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Argentina’s press have already begun their dissection of the Socceroos as the Aussies’ Round of 16 opponents try to get to grips with them ahead of the crunch clash on Sunday morning (AEDT) in Qatar.
Buenos Aires sports journos were quick to pass judgement on Australia’s heroic win over Denmark, with La Nacion, one of the biggest newspapers in the country, running a preview of their opponents within an hour of the final whistle in Argentina’s 2-0 win over Poland.
“The Socceroos have a lot more muscle than brains, so to score against them you have to leave them on the road more than once,” wrote Alejandro Casar Gonzalez, who also described the Aussies’ ‘scarce’ levels of talent in an otherwise positive appraisal.
“Four of their eleven starters against Denmark play in second division teams,” he wrote. “They are not even part of the elites in the countries where they make a living as professional footballers.”
That sounds a little patronising, but Gonzalez had plenty of positivity about Australia and lavished praise on Aaron Mooy and Harry Souttar, the gigantic centre back.
“Australia has Aaron Mooy, a central midfielder who, instead of hair, has a field map on his head,” went the column. “The (few) vertical passes start from his feet. Australia, in fact, lost the battle for the ball in all three games they played. Against Denmark, they were thrashed: the team from Oceania had the ball just 28% of the time.
“(Graham) Arnold puts together his formation thinking that the rival will not figure it out. The defense is a wall, with Harry Souttar as the tallest tower in the back line.
“He is almost two metres tall and almost never makes a mistake when jumping. If the rival fights the low block via the wings and aims crosses at the head of the striker, it is most likely that they will fail.”
The author gave clear instructions to his readers of the Australian tactical philosophy.
“Australia does not care about the ball or the context . He has a game plan engraved in his memory and he respects it to the letter: it is a team that bets on one or two plays per game. A counterattack, a free kick or a corner.
“The rest: run and score. And again. And that their central defenders are in charge of taking out everything that the rival throws by air.”
La Nacion flagged Australia’s best players as Mat Ryan and Mat Leckie, and praised the impact of coach Graham Arnold, “the coach of a team of footballers whose greatest virtue is not being afraid of anything.”
Columnist Martin Perelman, writing in Ole said that the Australians “showed a lot of pragmatism” but were strong on the counter and at set pieces.
“They suffered considerably against France but were highly effective in the other two, with Tunisia and Denmark. When attacking, a direct, pragmatic team was seen with a powerful center forward like Duke, who can convert.
“In general, they are not a team with great individuals. Most of their players compete in second-tier leagues worldwide. In this sense, Argentina will go in with an advantage in duels.”
“Another point to keep in mind is that they work well with dead balls in their favour. We have to be careful there.”
Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said it was vital to respect their opponents – especially as that had tripped the albiceleste up before in the tournament.
“They are all difficult,” he said to Argentine media after their win over Poland. “(Saudi) Arabia beat us. Even playing well you can lose. Anyone who thinks Australia will be easy is wrong.
“We are not favourites for anything. We are going to fight, but to think that because we won today we are going to be champions is totally wrong. We played a very good game and we have to stay with that. The way we lost to Saudi Arabia still hurts me.”
“We saw Australia (against Denmark) but we always go game by game. We are going to ask questions of our opponent, we are going to analyse whatever, always thinking about how to hurt them.”
Lionel Messi agreed. “The match against Australia is going to be very difficult,” said the Argentinian superstar. “Anyone can beat anyone, it’s all even. We have to prepare for the game as we always do.”
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