World champions Germany have given Australia a reminder of their place in football’s pecking order with a 3-2 win at the Confederations Cup.
The Socceroos fought back from a decidedly dicey opening half when Tom Rogic scored another belter to cancel out Lars Stindl’s opener.
Julian Draxler’s penalty and Leon Goretzka’s goal which came minutes either side of halftime sealed Australia’s fate, though Tomi Juric did scramble home a consolation goal.
The best and worst of Ange Postecoglou’s side was on display in Sochi.
The opening half-hour saw Australia on the ropes, with Stindl’s fifth-minute opener bringing fears of a belting.
The 28-year-old found an acre of space to volley Julian Brandt’s cut-back past Mat Ryan and the inattentive back three.
But Germany’s failure to cash in on early chances allowed Rogic to rifle home a 41st minute equaliser.
The Canberran – clearly Australia’s best player – kept his composure to score at the second attempt from long range, after his first was blocked – to shock the 28,605 at the Olympic Stadium.
Parity lasted all of three minutes.
An out-of-sorts Massimo Luongo lunged at man-of-the-match Goretzka in the box and Draxler’s penalty ensured Germany went into the halftime break ahead once more.
Two minutes after the break, a dazzling through-ball from Joshua Kimmich put Goretzka through to thrash past Ryan at close range.
Then, an Australian lifeline.
Another fine Rogic run drew a free-kick which Juric scrambled home when goalkeeper Bernd Leno fumbled.
But there was to be no off-the-canvas third for Postecoglou’s side, which finished stronger but left themselves too much to do.
The first-up loss makes it difficult to see Australia getting out of the group, with taxing matches against Cameroon and group leaders Chile to come.
Sydneysider
Guest
"the third best venue in melbourne "???? I think this is the best venue in Melbourne for football.
Nemesis
Guest
AAMI Park is the No.1 Football venue in Victoria. The FFA won't pay a cent to play the game here. Queensland & NSW Govts have made offers but the Victorian Government's offer seems to be the most lucrative and the coach and players want to play at AAMI Park for the surface quality and the atmosphere.
Lain bortherly
Guest
anybody else heard the rumour ?. Thailand v socceroos game to be held it at AAMI oh my god !!!. Cant express how disappointing this is the third best venue in melbourne in early September cant understand FFA these days dont know what planet they are on anymore just gutted to hear this rumour. I know things are bad at socceroos HQ but really this bad should we play the game on Lithgows municipal park near the swerage works to save a bit of spending money for the FFA. FFA just give up resign & give someone else with a real idea a go at how to organise home games for the socceroos you suck !!.
vin
Guest
I wouldnt call it the golden generation mate, the job of the FFA was to continue to improve the playing stock that the NSL was introducing, something that has gone downhill every year since then. the reason we were so good at world youth cups reaching qtrs and semi's was that the youth team australian players were all playing first grade NSL before the age of 20, you had 10 teams alone from Sydney and Melbourne. plenty of opportunity for youth. now there are 5 foreigner spots, what chance does a young player have Just ask someone with experience such as Mark Rudan
Evan Askew
Guest
Fatima had the golden generation. Portability has a team that for the most part does not play at the same level.
Kaks
Roar Guru
Good suggestion. He was always reliable and accomplished on the ball.
Sydneysider
Guest
Nemesis, did you see my post above about Nick Ansell signing with Portuguese team CD Tondela?? Not bad for an A-League player who was on the bench for Melbourne Victory most of last season. Looks like someone is watching the A-League from overseas.....
j,binnie
Guest
sepr - when assessing a team or it's players it is important to recognise the fact that in this game we were playing a team made up of seasoned professionals,whether it was the "a","b" or "c "team does not matter ,what we have to look at ,and assess, is how our "top" team performed. That means each player has to be assessed individually and then compared with their opponents. In recent games we have faced teams with "world class"players in their line ups and our boys have been shown as lagging behind in the basic skills of the game. The answer to this problem has to be addressed,and soon,for there is much evidence that our immediate neighbours in Asia are fast catching up or by passing our levels. Cheers jb.
punter
Guest
Joachim Loew has some different thoughts on Socceroos development; http://www.foxsports.com.au/football/socceroos/confederations-cup-2017-socceroos-must-fire-early-against-cameroon-says-mat-ryan/news-story/5d6c0bedce492815237d2ecf457e9b1e
sepr
Guest
When you play with 3 strikers you need very good midfielders which Australia doesn't have. I would rather see the Socceroos play 3-5-2 and keep switching to 5-3-2 depending on the situation. The Italian way.
pacman
Guest
Hope you are right Nemesis. First name that comes to mind for bench warmers is Brad Smith, and he is not the only one. Like I wrote, one is one too many
Stevo
Roar Rookie
Good news for Juric and he has stepped up for the Roos. Good luck to him.
AGO74
Guest
Er....schwarzer spent 2 years of his +20 year career in Germany. His experience in Germany is not exactly representative of his career compared to when he was a first choice player in the epl (I think he still holds record for most appearances by a foreigner in epl). The best players of our golden generation we're overwhelmingly first team players in big leagues (kewell viduka Cahill Neill Emerton Bresciano Grella). Even other players not in top leagues were first teamers in smaller leagues (culina/psv Moore/rangers chippers/basel). That said It is pleasing that we are starting to see our players go to the next stage. Specific to juric I haven't seen any criticism of his form last night or last week against Saudis on this forum. Here's hoping that one of these rumours (and that's all this is) are true.
Nemesis
Guest
We'll soon see, won't we? Many of the Golden Generation spent time on the benches. Schwarzer spent his entire career in Germany on the bench. Two EPL clubs reportedly spent club record Transfer Fees to buy Matt Ryan and Aaron Mooy. If that's for bench warming that's irrational behaviour.
pacman
Guest
That is all very well Nemesis, providing the scouts have not been tasked with finding fill-in players destined to take their places as bench warmers. We already have too many of those in our national squad. One is one too many.
Nemesis
Guest
Reports coming through that Tomi Juric has been made an offer by Ligue1 team to St Étienne. And another offer will be coming from Bundesliga club, Hamburg. So, even though the majority on The Roar don't rate any of our National Team players, they keep getting offers to play in the big Euro leagues. Just have to assume Euro scouts don't read these forums; which is odd, but they must have their own research team. Story: http://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2017/exclusive-st-etienne-offered-tomi-juric/
sepr
Guest
they should sack him right now. Tim Cahill could coach that team better.
sepr
Guest
That's because that German B team was pretty average.
Stevo
Roar Rookie
Ray Gatt in The Australian speaks for many here: "But that second 45 minutes only serves to sugar coat the issues for this Australian team. Let’s not forget, Germany scored early in the second half then seemed to take the foot off the pedal. The main problem is that we are not good enough to play three at the back against quality teams and that is especially so when the midfield can’t get its act together. Brazil ruthlessly exposed that last week, as did the Germans. I get it that Postecoglou wants to challenge the players, that he wants to take the Australian game to a new level and good on him for trying. Pragmatism is not in his vocabulary. But, there are times when you need just sit back and look at assessing the situation. That time has come. The sooner the Socceroos revert to a back four and a more dependable 4-3-3 formation the better." http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/football/australia-v-germany-scoreline-flattered-the-socceroos/news-story/982dd40c749c8f36cd1c0355c1a678cb
Nemesis
Guest
That's what I saw, Caltex. An abysmal 1st half punctuated by a few seconds of brilliance from Tom Rogic, but, before we could enjoy the celebration, Luongo had jumped in for no reason to give away a penalty. The 1st half reminded me of WC2014 against Chile. We were absolutely smashed in the opening 20 mins. Then Timmy got a goal back & we suddenly had belief. After that, the rest of the Chile match and all the Nethrlands match we played football like I want Australia to play. Let's hope the final hour against Germany is what we'll see for the rest of this tournament.