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Australia only needed to draw against Jordan at Allianz Stadium. Under the guidance of Ange Postecoglou, that was never likely to happen.
The World Cup qualifier probably deserved a larger live audience. The Socceroos served up the sweetest post-Easter treat in a long time with their ruthless, breathless and scintillating 5-1 demolition of a recent bogey team to qualify for the final group stages of the road to Russia.
There was no hint of a team happy to go into a defensive shell and scrap for the required point to progress. Within a minute of the kick-off, the Socceroos had established a pattern of play that simply swamped Jordan, who were struggling to get out of their own half.
The obvious catalysts for this dominance were a dynamic attacking quadrant of Aaron Mooy and Tom Rogic in the middle, and Robbie Kruse and Matthew Leckie on the flanks. Kruse showed explosive pace, Leckie tenacity and strength, while the central duo were sublime.
Rogic appears to glide and his touch and foot speed are so classy they will surely be soon gaining a wider audience than the Scottish Premier League.
None of that would have been possible without the less obvious contribution of Mark Milligan, who snuffed out every half-threat the Jordanians mustered with a tireless performance in front of the back four, shielding his central defenders superbly.
This in turn allowed the fullbacks to press forward almost with impunity.
Josh Risdon relished his opportunity to start and while he may have been caught by the higher pace of the game later on, Milligan, Trent Sainsbury and Bailey Wright formed an effective triangle to cover for those instances when the fullbacks were caught higher up the park.
Aaron Mooy’s second goal exemplified the way Postecoglou has got this team thinking. Mooy saw an attacking opportunity from the edge of his own penalty area.
His pass bisected the Jordanian midfield and before the back four had even a chance to counteract, Robbie Kruse had played Mooy, who had run 70 metres for the return pass, into space.
Mooy’s left-foot finish effectively finished the game as a contest. No wonder Postecoglou regards Mooy as the best player in the A-League.
Not just the best Australian player, but best player, full stop. It was Kruse’s second assist of the evening, and he laid on the third goal as well, a wonderful first-time curling cross that had Tim Cahill performing as much hang time as Steph Curry to head home a superb goal.
Kruse’s contribution was curtailed by one of the ugliest tackles seen in international football in years.
Jordanian number 23 Yousef Ahmed Mohammad deserved arresting, let alone the yellow card he got, for a terrible two footed, knee high lunge from behind. Kruse hit the turf and mindful of his long spells on the sideline with knee and Achilles injuries, it was a nervous wait for fans, team mates and coaching staff until he resumed his feet. Postecoglou wisely replaced Kruse a few minutes later.
Probably the only disappointed player on the park at full time was Mat Ryan, who could do nothing to prevent the Jordanian’s consolation goal from striker Abdallah Deeb.
It was the only shot on target the Jordanians mustered and Ryan, in the typical goalkeeper mindset, will be filthy he didn’t keep a clean sheet. In truth, he had so little to do that Seinfeld’s George Costanza could have offered him a chair.
Australia then advance to the final qualifying phase on the back of the best attacking display from the national team in many years. While there are sterner tests to come, Jordan themselves were a stern test – their 2-0 victory over the Socceroos at home late last year is proof of that.
Australia passed that test at full throttle, and they are looking like a team cast in the mould of Postecoglou’s brilliant Brisbane Roar team from the A-League. With no hint of a pun in light of their new sponsor, they are a well-oiled machine.
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