Australia’s Olympic qualifying hopes were dealt a blow by their third successive 0-0 draw on Sunday as Japan and South Korea both stayed on course with narrow wins.
Olyroos coach Aurelio Vidmar said he was considering ordering extra shooting practice after the Aussies were held in Sydney by Uzbekistan, after similar bore draws against UAE and Iraq.
The complete absence of goals has put Australia under severe pressure at the halfway stage and it got worse for them later on Sunday as Iraq leap-frogged them into second after they claimed their first win of the campaign a 2-0 away victory over winless UAE.
The top teams from three groups gain an automatic ticket to London 2012, while the second-placed sides enter a round-robin with the prize of a play-off against an African nation.
“Maybe it’s time we stopped doing tactical work at training and concentrated a bit more on shooting,” Vidmar said. “We seem to be lacking that little bit of extra finesse (in attack).
“We get in front of the penalty box time and time again, but the wall pass goes too long or the through ball hits the striker on the back of the neck instead of going in front of him.
“It’s the small detail that’s letting us down.”
In Tokyo, Yuki Otsu’s 86th-minute winner gave Japan a 2-1 win over Syria and the outright lead in Group C with a maximum nine points.
Striker Otsu got on the end of a Yusuke Higa cross to settle it for the Japanese after Omar Al Suma’s solo effort had cancelled out defender Mizuki Hamada’s first-half opener.
South Korea needed a first-half penalty as they edged Saudi Arabia 1-0 to stay top of Group A.
Cho Young-Cheol put his 33rd-minute spot-kick past Saudi ‘keeper Hussein Shaian after defender Ahmed Walibi’s foul, stretching South Korea’s group lead to four points ahead of second-placed Oman’s game with Qatar.
South Korea are three points clear of Oman who could only manage a 1-1 draw at home to Qatar.
The Qataris are a point further back after drawing all three of their matches.
In Kuala Lumpur, Bahrain stunned Malaysia with three goals in the last 10 minutes as they stormed back to win a remarkable match 3-2.
The visitors had gone behind to a long-distance scorcher from Malaysian livewire Muhammad Nazmi and they looked dead-and-buried when Mohamed Al Hayam put the ball in his own net midway through the second half.
But a moment of magic from Saad Al Amer reduced the deficit on 80 minutes when his sublime bicycle-kick dropped over goalkeeper Khairul Fahmi and into the Malaysian net.
Four minutes later Bahrain were back on terms courtesy of a superb free-kick from Isa Al Ahmed, who was then on hand to fire the winner on 86 minutes.
The dramatic turn-around earned Bahrain their first points of qualifying but it put a big dent in the hopes of Malaysia, who have now lost twice since lifting the Southeast Asian Games trophy last week.
SAMURAI
Roar Pro
Is Vidmar allowed to call up over-age players for London 2012? Because if he is, then I would like to see Erik Paartalu considered to play as the holding midfielder. He's been unbelievably consistent and reliable ever since last season, and rarely makes the wrong decision. Paartalu would also give quality distribution to the more attack-minded players higher up the pitch.
Eddie
Guest
just to clarify too all those who might be offended by my starting 11choice
Eddie
Guest
haha Got nothing against the a-league I have been a member for 6 years now and rarely miss a game
j binnie
Guest
superG - Right on again,It's called penetrative running and is supposed to create space for the "killer" balls that our midfielders have to be capable of making. Unfortunately the TV screens are seldom big enough to capture the whole scene but watch Roar's new front man,he seldom stops moving for an instant and yet always seems to be on the spot "just in case" when a team-mate scores. He should be mandatory viewing for our youngsters. I have used the quote before but a famous British manager who took his "local" team to a European Cup Final said it, "possession without penetration is totally useless". Keep the good sense coming. jb
super G
Guest
Cheers jb! There is also another disturbing element which has crept into the play of our junior teams which I have not touched on yet and it's a biggy. Laziness! Particularly in the front third. Players are not running into space enough without the ball. It's like a schoolyard mentality out there some times. It's like "Well, he won't pass it to me or he'll probably lose the ball anyway so why waste my energy trying to find space?" You're never going to open up teams with sideways passing and aimless long balls, whether Brazil or Bangladesh. This is something of a cancer that has crept into our play at junior level and it's one of the first things that has to be addressed. Look at why the Germans are such a machine. Player for player they are no better than the other top 15 teams in the world but they have work ethic,that's the difference. They work hard and play smart. The thing is you need to install these ethics into kids when they're 15-16. When they're in their early twenties you've probably missed the bus. Unless they go to a reputable European club with a smart coach who drills it into them. That's a wake up call a lot of our kids need and it will define what sort of career they will have.
j binnie
Guest
superG -Very well said, you have laid out the facts for all to see and have hit the nail right on the head. We do have a problem right across the youth coaching at international level. There are problems to be sorted if we are to retain the credibility earned for us by our so-called "Golden Generation". jb
j binnie
Guest
Midfielder - Why would you be loth to stack up your knowledge against a "leading" coach?. Now if you were talking Mourhino,Ferguson or Mancini I might,only might, agree with you, but you know what you see and are entitled to pass comment on that. I watched this whole game,(my wife, who is a part-time fan, gave up after 30 minutes) and if she, like me (and Bozza) notices how many times we gave possession away cheaply then I would fully expect the coach to pass comment on that failing. What did we get?. He came on post game saying he was very pleased with the performance his only problem (today's press) the boys need some extra shooting practice !!!!!!! He has to be kidding. Come to think of it I have recently watched Australia playing at 3 different youth levels and all of them have shown this basic problem,the making of, and selection of, the right pass at the right time.If this malady is spread over 3 different age groups it points to a lot more than shooting practice being needed,and needed soon. jb ps Bozzas comment about diving bringing the game into disrepute amused me no end,he may be a bit young but he should have seen the mighty Inter Milan in the early 60's dominate European football with diving,shirt pulling,feigned injury etc all part of the master plan to stop an opponent building momentum. Mind you they,Inter, had some superb players as well but Herrera,being an amateur student of psychology,thought this an essential part of his grand plan. jb
Jupiter53
Guest
I was there too and boy was it frustrating. I'm never sure whether it's the coach not giving the right instructions or the players not carrying them out so I'm not allocating any particular blame. However there were several things that struck me as missing in our approach if we wanted to win the game. The first was to do with team formation. We were broadly playing 4-3-3 against 4-4-2 [although their 2 wide midfielders tended to push up when they were attacking] That meant that our 3 midfielders were always struggling against their 4. The way around that is for a defender to push forward into midfield to make the extra passing option. It hardly ever happened apart from a few tentative ventures forward by the fullbacks and a great run from Jurman late in the game. So often the only Australian passing option was to a defender standing deep rather then pushing forward and past the midfielder, and that meant we had to go round and start again. The other problem was the general lack of movement and interchange. If I had $10 for every time a midfielder looked up to see no-one showing for a pass then I'd be plastered for the rest of the year. Instead of attackers switching and midfielders going beyond there was too often a static tableau. Still, I thought Ryan was excellent and I always enjoy watching Petratos
Punter
Guest
The Roar has been doing this last season as well & you would find it was based on Broich, Mckay, Nichols & Partulau, 3 Aussies.
Roger
Guest
CHI? As in China? What? The China who hasn't made it to the last round of WC qualifiers for the last two WCs running?
Punter
Guest
Now lets have a look Leckie, Oar, Amini. Devere, Jurman & Ryan & you can even add Bulut here all came from the A-League.
SVB
Guest
Thanks Kasey. Yes of course it was 0-0. I suppose it felt like a loss for Australia in some sense. We really needed to win that game. Can't see us beating them in Uzbekistan.
Kasey
Guest
Uh SVB, I hate to get in the way of your rant mate, but One thing that struck me was how much the Uzbekis have improved technically. That is how they beat us. You do know it was a 0-0 draw right? Agree with your other point. They will continue to improve as a football nation and it won't be long until their senior team joins the big boys at the AFC table(AUS/ROK/JAP/CHI) by qualifying for a WC Finals.
west syd
Guest
correct spain do play that way but you have 11 world class players there, and the spain team is mainly barcelona and real madrid players. if you saw the roar game on the weekend could you see that it was the imports that make roar such a great side, take nothing away fromt he aussie players but the roar have the best import the aleague has seen..
Michael
Guest
You're mostly right. But if I can be a pedant, you probably should have said "Does Spain play like Barcelona?". Actually, they do!
west syd
Guest
careful eddie your disrespecting the a-league here with your lack of a-league selections. alot of posters here might find it offensive suggesting aleague players are not good enough.
Eddie
Guest
I don't like to say it but I would drop the majority of that starting 11, but as we all know that players that we would all prefer can't get releases from their euro clubs. In an Ideal world I would love to see a line up such as this: Ryan R.McGowan L.Devere M.Jurman S.Lowry C.Herd M.Leckie T.Oar M.Amini B. McGrath K.Bulut I would have picked Langerak in goals but apparently he doesn't qualify despite the fact he does not turn 24 until 10 after the olympics. And it would be great to see players like A. Mooy and Apostolos Giannou coming off the bench.
Midfielder
Guest
I went to the game ... I am loth to put my knowledge up against a leading coach... Two things stood out for me during the match.... first was the amount of diving that went on... TBH home crowds may boo the ref ... but at times there was no touch and once there was not a player within two meters of the player who fell over... for whatever reasons we are considered a physical side and it appears the refs simply call a foul each time a player goes down.. it was madding ... The coach could not control the ref calling a fouls all night.... However what stood out for me was the midfield... oboviously planing to instruction .... Mitch N ... plays a number 10 type roll for the Roar ... he spend most of the night showing down the wing or close to it... the outside mid not in play stayed on the wing and did not track in .... the denesive mid sat deep and when he got the ball his options were limited... I just tho the lack of a midfield in the centre of the park for most of the night was a poor coaching decision...
west syd
Guest
although i agree with what your saying but its like comparing apples and oranges. the nationals teams will never play as well as the roar, the roar play and train together everyday, same players each game, and their game is based around 4 players, last weekend it was the Broich, hernadez, Berisah, and Nakajima show. does argentina play like barcelona? no, its a totally different ball game
SAMURAI
Roar Pro
Agreed. If the Olyroos do make it to London 2012 then I'm sure the majority of the squad will be from Europe, with only a few domestic-based players (Petratos, Nichols, Dugandzic).