All Whites show Socceroos up for style
Roar Pro By drew777, 25 May 2010 drew777 is a Roar Pro
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- All Whites, football, Socceroos, World Cup football
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With All-White Rory Fallon’s fiery pre-”friendly” comments about possible injuries for Socceroos players and how New Zealand were going to get stuck in as there was no such thing as a friendly, his men may have got more than they expected at the MCG.
Soccerooss’ midfield anchor, Vinny Grella, led the charge; lucky to escape a straight red card in the first half for his two footed tackle, and Cahill, later in proceedings, rode his luck with a slide tackle that ended up turning a New Zealand defender over in the air.
It seemed the Socceroos had decided to get stuck in as well and Bertos was the one to come off second best.
At the local pub, there were no cheers after Cahill’s tackle (or is assault a better description), rather, a resounding “OOhhhh” groan that resonated the pain Bertos was enduring.
These two incidents were not to detract from the play, however. With tempers cooling, both sides played out a fairly even match and New Zealand were good for the lead. Although their goal resulted from some sloppy defending, the boys from across the ditch were a constant threat and nerves were more than warranted every time Australia’s play broke down.
What Australia lacked in a quick move forward, often pulling up and playing back when approaching New Zealand’s penalty box, New Zealand did not. They pushed on, backed themselves, and created some good opportunities.
Had it not been for some luck and inspired defensive work, Australia might well have suffered a somewhat embarrassing defeat.
If this match was to be used as a measure for the World Cup, I would say that we are in a spot of bother, and New Zealand are in a better position to go to the round of 16 than us. Overcoming Slovakia and Paraguay does not seem too great a task for New Zealand after this match.
Arguably, Paraguay and Slovakia are no better than Australia, and New Zealand matched our boys for good portions of the match.
I saw an interesting statistic at half time; Australia had controlled 53% possession but New Zealand had spent more time in our half.
This was evident in our play; we would push forward, get two thirds of the way up the pitch and then all of a sudden, whilst New Zealand were back peddling, decide to stop our forward momentum and pull back.
ABSURD!
Even more groans echoed throughout the pub as a potent looking attack was killed off by none other than our own strikers. It’s a shot in the foot, really.
We cannot be racing at defenders with the pace that McDonald, Bresciano, Cullina and the like possess only to not back ourselves and stop the play. If we keep that nonsense up it will not only be a tall order to progress from our group, but it will be a tall order to even score against our strong opposition.
Pulling back to go out the other side might not be a bad idea for some of the time, except it was every time that we were pulling back, and some of the time it was breaking down with New Zealand good on the counter.
One bright point of the match was that the so called defensive Pim changed on two attacking players in the form of Tom Oar and Nikita Rukavysta. The former, although only playing a small portion of the match, provided a spark down the left flank which we were badly lacking.
The lad came on and his first influence on the game was a penetrating run through the All Whites from midfield, and he did not pull up and attempt to lay the ball backward as his compatriots had been doing all match.
Did Oar push his case for a World Cup spot?
I think he more than settled it and I will be surprised if he is not to make an appearance, especially against Ghana.
I have not mentioned the goals yet for a very good reason. I think the previously addressed issues overshadow what was a thrilling game.
So now, the goals. No real brilliance in either of the team’s efforts, except for Vidosic’s fine finish.
Sadly, all three goals came from defensive mistakes and luck.
Had the Australian defender (his name escapes me now) not allowed Chris Killen to get basically inside him then New Zealand would not have scored. If not for a lucky tackle on Cullina, the ball would never have popped out for Vidosic.
The last goal was the only one of some class, but New Zealand were ball watching and I don’t suspect our World Cup opponents will be quite so lenient on us. The ball to Holman was precise and his finish composed. Good bye Nick Carle.
Holman just assured that you won’t be going to South Africa.
Onto the result; a lucky win for Australia. New Zealand were unlucky not to bury a few more and Australia looked lack-luster in the final third, often failing at the last few passes, the last run, the last cross or the finish.
There was squandered chance after squandered chance and for the first time I really noticed us miss a Viduka up front.
My forecast for the World Cup; (with all patriotism aside) Australia missing out on the round of 16 and almost running last. New Zealand missing the round of 16 on goal difference only.
My patriotic forecast; Austrlia to win the whole thing. New Zealand? It does not matter what they do because they will demolish Italy 7-0 and us Aussies will claim that win as pay back for last year’s abomination of a result.
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The Crowd Says (13) | Page 1 of Comments
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- All Whites, football, Socceroos, World Cup football
May 25th 2010 @ 1:56am
AA said | May 25th 2010 @ 1:56am | Report comment
Australia had less than half it’s full team, the game was literally a selection trial for Verbeek.
Settle down.
May 25th 2010 @ 6:19am
Kuri said | May 25th 2010 @ 6:19am | Report comment
Seriously AA get the hell over yourself. You are nothing but a provocative poster who is looking for a fight.
The Kiwis also took off some of their top players in the 2nd 45 not to mention they lost one player due to the appalling tackle by Grella followed by a 50/50 tackle by Cahill yes even the Australian commentators were going on about the nature of the tackle by Tim.
The Kiwis weren’t a pushover and it was quite clear they also were saving things for later (World Cup) but somehow that doesn’t fit your argument.
May 25th 2010 @ 11:07am
drew777 said | May 25th 2010 @ 11:07am | Report comment
Totally agree Kuri. The players that Aus fielded were of good quality and a vast majority of them will be making appearances at the finals. 80% of the team we saw last night will be playing and if we keep that rubbish up we will probably be losing.
May 25th 2010 @ 12:19pm
AA said | May 25th 2010 @ 12:19pm | Report comment
Looking for a fight! That’s ridiculous.
What’s wrong Kurt, you can’t handle a different opinion?
Australia had a second-rate team, it had nothing to prove against New Zealand, what is wrong in saying that.
Take your rose-coloured glasses off, the world thinks differently to you sometimes.
AA
May 25th 2010 @ 9:16am
preciouspress said | May 25th 2010 @ 9:16am | Report comment
Cullina was the only Australian player who showed World Cup quality. The Socceroo’ strike power without Kewell and/or Kennedy is powderpuff. By comparison the All-Whites have good strikers but lack the quality in midfield to support them effectively. The tackles of Cahill and Grella should have resulted in red cards and will do so if repeated in the World Cup. Verbeek must cut this bad-tackle tendency out of our play.
May 25th 2010 @ 9:48am
Michael said | May 25th 2010 @ 9:48am | Report comment
rather than saying the socceroes did not play well… you very easliy say with some confidance that the kiwis did not allow them to play well. This suggests that the kiwis can only improve from herein.
On this performance even with the non played aussies, there are danger signs for the socceroes going forward. The inability of the team to gel under pressure from a team ranked 78 is a sign or is it that the way rankings are put together depend more on the number of games you have played and their result……& therefore, 20th 40th or 78th makes very little difference when teams reach the world cup?
May 25th 2010 @ 11:09am
drew777 said | May 25th 2010 @ 11:09am | Report comment
True on both accounts Michael. As I said, NZ seem to be better odds of progressing than we are. As precious said; if NZ had a good midfield support team then they would have destroyed us last night.
May 25th 2010 @ 12:40pm
Michael said | May 25th 2010 @ 12:40pm | Report comment
Agree drew 77. My other worry is that a lot of self belief of the socceroes cames from playing many teams in the asian qulaifiers & some with teams of a more low end nature and from the back of the soccereos 2006 world game performance, which has created unreastic expecations within the team about how they might fare… this type of thinking always bring surprises…… Aagin, I say NZ on balance should surprise……..
May 25th 2010 @ 12:54pm
Fivehole said | May 25th 2010 @ 12:54pm | Report comment
Don’t know about Oar’s spark as you mentioned. The only thing of note i saw him do was a 2 arm tackle that earned him a yellow. With more time i think he may have been able to offer something.
May 26th 2010 @ 7:41am
drew777 said | May 26th 2010 @ 7:41am | Report comment
No other Aussie player ran at NZ like he did with such success. How is there no spark?
That two arm tackle was intelligent as the play had broken down and we were caught; professional foul, nothing more.
May 25th 2010 @ 3:15pm
Rob Gremio said | May 25th 2010 @ 3:15pm | Report comment
While I agree that the first half display by the socceroos was abysmal, with all of the momentum-checking backward passing in the final third that has been mentioned, I thought that the second half was actually pretty decent. I thought the Socceroos in the second half, when Grella and Craig Moore came off (they were rubbish), looked far more organised at the back, and more composed and positive going forward.
My point being, this was the first hit-out of the preparation campaign, and so you can’t expect everything to flow smoothly. The second half was much better. For example, in the first half, Milligan was not overlapping on the right flank like he was obviously supposed to (Culina, from memory, had a go at him at one point when he deflected a ball to where Milligan was supposed to be running, only for the ball to run out of play, and Milligan to be standing some 30 metres away, watching the game happen around him), but in the second half he was making those runs and had a better idea what he was doing.
Beauchamp looked good at the back – alert, winning balls in the air, and playing out comfortably from the back in ways that Craig Moore simply can’t imagine anymore, sadly. I thought Holman, when he came on, gave the Aussies a good burst of forward momentum, despite missing a couple of passes. He was great running into space, with or without the ball, and hit the majority of his passes and generally caused problems. He was involved in the build-up to his goal, and the finish was excellent, with his wrong foot.
Tommy Oar didn’t do himself any harm with his cameo either, showing the aggressive running game that has got him to this point. It’s great he doesn’t have any fear at this level – rare in a player so young. He did, as you suggest, Fivehole, do a stupid tackle on the Kiwi defender, but chalk that one up to a youngster eager to impress. But yes, he will need to learn to control that if he wants to be in the final 23. Watch for him to get game time against Denmark to see if he is really up to it. That game will make or break his chances for the final squad.
So, my view of the game is that it was a good start. We needed that horrible first half to provide a reality check. The second half showed signs of improvement, and that is a good place to build from. We still have time to get the team’s form up, so at this stage I am, in the words of Australia’s most famous fridge magnet, “Alert, but not alarmed”.
May 26th 2010 @ 7:39am
drew777 said | May 26th 2010 @ 7:39am | Report comment
MY only point to disagree on was your preparation statement; we should have been preparing since hte qualifiers. We are playing with the same guys that wen through the qualifiers and they know how the system works. Therefore there are no excuses.
May 26th 2010 @ 8:15am
Rob Gremio said | May 26th 2010 @ 8:15am | Report comment
Yes and no, Drew. Vidosic has only really just broken into the side, while Milligan is the same, really. Sure, he’s played a couple of games, but isn’t as familiar with the system as you’d expect.
Add to that the fact that Bresciano hadn’t played since his back injury was operated on in February, and Grella has played precious little football at blackburn because he’s been injured for a long time, while Craig Moore, well, what the hell is he doing in the squad in the first place? Attitude problems at the Roar, and apparently at his Greek side too, and let’s not forget he was training with the Brisbane Strikers, a Qld State league team (and they don’t train full-time) before entering camp. So at least three of the key players in the first half were seriously underdone, and another two have only been peripheral figures until now.
Trial matches like these are exactly where you want to see the bad performances – these are the games to get the kinks out before the real thing starts.
So the first half performance was, for mine, to be expected (but I didn’t expect it to be as bad as it was, for sure!).