Australia have now gone eight games in 12 years without a victory over Japan, and their gutting 2-1 World Cup qualifying loss in Saitama will hurt as much as any of their failures.
Having overcome a terrible first half to get level through Ajdin Hrustic’s stunning, dramatic freekick, Socceroos defender Aziz Behich, also at fault for Japan’s opener, turned the ball into his own net after Mat Ryan had pushed a deflected shot against the post.
“It hurts, it would have been great to keep momentum going but now it’s important how we respond,” said Ryan.
His coach, Graham Arnold, claimed the Socceroos had played “some really great football, intelligent football.”
But Japan were worthy winners and it seems a massive stretch to suggest anything Arnold’s team produced went close to “great” or even “intelligent” aside from Hrustic’s mathematical precision to get his shot over the wall and keeper, then under the bar.
Having been dominated, Australia will rue the two points they presented to Japan as much as the two they dropped.
Japan’s scrappy winner, four minutes from the end, left Australia on nine points from four games in the group with Saudi Arabia, who beat China 3-2 on Wednesday morning, on 12 from four and Japan six from four. Australia play Saudi Arabia next on November 11.
Australia went into the match on a World Cup record qualification winning streak of 11 in this campaign, and knowing a win could go a long way to ending Japan’s chances of automatic qualification for next year’s World Cup in Qatar.
But a trip to Japan was always going to be a step up in intensity. There was also the matter of a depressing record against their rivals of late.
(Photo by Getty Images)
Australia’s most recent win was in June 2009 and Australia have never won in nine attempts in Japan.
The table pressure was clearly on Japan, who were six points behind Australia and Saudi Arabia at kickoff, but they seemed the more composed team from the start and Socceroos were sloppy through the centre of the pitch.
Socceroos coach Graham Arnold made two changes from the team that beat Oman 3-1 on Friday, resting Rhyan Grant for Fran Karačić, who has never touched foot in Australia, and replacing fatigued Awer Mabil with Aaron Mooy.
Arnold would have wanted Mooy to give Australia some solidity on the ball in midfield alongside Tom Rogic, but the Socceroos were bounced off their game by an intense Japanese performance.
Japan made early inroads down Australia’s left side, seemingly targeting left back Behich, and it was his mistake that led to the opening goal on eight minutes.
A ball was deflected as it came from Japan’s left and Behich waved his foot in a poor attempt to clear. Ao Tanaka found himself with time and space and kept his composure to drive the ball across Ryan and inside the net.
“We turned over the ball and they do have quality Japan but we gave them a leg up,” said former Socceroos World Cup representative Luke Wilkshire on the 10 coverage.
“It’s a disappointing goal. It’s a deflected cross but Behich just got it all wrong, he’s misread it. It’s a great finish but he’ll be very disappointed with that defending.
“It’s been some of those defensive lapses that’s caused us problems on that left side, their right. Behich started a bit shaky and once Japan get that goal they get a little bit of a spring in their step and they could sit and play on the counter.”
Mark Milligan agreed: “That’ the biggest difference. These little errors that you make against teams like Vietnam, you don’t get punished. Against teams like Japan, with the qaulity they have, these little mistakes end up in the back of the net.”
Australia snatched at a few half chances, with Martin Boyle unable to get into the game, and Japan should have gone two ahead on 34 minutes.
Hrustic, one of several Socceroos initially playing below their best, was robbed in midfield and Yuya Osako tore straight at a frantically back pedalling Australian defence. His mazy run confounded all of them and the only thing missing was the finish as he scooped his shot wide of Ryan, but also of the post.
Australia were reeling, but four minutes before halftime Adam Taggart, on a run of 12 games in all competitions without a goal, was denied a drought breaker by a sensational save from Shuichi Gonda.
Played in on the right, Taggart drove a fierce shot at the near post and Gonda’s wrist guided the ball onto the woodwork. The rebound fell for Mooy but his attempt was blocked.
It sent Australia to the dressingrooms with some hope that they could get something from the game. Five minutes into the second half, Mooy found space on the left and fizzed a long range effort narrowly wide.
Japan’s Liverpool forward Takumi Minamino thought he should have a penalty as he raced into the box to meet a cross, only to crash over in a slight tangle with Jackson Irvine.
Mooy and Rogic had their best combination of the opening hour to set Rogic up for a chance at the top of the box but his finish was high and wasteful and soon after Mooy ran out of steam and was replaced.
Australia were grabbing the ascendancy and thought they’d won a penalty when Boyle surged down the right and cut back superbly for Hrustic. The Australian was fouled on the very edge of the 18 yard box by Hidemasa Morita.
The referee pointed to the spot and Boyle prepared for the penalty before VAR reversed the decision and awarded the freekick instead to the immense, but brief, relief of the home side.
“I don’t know how you get an accurate reading out of that to be brutally frank,” said commentator Andy Harper after countless, seemingly inconclusive replays.
Never mind, Andy: Hrustic stepped up and curled his stunning freekick over Gonda and into the net off the cross bar.
“The Socceroos midfielder who is emerging of a star of the future is a star of tonight,” said Harper. “He plunges a Samurai sword into the heart of Japan.”
But it wasn’t the Japanese who went away heartbroken.
Japan surged again, getting spurning a golden chance to go back in front with 15 minutes to play after intercepting an underhit pass out from Ryan, who redeemed himself with two brilliant reaction saves.
With four minutes to play he did well to paw a deflected shot onto the post and was stunned to turn and watch it bounce back off the post and from Behich’s knee into the net.
“I thought it was a great spectacle both teams had a go at each other,” said Socceroos coach Graham Arnold.
“We were unlucky to hit the post and concede a deflected goal. We played some great football, intelligent football, but at the end of the day it wasn’t meant to be.”
Japan deserved their win, and delighted a home crowd that was about a third full due to Covid restrictions.
Australia have played all four games away from Australia and Arnold called on Australian governments to help give his team the boost Japan received on Tuesday by playing in front of 16,000 fans.
“What’s important is that we get home fans there and the government helps us get home fans there. It’s a big plus. It gave Japan a lot of energy. I’d love the government to help with that and get a large number of fans in at Bankwest to support us.”
Winter
Guest
How fast does Sydney FC break for attacks with all their elders? Looks exactly same system as Corica plays now which Arnie developed.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
Perhaps it is time to introduce Caleb Watts to the senior line-up.
Kanggas2
Roar Rookie
Mooy has the turning circle of a tank. Constantly receiving the ball facing his own goal and not being able to take it or play it forward.
Kanggas2
Roar Rookie
Spot on. We don’t have the skills required under pressure.
chris
Guest
JB you are right and the current curriculum does not focus on tactics/game awareness until out of the skills development phase. Which, as you pointed out happens around 12-13 yo where players come out of SAP and into full 11v11 teams.
Punter
Roar Rookie
Look at the way Liverpool plays, they get the ball to their dynamic front 3, very quickly, not by long ball, but by movement of the ball , quickly & accurately. However JB, you cannot do with without a very very sound first touch, firstly to get the ball out of your feet, but also to set up your next play. The Japanese players showed this a couple of nights ago, they are as good as any European or Sth American country at this technique.
jbinnie
Guest
Chris - There are 5 basic skills that have to worked upon in training if a young player is to acquire the necessaries to become an all round player. The skills are (1) receiving a ball, (control),(2) heading a ball properly, (3) dribbling, (4) Striking a ball (shooting and passing), and (5) tackling. Tactics and theory should not interfere with these teachings until around the age of 12/13 when a youngster becomes aware of the important aim of "winning", (usually an aim gained from a too willing parent.). Cheers jb.
jbinnie
Guest
Para - Some years ago now Barcelona put together a team of players all superb in all facets of the game and what they loved to do was to keep possession of the ball until such time as they felt the opposition were "confused ' wherein the superb playmakers in the Barca side chose to penetrate the opposition where strikers of world class were waiting to finish off the move. Somewhere, sometime, some journalist cared to christen this as "tika-taka". and the name caught on. As I said this was some years ago and as is usual in top football, the thinkers began to fathom out tactics to counteract the possession game. Today the tactics being used by top teams in the game is not so much keeping possession at all costs, no matter what, but rather to move the ball accurately and at increased pace so that after gaining possession the ball can be moved into an opponent's back third before the now defenders can regain their tactical defensive plan. This being the case passing a ball square or backwards just to "keep possession" is totally useless, so despite Barca's "tika-taka" being very successful in 2005, it is now 2021 and the tactical game has moved forward. This message does not yet appeared to have reached the ears of the Australian tacticians. Cheers jb
Stu
Roar Rookie
The Socceroos are surely the world leaders in backpassing these days. If only you could score goals from back there. How many touches did our backline get? Thousands, probably. But how many touches did our forwards get? Maybe ten? Almost no shots on goal in those ten touches either. However, Japan's rear defenders and front attackers almost split touches evenly - that's how comfortable they are in pressing beautifully forwards, and quickly. You can't win football matches hitting pointless balls around between your defenders for 98% of the match. I don't know who brought this boring backpassing cancer into the Australian game, but it's been boring as batsh*t for so many years now.
Redondo
Roar Rookie
All of the above. In addition, although Punter might disagree, I think the reason the Japanese hung off Mooy was because they know he goes nowhere himself so all you have to do is mark his passing options and he's nullified. It was made easier last night because Boyle was the only wide runner and so was easily marked out of the game. On the other hand, they did press Rogic because they know he can go forward himself but because he's mostly head down while he's running he needs space and time to pick a pass. If you press him his focus stays on holding the ball, not passing, and most often he runs the ball into a dead-end or makes a bad pass. In attack Rogic and Mooy both work best when they have wide runners as passing options who also draw away defenders. In defence they both need mobile midfielders to mop up the defensive work they're too slow to do themselves. If they are both on the field you can have either all-out attack and an exposed defence, or, a packed defence with limited attack. You can't have both. Rogic and Mooy are amongst our best footballers so it's understandable the coach wants them both on the field. But, given their particular skills and limitations, if they have to play together it would be better to play Rogic as a striker and Mooy as the advanced midfielder with two fast wingers to support them both. Or something like that - I don't really understand football.
Para+Ten ISUZU Subway support Australian Football
Roar Rookie
“tika-taka” is controlling the game with one touch football---since when has that gone out of fashion?
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
That's so true. Look how far Australian football has come since the NSL days. We've made a quantum leap. It annoys me so much when the "city phenomenon" or the "Real Madrid model", which are my terms, kick in. Whatever happened to supporting your team through their development. Taking the time to look below the surface and understanding all the machinations that go into making a successful team. If you want enlightment on that subject go and talk to a Brentford fan. As a football supporter you are signing up for all the complexities that come with it. The frustration, the errors, the wins, the elation, and the let downs. That what sets football aside it's as complex off the pitch as it is on it.
Punter
Roar Rookie
This is exactly what I'm saying, we need to improve our 1st touch, this is our technical deficiency. We cannot compete with the likes of Japan without this, once your 1st touch improves & you are transition your passes, movement of the ball, create space & even put your fellow players thru the tiniest of holes ala Xavi. Japan were excellent at this last night & there football was pleasing on the eye. Their first touch allowed them to be in position to shoot on goal, transition ball from defence to attack so much quicker them us, allow them to get out of tricky situations when pressed. They were never hurried. Likewise Japan never pressed on Mooy, because his 1st touch is quality.
Simoc
Guest
I thought Australia played pretty well but Japan had better top quality players and it looked like more speed and desire to attack. Australia could get lucky and beat them but the main problem is always scoring goals. So we need to create more opportunities in the hope that someone will be on hand to score. This is nothing new but I would like to see more speed in the team.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Didn't even know he left Brighton! :shocked:
Punter
Roar Rookie
He never kicked on after 2015 unfortunately, dropped down the pecking order by 2018 due to loss of form. Last season dropped to Div 1 in England, which is 3rd tier football & has since pick up serious injury & has been out for a few months. A real shame.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Whatever happened to Luongo?
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
What makes a solid defender like Bailey Wright ineligible?
chris
Guest
First touch is one of the key principles in the SAP programs. Along with running with the ball and striking. Maybe we will see some results in 10 years time? Who knows. Whatever we do here, they seem to do it faster and better in many overseas countries and sooner.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
I agree, but look at the success we had with foreign coaches. The only one that had any success was Hiddink, and that’s because he took the time to understand lads, and he was a step above any other import we’ve had. I still believe that all the negative comments are the result of wanting a mature wine without the cellaring. The Japanese have at least 10 years football maturity on us. My nephew will play junior NPL next season and the talent I am seeing in the 13-14 year old age bracket is extraordinary. I agreed with Adelaide Andy, we are starting to see coaches like cklamovski, papas and anastasiadis come through and there’s a whole string of blokes we’ve never heard of who are going to make their mark in the future. I’m as disappointed as the next man about the performance and the result last night. Ask my wife i was like a bear with a sore head this morning, but you some times you have to zoom out from the tactical picture and assess the strategic picture