Socceroos friendlies on home soil are fairly rare events and, with the looming specter of January’s Asian Cup, Saturday night’s 1-0 win over Paraguay is deserving of extensive scrutiny.
For me, a victory over a World Cup quarter finalist was the perfect way to cap off a splendid weekend for football in Australia that started with Friday night’s successful Melbourne derby and ended on the Sydney Harbour Bridge for the World Cup bid themed “Breakfast on the Bridge” on Sunday morning.
The sight of one of Australia’s most famous landmarks decked out in Come Play gear and filled by 7,500 picnic goers was a well-executed promotional maneuver.
At times I’ve been fairly critical of elements of Australia’s World Cup bid but in keeping their attention focused on Paraguay and the Sydney Harbour Bridge event, instead of engaging in a heated, but mostly pointless, debate in London, FFA have given their chances of winning hosting rights a lift.
That boost should be extended to the image of Australia’s domestic league after a Socceroos defence containing a significant A-League presence, in former Wellington Phoenix defender John McKain and current “Nix” defender Jade North, kept the World Cup quarter finalists goalless.
The Socceroos may have been poor in attack, generally they only threatened from set pieces (how many times have we heard that before?), but defensively they were much more impressive.
Manager Holger Osieck had the team set up well and while the result should be taken with a grain of salt considering Paraguay’s recent performances in friendlies, it’s still a heartening sign.
I’m also starting to think one half of Saturday night’s successful centre-back pair, John McKain, could be pivotal to Australia tasting success in Qatar come January.
The 28-year-old is currently playing for Saudi Arabian side Al-Nassr under former Palermo manager Walter Zenga.
Talking to a couple members of the Australian media after the Paraguay game, McKain painted an interesting picture of what it’s like playing football in the Middle East.
“It’s hard, it’s not easy to get used to training there and finish training and get home at one or two in the morning and you still have to have dinner and things like that,” explained McKain.
“It’s not an easy thing to get used to but the Arab countries are used to that.”
“Now they’ve brought it down a bit, but it’s still 37-38 degrees and in some places 80-85% humidity which is not easy to get accustomed to.”
“They’re all good with the ball which is one thing I’ve seen from that region of football, because it’s so hot.”
“They’re all technically good, they keep the ball very well so that’s one of the strengths of the region.”
As we’ve seen in the past, it’s the kind of conditions and style of football the Socceroos have struggled with and, when it comes to the weather, it takes much more then a few acclimatisation sessions to get used to it.
While I trust the Socceroos back room staff to do the best possible job in preparing the team, it could prove rewarding to have a player with experience in this environment as ready made back-ups for crucial positions likes McKain’s.
Considering Osieck appears to be determined to take the best 23 players available rather then a developmentally minded squad, the German could do a lot worse then including the Al-Nassr defender in that number.
I’ve talked before about the need to have someone who understands Asian football within the Socceroos playing group for the Asian Cup, and with East Asian based players like Eddy Bosnar and Sasa Ognenovski clearly on the outer, McKain might be that guy.
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Even though St.Pauli ultimately lost a high-scoring affair, Jackson Irvine was a standout, as well as scoring a late goal.
What if we celebrated all of the achievements big and small, and weeded out those hell-bent on bringing down a game that is doing a hell of a lot right?
A good performance from Michael Ruhs, scoring twice to beat Macarthur and doubling his season goal tally in the process.
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