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If the Socceroos can’t beat Iraq on neutral territory on the road to Russia, perhaps they don’t deserve to qualify for the World Cup at all.
What on earth do we make of last night’s 1-1 draw on a skating rink of a pitch in Tehran?
There’s no doubt the playing surface hindered Australia’s attempts to play the kind of passing game coach Ange Postecoglou demands of his sides.
But there’s something so frustrating about watching Australia’s midfielders mis-hit pass after pass, mis-control ball after ball and generally make the wrong decision time after time in the final attacking third.
What is the point, for example, of sending Tim Cahill on as a substitute and then trying to dink little balls in behind the defence?
Why would Massimo Luongo choose to hit a low cross with the outside of his foot – the 90 minutes in his legs notwithstanding – when Cahill is screaming for the ball at the far post?
“Sometimes we just lacked a bit of composure,” Postecoglou told Fox Sports at the end of the match – and if it wasn’t for goalkeeper Mitch Langerak, the result could have been far worse.
Postecoglou’s surprise decision to start Langerak in goal instead of Mat Ryan, not to mention switch to a 3-4-3 formation, speaks volumes about a coach determined to avoid complacency.
But as bold as Postecoglou’s selections were, and as positive as he expects his team to be, the question has to be asked of whether a wet PAS Stadium almost cloaked in darkness is really the place to be experimenting?
“Our performance probably didn’t warrant three points today,” Postecoglou told Simon Hill – although had one of several Socceroos buried gilt-edged chances, they would have been well clear by the time Ahmed Yasin hooked home his 76th-minute equaliser.
The team is clearly struggling in front of goal – that’s now three World Cup qualifiers in succession that Australia has failed to score from open play in – and despite a solid performance from Tomi Juric up front, the Socceroos still looked relatively toothless in attack.
Wide man Robbie Kruse had a game to forget, and were it not for his headed goal, the same could largely be said of his counterpart Mathew Leckie.
Meanwhile, the back three looked stretched from the get-go, with Mark Milligan enduring an uncharacteristically torrid time in the heart of the defence.
Yet for all the times the plucky Iraqis sliced through the Australian defence – particularly in the second half – the Socceroos still butchered a handful of chances to win it.
Despite all his stellar performances at Championship high-fliers Huddersfield, Aaron Mooy is yet to truly his stamp his authority on the national team.
And in a performance crying out for some leadership in midfield, Mooy too often looked to push the pass when he could have put his foot on the ball and taken responsibility for the tempo of the game.
Perhaps the standout performance, aside from Juric, came from Burton Albion midfielder Jackson Irvine.
The lanky midfielder certainly has the physique to dominate in the middle of the park, but he was surprisingly fleet of foot on a truly diabolical playing surface.
Irvine will have done his reputation no harm at all in the decidedly English conditions, and he will surely be one of the first names on the team-sheet for Tuesday night’s vital game in Sydney.
If ever the Socceroos needed Sydney’s football-going public to turn out for the national team, it’s now, for a simply must-win game against the United Arab Emirates.
Postecoglou must surely have hoped to have accrued more than ten points from six games played, even if Australia enjoys the benefit of playing three of its final four games at home.
There’s simply no more margin for error, lest the road to Russia turn into our very own highway to hell.