It was the biggest win in Ange Postecoglou’s tenure as Socceroos manager, yet the former A-League coach may find it difficult to take away any valuable lessons from the 5-0 thrashing of Bangladesh on Thursday night in Perth.
Not since December 2012 have the Socceroos looked so comfortable disposing a minnow nation – when Chinese Taipei were defeated 8-0 – and that is probably the first positive to take from the victory.
The Socceroos were ruthless, something The Roar‘s Rob Brooks called for yesterday, and they looked comfortable from kick-off to the 20-minute mark, after which they were in true cruise control, albeit without giving their opponents breathing space.
Bangladesh were disappointingly poor, taking on such an ultra-defensive position that the Socceroos were effectively able to play 3-5-2 for most of the first half. Central defender Bailey Wright was often the only player not pushing beyond the centre circle – Matthew Spiranovic essentially playing as a number six.
Captain Mark Milligan was superb at the base of a midfield diamond containing Aaron Mooy, Massimo Luongo and Tom Rogic, his role as fulcrum expertly carried out. Yet the lack of pressure on him during the match makes analysing his passing statistics too deeply a little pointless.
Nevertheless, the midfield quartet was the main reason for Socceroos fans to get excited.
Mooy was finally given 90 minutes to prove himself at international level and he was one of the best on the field. His movement matched that of Luongo and Rogic – whose creative talents fans are well aware of – and the trio will make it hard for Postecoglou to welcome back Mile Jedinak into the starting line-up.
This looked like the future, it looked like a Postecoglou midfield. Granted the opposition did not provide much resistance, but there was enough on show to give this line-up another chance to further evolve.
Rogic and Mooy both grabbed goals, Milligan and Luongo provided assists – it does not get much more emphatic. The return of Rogic will rightfully be hailed, his performance was exceptional and his understanding with Luongo exciting. Yet to see Mooy seamlessly join in was the biggest positive.
Tarek Elrich was a beast on the right wing of Australia’s formation, bombing forward constantly and linking up well with his teammates – mainly with Luongo but also at times with Rogic. Similarly, Jason Davidson’s increased game time with Huddersfield Town looks to be having the desired effect – his crossing was largely faultless.
Yet the two fullbacks, both more adept in attack than defence, will be under much more pressure in Dushanbe.
For most of his time in charge, Postecoglou has steadfastly stuck true with a 4-3-3 formation, using Tim Cahill as the lone striker with two pacy forwards in support.
His decision to drop Cahill to the bench – though he’ll likely return for the Tajikistan clash – and use Mathew Leckie and Nathan Burns as a striking partnership in a 4-4-2 (diamond) was refreshing.
Leckie quashed any concerns that Australia would lack an expert aerial presence, impressing with his hang time ability on numerous occasions. He scored his first goal since a 3-0 win over Canada last year, and deserved two more. It was the Ingolstadt forward’s best performance in green and gold since the 2014 FIFA World Cup, that finishing still needs work though.
The less said about Cahill’s introduction off the bench the better – though Postecoglou probably wanted to give his legs game time ahead of Tajikistan – but Chris Ikonomidis and Jackson Irvine put in promising shifts and grabbed valuable minutes.
Ikonomidis looked right at home playing international football, and could have marked his second Socceroos appearance with a goal, his header agonisingly grazing the upright. Similarly, Irvine should have had a debut goal after having two decent opportunities.
But again, the Bangladeshis were so poor it would be folly to get too excited. Tajikistan is the big test, though it would be fantastic to see the same eleven players line up once more.
When considering the long travel distances, the foreign conditions and stronger opposition, however, Postecoglou may have to make a few tweaks, though hopefully nothing too major.
While it is hard to take any concrete lessons after punishing an inferior opponent, the line-up has potential. It may not suit every opponent the Socceroos face, but it is promising to see Postecoglou’s switch from his preferred 4-3-3 result in a successful test.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
You obviously haven't spent too much time talking soccer with English supporters! Absolutely no one is more capable of hand wringing than them!!
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Personally, I would just be hoping that the people who watched the game were able to work out that the opposition was virtually non-existent, meaning it's pointless discussing what did or didn't happen. Save it for when we are up against someone who can actually play the game. It would be like viewing a training run, and drawing the conclusion that because the passing was crisp during that training run, that that was somehow meaningful.
Horto Magiko
Roar Rookie
"I wonder if there’s a Mr AFL on the English football forums trying to put a negative spin on the win that cemented England’s qualification for France 2016?" Quote of the day and it's only 10am. I'm only half joking, but Australian football fans should receive a global recognition award for the discrimination and oppression they face supporting the game they love within their own borders .. Probably nowhere else in the world are football fans subject to such an ingrained anti-football culture or have to endure such opposition at the hands of the mainstream media, rival codes and tr0lls alike.... We deserve a bl0ody medal I tell ya! Lol
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
The millionaire superstars who all play in the world's allegedly best football league beat San Marino 6-0 this morning. I wonder if there's a Mr AFL on the English football forums trying to put a negative spin on the win that cemented England's qualification for France 2016? PS: San Marino are ranked 193 in the world, which is around 40 ranks LOWER than Bangladesh. England is ranked 10 in the world, which is around 50 ranks HIGHER than Australia. The Fifa ranking disparity between England & San Marino far exceeds the disparity between Australia & Bangladesh.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
That's a bit rich considering last World Cup Qualification, which we entered a round later, saw crowds of 24-25,000 in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne for Oman, Thailand and Saudi Arabia respectively, all considerably higher profile opposition than Bangladesh.
Stevo
Roar Rookie
We can all take what we want to take out of a game. One person's 'learning' is different to another's. In The Age Ange is quoted as saying: "I think you learn about the players' mindset [from such a match]. "It could have been easy to go out there and try and get some cheap goals and do things on an individual basis. We had a physical advantage and could have tried to use that to win the game. Fair enough. But what I saw was a Bangladeshi side that was unsure, less individually skilled and too easily brushed off the ball. And they knew it. They were not mentally up for it. Playing in front of our home crowd we executed to plan without having to skip a beat and without being challenged. We had nearly 82% possession. So to me the game presented very few challenges for our lads from a very inferior team. Did we learn how the team game plan and player performance would stand up against far better teams? Ones that pressed and put far more pressure on us? No. But I think we'll find out soon.
Horto Magiko
Roar Rookie
So basically your point is: People on a sports opinion website, shouldn't discuss the formation, tactics or performance of the team because the opposition was sub par? Wow. Thanks. So insightful.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
I did not suggest it should have happened, I'm making the point that you could have done anything and got the same scoreline. Bangladesh provided absolutely zero resistance, so whether they did or that, it's entirely meaningless because it was no better than a good training run (in fact, I'd suggest a training run would have been tougher than Bangladesh).
Horto Magiko
Roar Rookie
Great post Ben. If only I had your eloquence. "If we started lairizing and scoring goals for fun then it would have indeed been worth little apart from the points. We needed to continue to play to the game plan which is what we must master in order break down more technically superior stacked defenses". Exactly this. Stick to the game plan. Playing spira as a 9 and leckie as GK as mf suggests would be a pointless and idiotic exercise. Sure, perhaps we could still beat them but what would we "learn"... What would we "glean" from the experience.. See what I did there? lol
The artist formerly known as Punter
Guest
Ben, this was what I liked about our performance, we continued to play to our game plan & probed to try to break down a heavily stacked but poor defence. The midfield was not pressured whatsoever, however, we did not revert to glory hunting of hitting long glory shots or individual runs trying to beat 6or 7 poor players on their own. We just probed all game, looking for that extra piece of magic (Burns playing in Mooy with a delightful pass) that is so often missing in our play.
Brick Tamland of the pants party
Guest
I think so, seems there are some twitterati and tools on forums saying never again because it wasn't completely sold out. Close to 20k is outstanding for Bangladesh as far as i'm concerned,i'm not getting my hopes up for any games in the pointy end of qualifying though but you never know.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
Perth showed that they deserve far more Socceroos games. The Shed sounded great.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
The 5-0 scoreline is an interesting one as it was pleasing to see it didn't blow out as a result of us applying individual technical superiority. If we started lairizing and scoring goals for fun then it would have indeed been worth little apart from the points. We needed to continue to play to the game plan which is what we must master in order break down more technically superior stacked defenses; something that we have struggled mightily with in the past. Hopefully we learned enough however I agree with MF that it would have been better if our midfield had been under more pressure.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Horto At no stage has Stevo (or I) said that the NT sucks. We are saying that you can't really draw any conclusion from a game in which the opposition was so poor (pathetic to be exact). So when people say: gee whiz, we held onto possession well - of course we did! the opposition provided absolutely zero resistance. And when people say: gee whiz, we won the ball back well - of course we did! Bangladesh rarely strung two passes together (and that is no exaggeration). We won the ball back with absolute ease, zero effort was required. In short, nothing can be gleaned from such a game, and it's crazy that people are talking about formations as if that was somehow meaningful against Bangladesh. You could have put leckie in goals and Spira as the main striker and the result would have been exactly the same.
Horto Magiko
Roar Rookie
Now 5-0 isn't good enough.. Ok stevo and mf.. Yes our NT sucks and there's nothing to be learned. It's time we pack in this soccer business. Afl anyone?
Horto Magiko
Roar Rookie
Exactly fussbal... Heart outclassed and almost knocked out by semi-pros. And I'm sure the club didn't learn one thing from the experience. So if 5-0 for the nt is a fail, what is scraping through with a 90min savior against clearly "weaker" opposition? Typical heart fans, don't understand the minutiae of football, let alone the concept of success..it's foreign to them.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Stevo I haven't been wanting to say it, but now that you have broached the subject...yes...to score only five goals against a complete rabble like the Bangladeshis is a bit short of where I expected the scoreline to be. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter because we will move out of the preliminary stage of qualification with ease.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Horto We could have sent our U17 team out there against the Bangladeshis, and we would still have got the 3 points. That is the point. They were completely inept and hopeless, so nothing can be learned from this game. Even the idea of trying out some youngsters doesn't prove too much because the bangladeshis were so hopeless. Are people understanding the key point? The Bangladeshis could not play the game - it was as if eleven of us had been chosen randomly off the Roar to play the Socceroos.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Any opponent - regardless of talent - can only play as well as the opposition allows. I'm not saying Bangladesh are world beaters but, perhaps, AUS proactive attacking football prevented Bangladesh from playing close to its potential? Only a few weeks ago, I saw your club MelbCity playing an FFA Cup match against a State League team of semi-professionals. Your team contained internationals from Australia & Europe. Yet the semi-professionals bossed the team of professionals & it took a 90' goal for the professionals to beat the semi-professionals. What does it mean? See my opening statement.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
"I said that the Bangladeshis were so inept and hopeless that the game was no better than a training run, maybe not even as good." Same can be said for every AFL match where the score difference is over 10 goals. I read that Hawthorn beat Fremantle recently, who are top of the ladder. Fremantle were so inept & hopeless that day, the game was no better than a training run maybe not even as good. Same when Hawthorn beat Sydney & Carlton by similar blowout margins in the following weeks. The opponents were so inept that the game was no better than a training run. The sad part is those inept teams that were smashed feature the best AFL players in the world & 2 of the teams that were totally inept are amongst the best AFL teams in the world this season. I presume that's how you and the AFL media & AFL coaches analysed those matches?