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As an exercise in navigating the first hurdle on the road to next year’s London Olympics, it could hardly have been more comfortable for Aurelio Vidmar’s Olyroos, a professional 3-0 first leg win over Yemen in the Gosford sunshine yesterday afternoon.
Up by one at the break and 3-0 by the time Chinese referee Hai Tan blew his final whistle, this was a walk in the park for a side primed to deliver.
It was a performance and result that, short of a catastrophe in the return leg on Thursday, should see them navigate a smooth passage to the second phase.
The context, of course, is that it was against limited opposition, so we needn’t get carried away for now. Many hurdles await.
Whereas other East Asian sides Japan, North Korea and South Korea were looking at tricky two-legged first round encounters against Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Jordan respectively, the Olyroos drew relatively modest opponents in Yemen.
Arriving in Australia only 48 hours before kick off, and with the second leg scheduled for Newcastle due to the political uprising back in Sana’a, it’s fair to say the Olyroos got the nice draw.
A measure of the problems back home is that BBC News dispatched a local crew to Bluetongue Stadium yesterday, not the cover the football, but the chat to the Yemeni players and delegation about the situation at home.
For these visitors, the game no doubt extends beyond the 180 minutes in Australia.
Therefore, the biggest challenge for Vidmar and his assistant Paul Okon, apart from getting the charges in shape physically and technically, was to ensure his men were in the right frame of mind, so that this wouldn’t become a banana-skin tie.
To that end, the planning was excellent. After impressing for a large part against Japan, the Olyroos polished off preparations by putting the cleaners through Singapore in the wet on Tuesday.
While they didn’t know a great deal about Abraham Mebratu and his men, Vidmar suspected the Yemeni strategy would be to defend in numbers and look to hit on the counter attack.
He was right.
Set out in a 3-5-1-1, which ostensibly became a 5-4-1 as the Olyroos dominated possession and territory, the Yemenis were in damage limitation mode from very early in the piece, barely getting out of their half in the first 30 minutes.
Even after Jason Hoffman nodded home the opener after 14 minutes, turning in a neat Sebastian Ryall dink to the back post after Matthew Jurman had challenged for a header, Yemen were content to contain.
Whenever the Olyroos did break into the box, there were often six or seven red shirts in the way.
By my measure, custodian Andrew Redmayne didn’t have a touch until the 26th minute, when he ventured out of his box to clear a through ball. For his first save of any substance he had to wait half an hour.
While there wasn’t much attacking intent from Yemen, in many ways they weren’t allowed to play.
Neat and tidy on the ball, always wanting to have it on the deck, Yemen met a physically superior Australian side that pressed high and early, aiming to win the ball back swiftly.
The best in this area in the first period were Mitch Nichols, Rocky Visconte, Hoffman and Isaka Cernak. From there they were able to spring forward swiftly, and with Matthew Foschini, Nichols and Cernak providing the width down the right, it was a great avenue for the Olyroos.
Later, when Aaron Mooy replaced Cernak at the break, and then Kofi Danning replaced Nichols, the right side of the Olyroos attack continued to be a productive area.
Indeed, with Hoffman also breaking into that channel at times, it turned out to be the source of their second, with the Melbourne Heart striker shaping a cross to the near post for the marauding Nichols to dink around the impressive goalkeeper Shukri Salem Abdullah.
Abdullah had earlier made a string of fine reflex saves, sharp down to his left and right, with Marko Jesic the unlucky striker on a couple of occasions.
On another day, the Newcastle Jets man, playing on the left of Vidmar’s 4-3-3 here, might have had a brace, or more, but this was to an afternoon out for his former Jets team-mate.
Catching the eye against Japan with one of his most productive performances, Hoffman proved too mobile and strong for the Yemeni defence, always moving, presenting and combining well with those around him.
In the first period there was some neat linkage with Cernak and Nichols.
In the second period Mooy took over from Cernak, combining beautifully with Nichols in a position we have hitherto not see him, high up on the right side of the attack.
When Mooy burst into the junior national set-up just before the 2009 U20s World Cup in Egypt, he was looked at as a central midfielder, and spent most of his World Cup minutes there under Jan Versleijen.
But here, like so many modern day midfielders, Mooy showed his adaptability, starting high but dropping off to create, or driving in behind to strike and hit the post.
Later, when Nichols was replaced by Kofi Danning, Mooy dropped into Nichols’ spot, allowing Danning to run amok.
With the fullbacks often pushing on (Aziz Behich bagging an assist for Hoffman deep in injury time), skipper Oliver Bozanic seamlessly pulling the strings from the anchor role, and with the two stoppers comfortable throughout, there wasn’t a poor Australian on the slippery pitch.
All up, it was a thoroughly polished display, with progress to the next phase now looking a mere formality.
There, in September, the fun really begins, with Vidmar’s charges needing to finish top of a group of four to qualify for London automatically and avoid the repercharge round.
Olyroos formation (4-3-3) and player ratings
——————————-Andrew Redmayne (gk) 7————————–
————————————————————————————–
——————–Sebastian Ryall 7.5—-Matthew Jurman 7.5—————-
Matthew Foschini 8———————————————–Aziz Behich 8
—————————————————————————————
————————————Oliver Bozanic 7.5—————————–
——————–Mitch Nichols 8.5————-Rocky Visconte 8————-
—————————————————————————————
———-Isaka Cernak 7———————————-Marko Jesic 7———–
———————————–Jason Hoffman 8.5———————————Substitutes: Aaron Mooy 8.5 (Cernak 45’), Mustafa Amini 6 (Visconte 72’), Kofi Danning 7.5 (Nichols 79’).
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