The Socceroos were far from impressive for a third straight match at the Asian Cup but thanks to a bewildering gift from the match officials secured a 1-1 draw with Uzbekistan to top Group B.
The point was enough for Uzbekistan to finish in second, with Syria third after beating India.
Martin Boyle dispatched a penalty in first half injury time after a brilliant mazy run from Kusini Yengi. It was Australia’s only shot on target for the game, although Yengi did have a goal ruled out for an offside in the lead up from Boyle.
The Portsmouth forward – preferred over Bruno Fornaroli to lead the line in the absence of injured Mitch Duke – beat four defenders and put a chance on a plate for Riley McGree who somehow dragged his shot wide.
But the game was paused for several minutes while VAR looked at a moment in the lead up where Odiljon Hamrobekov slid in to challenge Yengi and the ball brushed his arm.
Martin Boyle of Australia celebrates with team mates after scoring. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
A young eagle-eyed Australian fan appealed for the handball – but none of the Socceroos did – a clear sign of how soft the ultimate call was from referee Yusuke Araki.
Andy Harper, on the Network 10 commentary, said he would be “aggrieved” by the call.
His colleague Luke Wilkshire, a former Socceroo said: “No player appealed for it, no one saw it. It’s a little brush off the hand. There’s no way in the world that’s intentional and again VAR raises its head and wants to be the deciding factor.”
The goal came at the end of an underwhelming first half where Australia produced little up front and made several poor passes out from the back leading to Uzbekistan half chances.
Once Harry Souttar gave up the ball in a dangerous position only to swoop back with a desperate and crucial tackle.
The giant Leicester defender was also alert to block Otabek Shukurov after the Uzbekistani had found plenty of room to shoot.
Uzbekistan were much improved after the break and their equaliser – their first ever goal against Australia – was well deserved. It arrived on 78 minutes when Azizbek Turg’unboyev rose above Aziz Behich to head home a cross from Jaloliddin Masharipov.
Australia have lacked zest throughout the tournament – despite wins and clean sheets against India and Syria – and this was a difficult match against a foe that pressed hard to prevent Australia passing through midfield.
Worryingly the performance up front was disjointed and the Socceroos struggled to make an impact.
“Let’s be honest it’s job done – but there’s no fluency, we seem rigid,” said Wilkshire. “We’re not creating a great deal of clear cut opportunities which is a concern. There were zero saves from either goalkeeper – which sums up where we’re at.”
Former Socceroo Alex Wilkinson agreed with the sober assessment.
“Moving forward into the business end of the tournament we are going to need to improve, especially with the ball,” said Wilkinson.
“We’re lacking creativity in possession. The ball movement was way too slow and the build up – we moved from side to side and took way too many touches. Against good teams you’re no chance of breaking them down if you do that.”
Boyle said the team needed to “be more ruthless at the top end.
“We are creating a lot of chances. The link play is good. We’re getting in the right area to score goals and we just have to put them away and take the pressure off the defence.”
But Wilkshire took exception to Boyle’s summary.
“It’s more than taking chances and being ruthless because I don’t think we’ve created enough clear cut chances,” said Wilkshire.
“If they can have a look back at that they won’t see a lot of clear cut chances. There were a few shots from distance, a few balls in the box that got cleared, but the goalkeeper didn’t have to make a save – he’s gone 90 odd minutes without making a save. So there’s more than just being ruthless and clinical because I don’t think we’re creating enough.”
coolncold
Roar Rookie
Wake up this morning to find Socceroos to match Indonesia in the first knock out game. Should win. However, in the next stage of quarter final. Socceroos have to meet South Korea or Saudi Arabia. But these two Asian Cup giant have only two days to rest before meeting Socceroos who have 4 days to ease up. It will be a difficult task for both Saudia and South Korea to fight to the death on 30 Jan, then encounter Socceroos after a short time of 2 days for re-energising. Should Socceroos pass to the quarter final, they will play either Tajikistan, UAE, Iraq or Jordan. Seemingly, these 4 teams are not as strong as Saudia Arabia or South Korea. Thus, Socceroos should be able to reach the finale in which anything can happen.
coolncold
Roar Rookie
— COMMENT DELETED —
Chris Lewis
Roar Guru
Punter, my piece on Roar on English football, in case you miss it before it scrolls of page. https://www.theroar.com.au/2024/01/26/theres-no-other-sporting-leagues-in-the-world-quite-like-those-in-english-club-football/
Stevo
Roar Rookie
Exactly. He stacked his squads with age/experience and pretty much said as you wrote.
Sheffield WesDay
Roar Rookie
Plenty of opportunity to play lower ranked teams yes, but always in a WC qualifying context. As I said above, that is not the time you introduce new formations, lineups and tactics. That is when playing ugly football to get a result is acceptable in my view. But as always with Arnie, he has no plan B. He plays pragmatic, defensive, Blackfoot football and has no answers when presented with a situation that requires a different approach. I would add though that I feel his player selections were good in the first few games based on his style. They dominated first halves and kept a clean sheet allowing the subs in the second to go out and do what subs should do and change the game.
Sheffield WesDay
Roar Rookie
Yeah, I think the preparation for a WC should be against as many top ranked teams to prepare for the lower possession we will have at a tournament like that. And I should also so that I did enjoy those games vs Argentina, England and Mexico. A bit of a boost the our collective ego to have teams of that calibre see us as a worth while team to play against.
JAJI74
Roar Rookie
Melbourne Rah Rah
Waz
Roar Rookie
Who?
JAJI74
Roar Rookie
Well at least our league which gets battered from pillow to post from those within is not having one of its clubs calling in receivers like another code this afternoon
Redondo
Roar Rookie
I reckon Arnie would argue his choice of friendly opponents was spot on. We get plenty of experience playing lower ranked teams and the idea here was to not play into their hands. So Arnie made sure we conceded no early goals or goals on the break through over-committing against packed defences. We topped the group against 3 lower-ranked teams who played very defensively. What more can we ask for - beauty is overrated. Having got through to the knockout rounds the experience playing against better teams like England, Argentina and Mexico will pay off. Boyle, Goodwin, Bos, McGree and Fornaroli (please) will all relish a bit more space on the break.
Redondo
Roar Rookie
With Scout as their agent
Grem
Roar Rookie
And it just so happens that they were born in Adelaide.
NickA
Roar Rookie
Excellent, excellent comment mate - I remember you making the same point to me back in September (found it for your interest :silly: ). I completely agree with your point now - I enjoy the high quality friendlies to see how we match it - but it's quite clear we don't know how to play against smaller teams and this probably could have been planned better. Maybe Arnie reasons that we get that experience playing low block teams all the way through WCQs? And wanted to take advantage of the buzz to play bigger teams. And your separate point - I guess we would think about our team vs Argentina the same as perhaps a Syria would think about us? I.e. I imagine Argentina fans probably have the same disappointed reaction when they only beat us 2 1 and Aus fans have when we only beat Syria 1 0.
Sheffield WesDay
Roar Rookie
I have commented on this in other articles. We have played all our best football in recent times (under Arnie) when we did not have the ball. As when we have it, we do not know how to use it. The world cup was successful because every other team dominated us in possession. We dig in (channelling that great Aussie Battler mentality and pride that GA thinks is unique to Australia) and hit on the counter securing a few valuable wins in opportune times. Post the WC FA dropped the ball in organising our next few friendlies against tough teams where we again lined up in a low block of 4 4 2, and hit on the counter. We gained/ learned nothing playing England, Mexico and Argentina in the wake of the WC and in our lead up and preparation for AFC. Those games should have been organised against lower ranked nations in preparation for the possession style game we would need to be able to play at AFC. W knew we would have all the possession and our opponents were predictably going to play us the way we play Argentina, or England or Denmark….. (on a separate point, why when we stifle Argentina and go down by one goal, do we deem it amazing football against a great team, but when a lower ranked team does it to us, we dismiss their quality effort and put it down to a poor performance by our boys??) The boys have very little experience other than New Zealand (an excellent team for us to play and work on attacking combinations against an organised and determined quality team) two WC qualifiers in Bangladesh (this was always going to be a washout) and Palestine (who we could only get 1 goal against proving my point) where the result is more inportant than the play and it is not time to work on formations, player selection and tactics. Then Bahrain on the eve of the tournament where you have already done all your preparation and it is too late to tinker with the formula. Our boys as a team do not know how to hold possession and break down a stubborn defence because Arnie and the FA have not prepared them for it.
Sheffield WesDay
Roar Rookie
I half wonder if Luongo's return to the team would have bridged that gap of loosing Mooy, but alas young Massimo also called it quits. A shame he couldn't have played this tournament before he hung up the green and gold.
Sheffield WesDay
Roar Rookie
Good comment. I would also point out that in Luke’s day our no.1 pathway to goal was an early cross often from Luke just inside our attacking half to the ever dangerous head of Timmy Cahill. The route to goal is made way easier when you simply play a long over the top ball to Tims head. He wasn’t called Loopy Luke for nothing.
Stevo
Roar Rookie
Watching a replay of the game, your headline 'No fluency, seem rigid' describes it perfectly. Lots of action, arms and legs flaying about but control and fluid movement - No.
NickA
Roar Rookie
Not out of context but I think many people have misinterpreted what he meant by that comment
Waz
Roar Rookie
It wasn’t my context, the internet lit up with this yesterday. Not least because the majority of his squad started in the ALM, so it’s going its job. And then several postered rehashed his past comments that the completion is not a development league and that he didn’t have to play youth (he started the trend towards 30+ average squad ages).
NickA
Roar Rookie
That’s fair FF, he definitely isn’t a perfect striker and Fornaroli is probably a better option but I feel Arnie has got one eye on the future – Bruno is not going to be around, and Yengi is. I think we saw enough in Yengi’s game to suggest he’s got potential to lead the line moving forward. He’s much better with the ball at his feet than Duke (who I always rate highly for the job that he does). And regarding having not done anything up until that point – I completely agree. If you watched him closely you could see him getting frustrated – and I enjoyed the fact he changed the way he was playing to get better involved. That was a big moment for me – a player acknowledging he wasn’t contributing as he would have liked and tried a plan B to get better involved. But I agree – I’d like to see Bruno get a start now. He’s impressed with every touch.