Graham Arnold’s “sloppy” Socceroos are facing a much tougher journey on the road to next year’s World Cup after being held to a 1-1 draw in their latest qualifier with China.
A second-half penalty after referee Adham Makhadmeh used VAR to rule a handball against James Jeggo cancelled out Mitch Duke’s first-half opener in Sharjah as Australia made it three qualifiers in a row without a win following 11 straight victories.
That result, combined with Japan’s victory over Oman in Muscat, means the Samurai Blue have leapfrogged Arnold’s team in Group B and into the second automatic berth for Qatar 2022.
Having lost to Japan in Saitama last month and then drawing 0-0 with group leaders Saudi Arabia in Sydney last week, Australia headed to Sharjah knowing a return to winning ways was vital.
Arnold made two changes to the team that faced the Saudis, picking Milos Degenek to replace the injured Harry Souttar and giving the in-form Duke a start in place of Awer Mabil.
The decision to play Duke paid dividends in a scrappy opening half, when the Japanese-based forward got on the end of a Martin Boyle cross in the 38th minute to nod home from the edge of the six-yard box.
While China failed to threaten in the early stages of the second-half, Australia’s failure to extend their lead was punished out of the blue with 20 minutes to go.
Called to the sideline monitor by the VAR official, Makhadmeh deemed Jeggo to have handled as he tried to clear a free-kick in the air and awarded a penalty.
Spanish-based star Wu Lei stepped up and made no mistake with the spot kick as he blasted past Mat Ryan to secure the fifth-placed Chinese a share of the spoils.
“We were a bit sloppy at times but you know until the penalty there was pretty much only one team in the game,” a frustrated Arnold told Network 10.
“That penalty gave them energy.
“We moved the ball well. We created some decent chances and we’ve just got to be positive and move forward.”
Duke, who has now scored five goals for the Socceroos this year, was in no mood to celebrate as he rued the dropped points.
“Frustrating, always, when you go 1-0 up and then you concede and finish with a draw,” the striker said.
“It was an important game that we needed three points (from) and very frustrating to go away with just the one.”
The Saudis are in the box seat to top the group and claim one of the two automatic qualifying places after they defeated last-placed Vietnam 1-0.
That leaves the Green Falcons four points clear of Japan, who are second with four wins and two losses from their six matches, with Australia a further point back in third.
The Socceroos next qualifiers are a home clash with Vietnam on January 27 before travelling to the Middle East to face Oman on February 1.
In the other Asian qualifying group Iran and South Korea both won to give them a ten and eight-point cushion, respectively, in the automatic qualifying places.
UAE are currently in third place, which would be Australia’s first hurdle were they to remain third in Group B. The winner of this play-off would then face a two-legged inter-confederation play-off against a team from either the Americas or Oceania.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
kisnorbo is a no for me at this stage, its all well and good coaching the biggest team in australia with unlimited funds. i want to see him at a club with a strict budget (central coast/newcastle/adelaide/wellington/brisbane) and see if he can implement his philosphy on those types of teams alternatively once hes done at city, go to either asia or europe and prove him self. jurys still out for me on him and will be until his next move
jbinnie
Guest
Winter - You have touched on what might be the root cause of our problems at national team level. We have a "Dutch" coaching manual, introduced at great expense around 2009, which in itself has been "doctored " at least twice since it's inception, and, to older readers, is heavily based on the findings of a sporting college in England , who, around 1970-74, did a huge investigation into junior coaching at all sports, at all levels, and which was first introduced into Australia in 1974 by a man whose sole aim was to have a coaching organisation all across Australian states, thus making "teaching football" a properly organised educational path for youngsters The time frames you mention are correct, between 4 and 12 kids are more interested in "scoring goals" and getting a "kick at the ball" than they are about winning ,winning, winning. That is a parental wish and there is little doubt it is that attitude that is acting as a break in our youngsters development. The original findings were that "young" coaching should be more about fun, fun, fun and therefore the actual coaching of a team of 6 year old's is not about winning the league or cup but how to accelerate the learning processes required for improving "skills". Thus the move to smaller sided games on small pitches enabled the kids to get more touches at a ball and with a necessary 5 minute break for recovery the coach could then demonstrate the finer points of the 5 skills. Has this regime been followed? I'll leave that up to you. The investigators then found that the move to bigger pitches and bigger teams was warranted, caused by a psychological shift in youngster's thinking, not induced by parental influence, but by their acceptance of the fact they were playing a team sport with 21 other players and there was only one ball. It is only then the competitive nature of a sport should be introduced to training. Now what happened to all this generated knowledge into coaching?. Nothing really, in most cases it was totally ignored and despite the publicity generated towards the "Dutch Curriculum" I feel today our preparation for youngsters learning the game is still based far too much on the thinking of the innumerable "Alex Fergusons" who turn up every weekend to urge their charges into winning at all costs. Hope this helps your thinking. Cheers jb.
chris
Guest
Our illustrious leader (pu ke) is from the eastern suburbs. Gets plonked into the shire as its a safe Lib seat and suddenly he is a mad sharkies fan. The guy is so fake it's amazing he can look at himself in the mirror.
jbinnie
Guest
FIL - Where do you source your information.? Professional football did not start in Holland until 1957,some 64 years ago and their "claims to fame" are based on the fact that in only 17 years they played in a World Cup Final. They followed this up with another WC Final appearance in 1978 and since then their football has undergone an "attack" by the money men, with players exiting to mainly Spain and Germany ,not to mention a few to England. England ,on the other hand, has been the "home " of organised football for much more than the 100 years you claim. their FA history going back to establishment in 1865,some 156 years ago. Cheers jb.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
maybe if we didnt have a prime minister who wears a cronulla scarf we might get some government funding. What the decrepit minds of parliament dont understand is that there are elebenty billion football parents out there. If the government offered up funding for football that would e.g. make registration fees cheaper, they'd probably win a considerable number of votes.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
hahahahahahahah gold
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
totally agree Andy, and in support of Winter's comment, this is why I suggested that Pat Kisnorbo is a man of coaching substance. Look at the style of football they've begun playing since he took over. Again, though I have to say, that in reference to your Dutch point, the Dutch have, like the English had a century of evolution. We've had 1/5th of that. All those young tackers that now live, eat and breathe football, will help surface the Australian style.
Walter Kovacs
Guest
So just bc of that, we shouldn't bother w/foreign coaches ever again until the end of time?? Righto..
nics
Roar Rookie
Reminds me of one of David Moyes' last games as Manchester United manager - countless crosses swung into a packed Fulham defence.
Marcel
Guest
Astonishing isn't it.... that's always been my gut feeling but seeing the numbers is shocking..... Surely there is some kind of stats nerd in the NT setup who is paid to moneyball this kind of thing.
Gnasher
Guest
Tyrese Francois is at Fulham, but hasn't played for them since August.
Gnasher
Guest
McGree has two goals and no assists in seven Championship games for Birmingham City this year.
Gnasher
Guest
Caleb Watts is at Southampton, not Fulham, and has only played in three EFL trophy games, as part of an Under-23 team against lower league sides, this season. Managed 36 minutes in the Premier League last season, none so far this.
Winter
Guest
The concerning thing about this campaign is that we have learned nothing in the last 15 years or so. It's the same thing every 4 years. Are there any A League players that could change that? Not really. Are there any coaches that could change that? Not really. I would bet on Kisnorbo if he achieves results in the acl. The acl is a great barometer for Australian football. If we can't win there than why would we win in a world cup where you have Europe and South America? You can fluke a game here and there on "belief" but over the course of a season or qualifying stage the ladder shows the truth in the football being played.
Winter
Guest
Agreed 100%. City is the only team that is doing something different. All the other A League teams are interchangeable with coaches and players.
Winter
Guest
Australia play afl style football. Run around and hope for the best. Technical skills aren't taught from a young age qt 5 years old because the coaches don't know what to teach them. By the time they are 12 they should be learning how to carve up a field but instead they just run around. At npl it's 20 people running around a park with no one really doing anything. And Arnie is a perfect example of it. Ange tried to implement a system and it failed horribly. We should just copy what other smaller football countries do and mix it with the city style of play and go for it.
AGO74
Guest
Re the grass roots and it being the largest game- you could say the same thing about more than 95% of countries around the world. So I’m not sure what your point is.
Will
Guest
Clearly we lack the playing quality for quite awhile actually so none of this is actually new, for me im more disappointed by how we set up tactically. The amount of crosses we had was too much, we need much more guile and subtleness in our play but how many players could play like this or do have the ability to do it at all? Alot of play was very predictable p.s we need more futsal in our player development. I do agree the manager isnt helping but its sad reality of where we are as a football nation, the ironic of this game is that it was 16 years since that famous night against Uruguay in Sydney, the quality between both sides is chalk and cheese. Now we need to win in the last 4 games but also rely on our opponents to slip up, not ideal.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
The media pressure on Ange was nothing compared to the media pressure on Holger Osieck and Ange himself had multiple gos, and thats after Holger had already qualified. Holger never complained unlike Ange even when he got sacked which didnt happen to Ange. If Ange was pushed why didnt he retain DeGenek at his club, that is the ultimate litmus test, its clear Ange didnt want to go to the world cup with that squad, he wouldn't even keep DeGenek at his club side.
Nick Symonds
Guest
"Petratos scored 7 in the Saudi league" - Actually 9 goals from 28 = 1 every 3.1 matches