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Those that got up the other morning to catch the Socceroos taking on Ireland in Limerick, received a rare treat. It wasn’t just the three goals and the clean sheet. It was a rare treat because of the quality of play and the circumstances of the encounter.
Consider this:
1. Ireland is in the middle of their World Cup qualifiers and are doing reasonably well (having recently earned an away draw against Italy).
2. Ireland have an excellent record at home, especially defensively (with Dunn and O’Shea featuring in the back four).
3. Pim was essentially experimenting with the back six – but you wouldn’t have known it.
Given the context, a 3-0 win is well beyond anyone’s wildest expectations, although as the commentary team mentioned, perhaps it reflects our new high ranking?
Let’s have a look at some of the performances and what it means for the squad as a whole.
Central defenders
With Keane limited to just one scoring opportunity, you would have to say that they did well. Kisnorbo found himself in the unlikely role of the senior defender, and despite being impeded by heavy bandaging round his head, was solid.
North was occasionally shown up, particularly with his first touch, but generally performed satisfactorily.
Madaschi and Spiranovic replaced them at various points in the second half, and were both able to maintain the cohesiveness of the back half, although Ireland did start threatening a bit more in the last 25 minutes.
With all the expectations that we have put on Spiranovic, I have to say that he just keeps impressing every time he gets a run. I know he’s young and relatively inexperienced at international level, but he still seems the most likely to me to partner Neill next year, and he will ultimately become a 10 year Socceroo.
Full backs
Rhys Williams gave another solid performance. He has a good attacking instinct backed up by a solid defensive game. For the second goal, he won the ball in an advanced position, cut into the box and managed a good shot on his left which was parried away to Cahill who slotted it home.
He’s probably our third choice right back, and in that context, he’s pretty handy.
Carney did his case no harm to be the one to take over from Chippers, given that that left back position is currently wide open, with no one’s name penciled in, let alone written with indelible ink.
His attacking qualities cannot be faulted: overlapping runs, skill on the ball, crossing, and as we saw at the 90th, he can smack it from distance. His defensive game is still not quite there yet, and while he did reasonably well in that department, just occasionally it was obvious that his positioning was slightly awry, allowing the attacker to get a slightly more advantageous position than should have been the case.
Defensive mids
Wilkshire partnered Jedi as an unlikely holding mid partnership, and one would have to conclude that it proved to be a very successful partnership.
Wilkshire has already stamped himself as Mr Versatility, a quality that Hiddink admired in the last WC. What Wilkshire possesses is great tactical awareness and flawless, quick decision making, and he displayed these qualities many times over during the game.
Jedi had a nervous few minutes with the odd stray pass, but once he settled down, his game too was flawless, in particular, his positioning and reading of the game. I lost count of the amount of times that he was able to intercept a pass.
In fact, this was a feature of the team as a whole – any stray pass from the Irish was quickly dealt with and tidied up. What’s more, we were able to do it cleanly. If I’m not mistaken, the foul count at the end of the first half was 8-2 against the Irish.
Do not underestimate the importance of making clean challenges and winning back possession when it comes to playing in World Cup finals.
Attackers
I’ll put our front four together, because that’s pretty much the way we played it. While Timmy was playing ostensibly as a midfielder, he was often to be found forward of McDonald, and almost just as quickly helping out in the back third, that’s the way Timmy plays the game.
While we all have doubts about McDonald’s capacity to play as a lone striker, we’re all aware that if there was a player who can support McDonald from a slightly deeper position, it’s Timmy, and that’s the way it worked out, with both combining for the first goal, and it was a gem.
Neither Bresh or Kewell were stand outs, but both had decent games, popping up in unexpected places, helping to retain the ball in the final third, and helping the full backs out when it was necessary.
Holman replaced Timmy at the start of the second half and did reasonably well. We all know he’s not Timmy, and we all know his first touch occasionally lets him down (as it did once tonight in what should have been a good scoring position), but he brings other qualities to the squad and he’s a decent back up.
Ruka and Carle came on late in the game. Ruka showed glimpses of his pace, while Carle played a few deft chips that helped us get behind the Irish defence. He really did make the most of his 10 or so minutes.
Conclusion
Almost faultless.
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