Socceroos goal scoring problem still not solved

Roar Pro

By Paddy Higgs, 5 Mar 2010 Paddy Higgs is a Roar Pro

Tagged:: A-League, football, Pim Verbeek, Socceroos, tommy oar

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Some might not have you believe it, but the most pressing story to come from Australia’s 1-0 win over Indonesia on Wednesday night was not the emergence of Tommy Oar on the international scene. Oar stole the headlines, but a more pertinent issue remains: the Socceroos’ inability to turn its domination into more than a solitary strike.

22 shots to one tells a story.

Yes, Australia got the win. Yes, it achieved qualification to the Asian Cup. But that sort of profligacy in front of goal will receive short shrift come June’s World Cup.

It’s not quite a crisis but, 98 days out from South Africa, it is worrying. Nor can you put the Socceroos’ errant shooting down to its largely A-League contingent, either.

While the goals do seem a little easier at full strength, Australia has averaged just over a goal a game since the 0-0 draw with Indonesia late last January.

During that time, the Socceroos have faced Bahrain, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Oman (twice) as well as the Indonesians – all ranked notably lower than Verbeek’s side.

Australia has had the benefit of a full-strength side on several occasions but, even allowing for tricky away ties and non-FIFA sanctioned dates, the question must be raised: if the Socceroos can’t find the back of the net against Asia’s minnows, how does it expect to emerge from a World Cup group featuring Germany, Serbia and Ghana?

The man who led the line on Wednesday, Josh Kennedy, appears the only striker (bar sometime-forward Harry Kewell) with his ticket stamped to South Africa.

His radar was off against the Indonesians on Wednesday, but Kennedy got his head to just about everything Oar, Scott Jamieson and Shannon Cole sent in.

He’s a worker; brave, honest and not without his own Bambi-esque skill. But when the scraps fell from Kennedy’s forehead against Indonesia, who was there?

Therein lies a problem.

Because while all the talk pre-game was of Verbeek’s 4-3-3 formation, it was really more of a 4-5-1.

And it’s not like Australia doesn’t possess some striking talent.

Scott McDonald springs immediately to mind. Scoring for fun for Celtic for the past few seasons, he hasn’t opened his account for the Socceroos in 15 appearances.

Recently, he has found himself marginalised by the rigidness of Verbeek’s formation. He didn’t even make the squad for his country against Oman late last year.

Many fans are crying out for Kennedy and McDonald to get a decent chance to establish some sort of partnership.

Similarly, it’s hard not to see Australia being more potent even with someone like the internationally unproven Nikita Rukavytsa alongside Kennedy.

The former Perth speedster is scoring for Belgium outfit KSV Roeselare, and must be handed opportunities in the lead-up to South Africa.

Some will point to Australia’s sturdiness in defence and discipline in midfield throughout the World Cup and Asian Cup qualifiers, and they have a point.

But games are won on goals, and Australia has not scored enough for some time

Robbie Slater spoke of the foremost importance of results during Wednesday’s win. Grinding them out in Asia might be enough.

South Africa will be a different story.

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The Crowd Says (17) | Page 1 of Comments

whiskeymac said | March 5th 2010 @ 7:49am | Report comment

i think many will agree with you on this. kennedy also had wilkshire and culina, first teamers, helping out and still didnt make much of an impression against lowly asian opposition. is it the formation or the personnel though (or both)? – is uppose with other players like Bresciano, Cahill, Emerton (even carney) in the team there may be more scoring ability … but full stength roos still havent been prolific throughout the qualifiers.

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Smokygrayson said | March 5th 2010 @ 9:32am | Report comment

If players like Kewell, Bresciano, Cahill, McDonald and Emerton can loiter around the box to pick up scraps from Kennedy, there’s a very good chance the socceroos can pick up goals. That’s assuming Pim allows them to roam forwards that high. Let’s not forget the game against Ireland where they absolutely shone.

Many are saying Culina had a great match – I disagree – he had a solid match as a DM playing in a No.10′s position, and it showed. How many goals has he scored for Australia? He continued on that run of form despite being put in as “the playmaker”: 7/10 only.

This game against Indonesia was to prove a point, which was that A-League players can be taught to play poseesion football, string together passes, which TBH, have you ever seen in the A-League? It’s going to be extremely difficult in the World Cup, but you won’t get teams sitting all their players in their own box and their own half for almost the enitre match. From Indonesia’s perspective, the point was not to be thrashed, and they succeeded.

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whiskeymac said | March 5th 2010 @ 10:17am | Report comment

good point that HAL players, albeit the better ones, can be drilled to string passes together to at least look like a competent euro side. maybe the issue with the HAL is the diversity of player standards.

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TheMagnificent11 said | March 5th 2010 @ 10:24am | Report comment

We’re a better team with Kewell up front. When Kennedy plays there are too many hopeful crosses into the box from deep positions. Crosses from deep are pretty much useless unless you have David Beckham like ability (the ability to put the ball behind the defence the bend it so it straightens up to favour your attackers approach to the ball because defenders are back-tracking).

When Kewell plays the ball is kept on the ground more and we try to manufacture proper goal-scoring chances. I think Kennedy is more effective as impact player, or when we need to change it up and try a plan B. Also, Germany, Serbia and Ghana have good defenders who are not going to be troubled by crosses from deep areas.

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gazz said | March 5th 2010 @ 12:05pm | Report comment

At full-strength we do have Cahill (who scores alot in the world’s premier club comp) and Kewell (who is an enigma). I see your point Paddy, but you can’t read too much into an Asian Cup qualifier with an understrength team.

Pim relies on individual brilliance and on Wednesday he had none.

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- TheMagnificent11 said | March 5th 2010 @ 12:10pm | Report comment
  
  I agree Gaz. Both Kewell and Cahill have been in great goal-scoring form this season. Even Kennedy was killing it in the J-League and we know Scotty Mac is good poacher (given the right service). The potential is definitely there.
  
  Pim will have the guys in camp for a good few weeks leading into the WC, so hopefully we’ll develop some good attacking combinations.
  
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Paddy Higgs said | March 5th 2010 @ 12:56pm | Report comment

Gazz- But, regardless of the strength or squad, the tactics remain very similar. And yes, Magnificient11, we know Scott McDonald is a good poacher, but we’ve not seen that at all for Australia. So while the potential is there, cold hard evidence is not. I’d be worried if we left it until camp to find our attacking groove.

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- TheMagnificent11 said | March 5th 2010 @ 1:03pm | Report comment
  
  You only have to score one more goal than the opposition to win a game. Furthermore, you can’t lose if you don’t concede. Yes that’s defensive mindset and personally I’d prefer to win 3-2 than 1-0, but the Socceroos defensive record does give me a bit of confidence going into the WC. And, the game against Holland shows, that even when we are under the pump, our defence is quite good. I don’t like Pim’s tactics, but they have been effective so far. So I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
  
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Ben of Phnom Penh said | March 5th 2010 @ 1:17pm | Report comment

Indonesia parked the bus which made it difficult to score from open play. Yes, Kennedy managed to get his head on a few however it was usually in a more stagnant position with a number of defenders barreling into him. The fact we managed to have 22 shots at goal, 11 of which were on target, at least shows we weren’t afraid to pull the trigger.

For all the talk of strikers, we are most likely to score from our midfield anyway. It’s just the way we play which is, I suspect, part of the reason Pim has plumped for the lone striker.

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- TheMagnificent11 said | March 5th 2010 @ 1:34pm | Report comment
  
  I agree. Cullina had a few good opportunities to score. Those could have gone in and we could have won 3-0. I think it more important to create the opportunities. I would be concerned if we didn’t create enough opportunities. However, the game against Indonesia proves nothing because they are no where near WC quality. I think this speculation is a bit premature.
  
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football head said | March 5th 2010 @ 2:33pm | Report comment

I’m with Paddy on this one, i have a very ominous and foreboding feeling about this WC…

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- Ben of Phnom Penh said | March 6th 2010 @ 3:04am | Report comment
  
  as opposed to which other World Cup? The sense of foreboding has little to do with the talent on the park and much to do with our changed expectations.
  
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Horza said | March 15th 2010 @ 8:57am | Report comment

The impression that we should be blitzing Asia’s minnows is a weird one – when did we become this incredibly awesome team that can score for fun? I’m guessing it must have been after we nearly got turfed out of the Group Stage of the Asian Cup, which we were going to do so well in because we beat Japan, drew to Croatia and lost to Brazil and Italy in the World Cup.

Trick question: in which of those games did Australia score first?

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- Al said | March 15th 2010 @ 9:00am | Report comment
  
  I agree, many of these so called Asian “minnows” are technically superior to many of the Australian players and it is usually brute strength that gets the Aussies over the line. It is why I am dreading the world cup this year as the Germans and Serbs aren’t going to be able to be intimidated physically by the Aussies.
  
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Wug said | March 18th 2010 @ 8:10am | Report comment

I think its a problem that just keeps hanging around – we just don’t seem to convert enough. Let’s hope we can remedy this and build on our WC performance in Germany

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