It may have been the Socceroos’ worst performance under Holger Osieck but skipper Lucas Neill feels Friday’s ugly 2-1 comeback win over lowly Thailand can prove its weight in gold.
Australia looked set to cop their most embarrassing loss in 23 years when the War Elephants, ranked 120 in the world, led 1-0 in the 57th minute at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.
With their opening 2014 World Cup qualifying match on their road to Rio expected to be a cakewalk, the Socceroos were anxious, disorganised and made to look second-rate as they attempted to wriggle free in front of 25,540 stunned Brisbane fans.
But Josh Kennedy’s equaliser and Alex Brosque’s late match-winner, both laid on by home-town hero Matt McKay, saved Osieck’s side the indignity of travelling to Saudi Arabia with a winless start.
There were still plenty of red faces at the final whistle with veteran goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer saying the hard-earned win felt like a loss.
“One of the worst performances we’ve had in a very long time,” Schwarzer said.
“We were all over the place. We were chasing things instead of playing with our head.
“The performance wasn’t good enough. The positive was we got three points and we got a big kick up the backside and we know we have to improve vastly on that performance.
“We didn’t see that coming.”
But Neill, who like Schwarzer has been integral to their successful 2006 and 2010 World Cup qualifying campaigns, drew the positives out of the disappointing display.
The central defender felt the wake-up call would reap benefits for Wednesdays (AEST) second qualifier in Saudi Arabia as well as the rest of the campaign.
“We’re a good team, we just had a bad night and we still managed to win so is that a sign of a good team?,” Neill said.
“I dont know, it’s hard to say. A bad performance and three points is something we can look back on in a couple of weeks and say `ah, we got away with it’.
“We will be laughing about it come next June when we’re in the next round, with a bit of luck.”
Osieck admitted he had plenty to think about on the long flight to the Middle East as his surprise decisions to choose Neil Kilkenny ahead of Mile Jedinak at central midfield and move McKay to left back to accommodate Brett Holman didnt bear fruit.
While Australia dominated possession and camped out in the Thai half, they were too predictable in the first half as they launched cross after cross into the penalty area looking to cash in on Kennedy and Tim Cahill’s aerial skills.
“We didn’t really use the space on the flanks like we discussed,” Osieck said.
“The crosses were not of the quality we normally see in our team. It was congested in the penalty area. At times, we neutralised ourselves up front. It was very easy for Thailand to defend.
Bondy
Guest
An interesting reaction from Trigurboff , did he realise one of his sponsors is the major sponsor of the A League - Hyundai . Just another incredibly naive statement . They take the money/sponsors when it suits, though .
nordozzz
Roar Guru
lol yeah i'll take Lowy over Triguboff anyways...
Bin
Guest
You won the game guys! End of story! Australians over analyse every play every pass. Why do australia keep expecting so much out of their team? You also keep forgetting that there is no star player or x-factor for the socceroos anymore, all the players play for 2nd division English league sides, german 2nd division, serie B, Aleague, etc, they are still young still to peak and can improve but at the moment there is no big star player in australia team. They can only play as well as the coach can get the best out of them
Billy from Heidelberg
Guest
The Socceroos should never, ever play again in that city. BRISDUD! Socceroos matches should mainly be in Melbourne, with the occasional match in Sydney. 26k is a joke.
Ross
Guest
@pete4, wouldn't worry about it mate- though it comes as a surprise this article was published in a Fairfax newspaper
Qantas supports Australian Football
Guest
Fuss----as you would probably have guessed, I don't lose any sleep over eggball codes taking out wooden spoons up here---more of it the better I say.. ;)
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Just noticed that result QsAF Miron is a smart coach and, despite losing Smeltz, Culina and others, I'm sure GCU will again be very competitive this year. And, congratulations to the GCU on being the only professional sporting team in the region to not be embarrassing on the park. I've just heard that the AFL & NRL teams based on the Gold Coast BOTH finished bottom of the ladder. By contrast, the A-League's team on the Gold Coast were top of the table for much of their debut season and, last season, were one game away from the Grand Final. Whilst others may get excited about off-field issues, people who love and understand sport realise results ON the sports arena are all that matters - keep up the good work ... except when MVFC comes to town.
Qantas supports Australian Football
Guest
GOLD Coast United have won their pre-season friendly against Melbourne Victory at Owen Park 1-0. James Brown was the goal scorer, the youngsters 17th minute strike standing him in good stead heading into the new Hyundai A-League season. Head Coach Miron Bleiberg said he was happy with his troops. ''I think we did quite well and we have showed today that we will be as competitive as any other team in the league this season,'' he said. ''There were plenty of good signs even with quite a few senior players missing. "Ante Rozic showed his quality as did the two Dutch midfielders, so we have recruited well and we can be confident that we will have plenty of say in what happens this season.''
Qantas supports Australian Football
Guest
''I think soccer is boring,'' he told The Sun-Herald. ''I look at it all day and [the players] pretend to get hurt, they get a penalty and maybe - somehow - they score. Pete4----he states he watches it (football) all day... (lol) If he finds it so boring why in the world would you want to watch it all day... Smell the fear----he is probably wondering if he has backed the wrong horse perhaps, the Tigers instead of SFC
Titus
Guest
It's written for Leaguies, it's want they wan't to hear, though I'm not sure why we couldn't get his opinion on AFL and a range of other sports aswell. I think one of their greatest fears is rich ethnics supporting soccer, so they've knocked it up as a feel good story for Leaguies.
pete4
Guest
Anyone notice another very ordinary article today. Note the only sport in focus is "soccer" and it's boring (that's why I assume they need to write an article about it) http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/soccer-is-boring-why-highrise-harry-puts-his-money-into-league-20110903-1jrbx.html
Titus
Guest
The main thing is we didn't fail. We have the opportunity to learn from it and it is still possible with future results to get our Grade Point Average up to a respectable score and to use that to go on to further learning(i.e Brazil) I think there are signs there that we may need to do some academic writing practise, we need more clear, consise points placed into a good overall structure and we may need to use better sources.
Johnno
Guest
Mark swharcher was right it did feel like a loss. Equally i think Thailand will be gutted to lose that 1. They would of loved a draw, they had some good players missing, becoz i think like all teams in soccer now, they would back themselves to win at home against teams like australia, japan, said arabia or at least a draw. I would call this group tricky rather than difficult. I am glad teams like north korea are no tin our group or uzbekistan. It would be a nightmare hypothetical example here if in our last round match we had to go to NORTH KOREA IN HTE MIDDLE OF WINTER in freezing weather conditions, playing on astro turf and all the logistical problems of playing in north korea faces, and have to get a draw or a win. Graham Arnold's olyroos were so lucky to pinch a win there, they were totally dominated on the astroturf in freezing weather conditions. But to be honest the match is being played at night but i can't see us with only 2 days preparation and jet lag, being able to be beat Saudi arabia in saudi arabia. I think we should aim to sneak in a 0-0 draw like we got against Japan in Japan.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
dasilva, I want to get to Brasil 2014. End of story for me. I would have been gutted if we had even dropped a point against Thailand ... words cannot express how I would have reacted if we had lost. I know I'm feeling as content right now as I would have felt if we had played beautiful football to win 2-1.
dasilva
Guest
To me an ugly win is like getting C- in a test (or 50-55%) Sure we pass but I think we should aim for more then just mediocrity. Is it really wrong to aim to achieve excellence instead of settling for average?
Qantas supports Australian Football
Guest
Winning ugly would have been if the Thailand had won surly. They got the goal on a quick break and then parked the bus. Winning from a goal down is a creditable win. OK we can play a lot better but for me a win coming from behind is a good win indeed. Winning under Pim was always ugly in Asia.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
I can guarantee a lot MORE people would be upset if we played beautiful football and LOST! Based on what I have read and heard over the past 14 years, the impact - the sense of utter emotional despair - of THAT loss in Nov-97 - despite playing beautiful football - has impacted Aussie football fans in a way that "ugly wins" never have and, most likely, never will. If we qualify for the next phase, the match against Thailand will be confined to the football archives and forgotten. Heck, if the lads put in a decent performance on Wednesday morning, the match against Thailand will be forgotten. Methinks, this is all much ado about nothing (with apologies to Billy Shakespeare).
Realfootball
Guest
Who cares how we won? Well, I do, and so do a lot of other people. A very great many people around me at Suncorp cared, I can assure you. Your last sentence is an glib, simplistic misrepresentation of valid concerns. I am old enough to remember "the dark years". I also believe that we should be pushing relentlessly for excellence. The football against Thailand wasn't good enough, and we should be asking why not.
pete4
Guest
That's right 3 points is 3 points. But on the back of a performance were we struggled to create clear cut openings with only several days to get over to Saudi Arabia and play will be very interesting to see how Holger sets out the team over there...
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
An ugly win is just as important as a beautiful win. If you play beautiful football and lose, is the pain any less intense? Certainly NOT for me. As long as the lads and the gaffer realise that the style of play was risky and could have produced a critical home defeat then who cares how we won? I just flicked back through the our National Football Team's results in WCQs, I came across an amazing statistic ... ... the Australian National Football Team has only lost 1 game on home soil in the past 25 years. That is truly an amazing record - only one home loss in WCQs over 1/4 century - this would be the envy of even the strongest football nations on earth. And, that ONE loss only occurred in a meaningless match when Australia had already qualified for Phase 4 of the Asian Qualifiers for WC2010. It's little wonder that so many "younger generation" take the current success of the National Football team for granted and complain so much about every football issue ... they haven't lived through the dark years.