that attended our home leg down in the “World Sporting Capital” of Melbourne.
Football_Wunderkind said | November 10th 2009 @ 4:25am | Report comment
I’m fairly sure that the Australians are making a trip to Manama this time. Isn’t Muscat the capital of Oman? Sorry to correct a mistake but it was going to be someone to point that out.
Ben of Phnom Penh said | November 10th 2009 @ 10:47am | Report comment
It would be a bit quiet in Manama since the Bahrainis will be in Wellington at the time
Mike Tuckerman said | November 10th 2009 @ 10:57am | Report comment
Right you are, Wunderkind.
I had Bahrain on the brain after our victory in Manama in 2006.
Freud of Football said | November 10th 2009 @ 4:57am | Report comment
You’re right Mike, Australia can no longer rely on the likes of Kewell, Emerton and Cahill but we don’t have the players coming through to replace them.
Lucky that we moved to Asia when we did, it’s the only way we’d have a chance of making the next WC when the old heads have retired.
AndyRoo said | November 10th 2009 @ 9:32am | Report comment
We don’t have another Kewell or Viduka, but you can’t expect that.
9 months ago the cupboard looked bare but since then Mooy, Vidosic, Rhys Williams and Milligan have made big strides and it doesn’t look so bad. Next campaign will be a lot tougher though.
We had our goldne generation and were in the easier group this time around.
vladimir said | November 10th 2009 @ 12:02pm | Report comment
what have mooy or milligan done recently?
AndyRoo said | November 10th 2009 @ 12:12pm | Report comment
Last time I responded to you Vladimir it was a waste of time. I am not ever going to make that mistake again.
vladimir said | November 10th 2009 @ 12:14pm | Report comment
empty words indeed… evade the question… you probably don’t even know who they play for…
midfield general said | November 10th 2009 @ 3:27pm | Report comment
Lighten up Vladimir
dasilva said | November 10th 2009 @ 11:32pm | Report comment
Milligan played 21 games for Shanghai and from reports played well. Pim believes he looks a completely different player in Shanghai then the player he saw in Newcastle.
Doing well in the CSL is an advantage over the A-league as the CSL season will go through the World Cup. The a-league will have a long break between the end of season and the world cup.
Therefore Milligan has got a good chance of making the world cup.
Mooy, well the huge stride that Andyroo was probably referring to is most likely the performance for the young socceroos. Probably not enough to make the squad unless he somehow breaks into the first team.
AndyRoo said | November 11th 2009 @ 8:41am | Report comment
I was thinking more in regards to the 2014 campaign. As that seemed to be what Freud was alluding too becasue there will be a large amount of retirements after South Africa.
Those are pretty much my thoughts, I have never watched Bolton Reserves play but Bolton fans say Mooy was doing all right in their reserves (which was good enough for the Oman keeper).
Last time I questioned Vladimir’s assertion that Cahill was a bob to box midfielder I was told I have an extra chromosone so I decided not to bother anymore.
Midfielder said | November 10th 2009 @ 7:29am | Report comment
Mike timely article.
At some stage the younger players need their chance to play … hopefully we win and this may give Pim a chance after the WC to blood some new players.
vladimir said | November 10th 2009 @ 12:05pm | Report comment
pim wont be there after the world cup… he’ll be at some cashed up asian club until the next world cup comes around when he’ll reap in the cash from some cashed up asian nation… or maybe belgium will give him a gig…
agga78 said | November 10th 2009 @ 7:31am | Report comment
No need for Ruka or MacDonald in the sqaud this guy doesn’t play with any strikers especially away from home, it will be your standard 4-6-0 formation against the giants of Oman. This Pim bloke has been a terrible appointment we were lucky to get to easy groups in WCQ if we were in Group B we may well of been not going to South Africa. Pim dull conservative tactics go agianst everything that was good about Australia, we are not a nation who normally sit back and defend against weaker or stronger opponents for 90 minutes, we have a go. I would of thought you would build your team around our only striker who is scoring a the very highest level in Europe and playing for one of the worlds biggest teams, instead of making a guy who is 5f.7 play into Pim system as a very lone striker maybe the team should of been built to allow MacDonald to actually score goals, in his 15 matches to date I would guess he has had 2 clear chances and 5 half chances to score, how is he going score a goal with that many chances being created for him.
tony yeboah said | November 10th 2009 @ 7:55am | Report comment
The fact that you state “the giants of Oman” says a lot to me. When did Australia become such a powerhouse of world football. On what we saw of Oman in the game in Melbourne they are an extremely skillful tactical and technical side with a lot of pace. I don’t particularly like the way Pim plays sometimes either, but whilst we continually underrate our opponents and overrate ourselves we are not going to be a happy bunch of campers in Asia. But hey, we should be beating all of this terrible opponents in Asia 6, 7, 9-0!!
Dave said | November 10th 2009 @ 8:16am | Report comment
Football Wonderkind the article is correct Manama is in Bahrain (NZ are playing them) We are going to Oman
Tom said | November 10th 2009 @ 8:35am | Report comment
I think this game is more than a banana skin. I think the Omanis would be favourites. A 0-0 draw would be a good result for Australia.
John said | November 10th 2009 @ 8:56am | Report comment
“It would be marvellous to see some fluid interplay involving Brett Holman….”
I was reading the article till that point, it was this moment that the article lost all of its credibility.
whiskeymac said | November 10th 2009 @ 9:10am | Report comment
and yet holman scored a good goal against Feyenord on the weekend…. as well as starting for AZ against Arsenal in the champs league. personally i wld rather see Scott Mc in the team ( i know its a different position) if we are talking about thesquads make up but Holman is still having a good solid season in Europe when a lot of our players/ stars aren’t.
John said | November 10th 2009 @ 10:28am | Report comment
Really he is? Then i think you should watch this:
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS EVERY SINGLE SOCCEROOS GAME WITH HOLMAN:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1mvlNK3aG8
whiskeymac said | November 10th 2009 @ 12:53pm | Report comment
wow, caps lock! you must be really passionate (or have fat fingers and hit it by mistake). Am not endorsing his inclusion just pointing out that in the last fortnight, with the exception of harry and maccas recent brace, he has had the most impressive club football out of his peers. whether or not he can translate that onto the international arena has yet to be proven, just like macca (and in some respects viduka who had a woeful goal average for a striker but who was invaluable in holding/ setting up).
whiskeymac said | November 10th 2009 @ 9:07am | Report comment
brosque has set the HAl alight, with 2 goals and assists… McDonald is 2ndhighest scorer in SPL… interesting. seeing brosque isnt a target man, and plays well with 2 up fornt… does this mean our Pim has a plan B? nah… but good to see Lowry get a call up again. hopefully he gets some game time.
we desperately need to win this game – the more tournaments we get into the better for the upcoming roos development, the ratings and exposure. not quite the same as farina missing out on confed club, but wld still be a disaster if we dont qualify for our regional finals…
vladimir said | November 10th 2009 @ 12:22pm | Report comment
the spl is a very weak competition dominated by two teams… the rest of the teams would be barely up to HAL standard… i doubt mcdonald would score as freely if he was playing in a more even competition like the HAL without so many quality teammates and so many weak opposition defenders…
whiskeymac said | November 10th 2009 @ 1:05pm | Report comment
maybe maybe not. its a subjective view but aberdeen, hearts etc probably arent too bad but generally there’s no disagreement that the smaller teams in the SPL arent much good (motherwell etc)(some foreign managers still only rate HAlLat erdevisie 2 level, and players like burns still think lower league greek footy is better).
On the plus side for the SPL they get euro games so that for example last seasons Celtic v Man Utd and AC milan were good games which maybe a HAL team might not be able to replicate…. and even if they tend to struggle in the euro comps the exposure of playing at the level that Rangers and Celtic play, which is measurable to EPL standard, i would think, is so much higher than anything on offer at the HAL.
Mackey said | November 10th 2009 @ 9:33am | Report comment
I don’t know how Djite makes it into the squad while Rukavytsya is left out. One is not getting any game time at all whilst one is scoring goals in the KNVB Cup for a team sitting atop of the Eredivisie. Does not compute.
whiskeymac said | November 10th 2009 @ 10:27am | Report comment
Ruky still needs more game time but is certainly a cause celebre for us armchair coaches. Djite isa bigger burly player,Ruky is a speedster – i guess in Pims formation he wants soeone up front who can hold onto the ball/ break through. but if that’s the case I dont quite understand brosques inclusion
midfield general said | November 10th 2009 @ 10:43am | Report comment
I don’t think we have the luxury of waiting until likes of Ruka is playing regular club games until he’s picked for NT. We really don’t have anyone who can frighten the opposition with pace especially in the last 20 minutes of the game. Brosque? if Pim is going to pick likes of him and Sterjovski from A league then why not someone like Tommy Oar? Quick, skilful and seemingly fearless. He’s a better proposition than these two, in my opinion. Not bloody likely though.
whiskeymac said | November 10th 2009 @ 12:06pm | Report comment
who is standing in his way at club level though?
midfield general said | November 10th 2009 @ 1:17pm | Report comment
You mean Oar? I thought he’s been playing just about every game, except when he was at u-19 WC….I don’t know why I bothered to bring it up, it ain’t gonna happen. But it will be nice to see some bolter light up the socceroos at the WC. Maybe Ruka, Vidosic.
Ben of Phnom Penh said | November 10th 2009 @ 10:55am | Report comment
Djite is back in the first team having found himself on the outer with a new coach coming in whilst he was injured. He will be better acclimatised in a cultural sense and hence shouldn’t take as long to find his comfort zone in Muscat.
The better question is why Brosque is coming in rather than Troisi who could also offer some options on the left if Kewell plays a more central role.
It is a good point in relation to Holman, Mike. He will be a very important player for the Socceroos post 2010 and may play a key role in South Africa. I know it pains people to hear this however I’m hoping that he will prove the non-believers wrong.
vladimir said | November 10th 2009 @ 12:08pm | Report comment
“He will be better acclimatised in a cultural sense ..” what does that mean? has he been studying omani theatre?
Ben of Phnom Penh said | November 10th 2009 @ 11:32am | Report comment
Post South Africa my main concerns are going forward. At the moment we have had a number of younger players come through the defensive and controlling midfield ranks that can do the job who will be available for the Asia Cup and have had time in camp or on the park (Milligan, Williams, Kisnorbo, Carney, Spiranovic, Jedinak, Valeri) however our younger attacking midfield ranks haven’t been afforded the same opportunity due to the depth we currently have. This may prove to be problematic post-South Africa.
whiskeymac said | November 10th 2009 @ 12:03pm | Report comment
where does milion bulshire play?
Ben of Phnom Penh said | November 10th 2009 @ 1:39pm | Report comment
Que?
whiskeymac said | November 10th 2009 @ 3:51pm | Report comment
ah yeah a bit obscure….post south africa he might be one of those players… and with a name like that who is to argue?
ABCDEFG said | November 10th 2009 @ 4:31pm | Report comment
I’m fine with both Josh and Scott being out. I want to see who else can play the role of lone striker, Scott’s got quality but doesn’t score, Josh can get goals but his technical ability is average.
Football_Wunderkind said | November 11th 2009 @ 2:20am | Report comment
i meant to say that I am fairly sure Australia are not travelling to Manama, which Mike stated.
Besides that… I am really hanging out for Harry Kewell to make this World Cup coming up and more relevantly this upcoming match his own. Sigh… if only Harry had scored some crackers for Australia like he did for Leeds/Liverpool and even lately for Galatasaray. … and I do mean genuine crackers. I am stoked he scored the goal against Croatia in WC06 but I can’t think of any real Harry Kewell club style cracking goals that he has scored for Australia. I am really hoping he makes up for it at this World Cup and gets warmed up for it starting in 3 days time. Bresciano, Cahill, Carney, Chipperfield, Sterjovski and even Emerton have replicated excellent club goals at international level. For what ever reason… Harry hasn’t and he is showing form enough lately to suggest he might.
The Bear said | November 11th 2009 @ 5:04pm | Report comment
i lol man.