The Socceroos emerge from the toughest week of qualifying for Brazil 2014 with two points. Lucas Neill said pre-game that the team would’ve taken a point. To get it in the circumstances they did is even more satisfying.
The Socceroos adopted the same 4-4-2 formation as they did in the Denmark and Oman games. Tim Cahill replaced Harry Kewell in partnering Alex Brosque and Australia used his abilities in an uncomplicated manner.
The attacking plan was to get the ball to the front two as quickly as possible through the air or along the ground.
The flat 4-man midfield would then rush the Japanese defence as quickly as possible to collect the ball back from the strikers.
Then they would look to distribute wide to the overlapping fullbacks in Carney and North or play through the increasingly talismanic Bresciano.
This was similar to our early dominance of the Asian Cup Final. Japan was able to quell Tim Cahill’s aerial threat in that game through a tactical switch to bring on Iwamasa, who is strong in the air. However, Zacceroni did not make such a change this time.
Controlling a football match using this tactic is difficult. There is little emphasis on keeping the ball and thus it is easy to surrender the initiative to the opposition. That the Socceroos completely dominated the first 20 minutes of play in this way is testament to their attitude.
Japan’s awakening was inevitable and it was made easier in the 13th minute when Mark Milligan replaced the injured Bresciano. Bresciano is a player Australia lacks; a dynamic midfielder. He can defend and attack equally well and in doing so has become our most important player.
In the absence of Brett Holman he adequately, but not completely, fills Australia’s central attacking hole. Once he went off Australia had no ability to hold the ball in attack and so forward movements became even more rushed and predictable.
Japan, by the 25th minute were into the game.
They forced Australia to sit in a defensive box formation deep in their own half. They patiently tried to unlock the tight Australian defence, yet were not as composed as they usually were.
Endo, sitting at the base of the midfield, is usually so good at ‘reloading’ a Japanese attack.
However, he was stifled by one of either Cahill or Brosque who tried to pick him up as much as possible.
This move, along with tenacious disciplined defending and a sub-standard pitch, took the potency out of Japan’s forward movement.
However, the outrageously good Honda and Kagawa still caused considerable problems.
They, along with Endo on numerous occasions, were able to flick the ball to the side unguarded by Australia’s defensive box (a formation of four defenders behind the four midfielders) and allow Nagamoto and others to charge to goal.
This was particularly emphasised on the Blue Samurai’s right side where Kagawa attempted to expose Jade North. North held up fairly well in the end and on a couple of occasions even managed to dispossess Kagawa, Manchester United’s latest signing.
Luke Wilshire on the right side of midfield used his supreme fitness to help out North as much as possible.
The second half saw Australia begin to tire. Endo and Honda were dominating the midfield. Valeri and Milligan were having unimpressive games. Too easily Japan managed to dominate their central attacking hole. This was amplified in the 56th minute when Milligan was sent off for a questionable second yellow card.
Tim Cahill, who was unbelievable all game, was forced to drop back into midfield in Australia’s defensive structure. The extra man meant that Australia tired rapidly and Brosque was now alone in pressuring the Japanese higher up the park. Therefore Japan controlled the ball easier in more advanced positions.
Australia maintained their eight-man block in front of goal and it worked reasonably well. The Socceroos were content to allow the Japanese space on the flanks to cross, as they were confident they had the aerial power to deal with it.
This tactic ultimately held up and along with the aforementioned reasons Japan lacked potency. The goal came from a defensive lapse from the freshly introduced Nikita Rukyavytsa.
All night the Japanese had taken their corners short and no one tracked the run of the receiver. Once Japan had the ball on the corner of the box two Australian players went to him. One of them, in this case, Rukyavysta should’ve stayed with Honda who took the corner.
Therefore, Honda had a clear run into the box that found Kurihara to turn the ball in.
Australia was in a dire situation but they were not to be denied. Wilkshire converted a penalty in the 69th minute after Kurihara held Alex Brosque in the box. It was a line ball decision.
Ironically, Australia had the best chances for the rest of the game with Ogenovski hitting the crossbar. Japan controlled both the ball and the tempo yet were horrendously exposed by long balls and rapid attacking.
Damo Baresi
Guest
Good article anthcol. Keep up the good work & keep on posting analysis like this one of yours. I was at the game last night, a few of my observations. Schwarzer played great. North was composed & defended really well. Ogenovski was immense & was our best player IMO, even if he did tend to play a lot of long balls, ( it may have been a team tactic with Timmy up front). Lucas was very slow and looked completely rooted. He is only just getting by on his excellent reading of the play. I wouldn't be surprised if he goes downhill quickly from now on. He cracked the shits after our send off & walked around sooking for about the next 15 mins or so, including ball watching at the far post which allowed them to score. Sasha held the defence together, despite Lucas throwing the toys out of his pram. Wilkshire didn't do much, other than take a good penalty. Carney didn't do much. Mackay, disappointing, had zero impact. Valeri didn't do much, but hard to do much when our defence keep booting the ball over your head to the forwards. Milligan was on for less than a half, tried. Timmy, you could tell he was fired up even before the game started & I got the feeling that Holger was saving him for this game, knowing the Japanese fear him. Also Holger kept Timmy out of last game to get him fired up for this one. Timmy created problems & panic in the Japanese defence every time the ball came near him. Brosque had one good chance cleared off the goal line. Tried. Seemed to do quite a bit of diving. Won us a penalty but we were not shown my on the screen. No replay at ground of controversial incidents. Ruka, came on & did nothing. Holger, I was surprised when Bresc went off, must have been injured. Worried that the most creative talent Holger could come up with was Milligan. Granted Milligan did good last time in Melbourne combined with Bresc. But this time we had Milligan & Valeri combo. Not creative at all. I thought Holger would have put Mackay in Centre Midfield after Bresc went off, or even Kilkenny. Nope. Instead two central defensive mid fielders. Also Kennedy must have been injured because otherwise he should have replaced Brosque about an hour in. Our whole team were brave & showed fighting spirit but geez our "style" of play, ( if you can even call it that ) was pretty poor long balls and flick ons. Like under Eddie Thompson. Japan's movement was much better, quicker & more technical compared to ours. I was surprised that they did not outplay us even more. I think they are unsettled by us generally ( inferiority complex) & came to play, anticipating that we would be or play much better against them than we could actually manage. We were brave & finally came away with a point but we were quite lucky to do so. Worrying signs for us.
anthcol
Roar Pro
They went to 3 at the back very late on. For the most part they needed to keep 4 at the back, with two centre backs to occupy Cahill and Brosque. This hut Japan's midfield because Konno, their centre back is very good at playing out from defence. In the Asian Cup Final he moved into midfield to make room for the on coming Iwamasa. Nagamoto definitely in the first half was more conservative than usual. He pushed on a bit more in the second half and then more so one they had the man advantage.
anthcol
Roar Pro
Regards to the crowd it is unfortunate that tickets cost so much these days, especially with so many premium seats. McKay got injured so had to go off. He was brilliant though. Cahill tired because he had to drop back into Milligan's spot in defence but by the last 10 minutes was battling to do this. Given his aerial ability he had to stay on in my opinion. He made a few telling defensive headers as well.
Dinoweb
Guest
Being at the game, I too got caught up in the drama. It was an exciting, pulsating match. Despite losing Bresciano early, Australia really should have been in front by a couple of goals by the half hour mark, and on balance probably should have won the game, despite the send off. Japan worked there way back into the game, but I felt really struggled to create dangerous goal scoring opportunities. I have never been a Brosque fan, even when he played for Roar, but was hugely impressed by his work rate up front. Togeher with Cahill, Japan was only able to contain them by repeatedly fouling (8 fouls drawn between the two) with many others never called. I felt Mackay was oustanding, and surprised when he was subed off. I also noted that it was his replacement who gave Japan the goal only minutes after coming on. Personally I felt Cahill should have gone off at the time for Kruse. He played great, but was obvioulsy slowing down by that stage, and spent a large part of the final fifteen minutes walking. The only other comment I'd like to make is about the crowd. I felt like probably at least 10k of the 40k was Japanesse. 30k aussies then was rather poor. It was obvious that the cheap seats were rather full, but big gaps in a lot of the premium seating. Perhaps it's time for the FFA and Suncorp to realise that sitting in the third tier is not really premium seating at all, and adjust prices accordingly. Also the marketing was attrocious. Local mainstream media coverage was virtually non-existent, and surely the FFA should have publicised the game a little better. Preaching to the converted via online marketing does not grow the audience.
Blackmore
Guest
It was a very good game almost ruined by some bizarre referring decisions. I was surprised that Japan didn't try more balls into the box like the one they scored with. Ogenovski, Neill and Cahill, who seemed to be everywhere, ate anything lofted into the box up. Credit to Australia for causing Japan problem's even when they went down to 10 men. Brosque worked tirelessly. Clayton - very late on I noticed Japan with 3 at the back when they were attacking. I'm not sure how long they'd been doing that.
clayton
Guest
Being at the game, I kinda got swept up in the drama of it all. Brosque and Cahill gave the Japanese centrebacks a torrid time. I also thought that the Japanese full backs were a lot less involved in the attacking play than usual. Was this due to some of the formation choices? I dunno. Did Japan play a back four (leading to 2 vs 2) when they needed a back 3 (2 markers and cover)?