The good news: the Socceroos won. The bad news: they ain’t winning anything. Not unless there is significant improvement to come on the 2-0 victory over India which opened their Asian Cup campaign in Qatar on Saturday night.
Graham Arnold’s men got the result they were looking for at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, but it was far from the smooth, free-flowing football that fans were itching to see.
Martin Boyle runs with the ball while under pressure from Lallianzuala Chhangte of India during the Asian Cup opener.Credit:
It took 50 long and excruciating minutes for Australia to finally breach the defences of a nation ranked No.102 in the world by FIFA, and it only happened because Jackson Irvine was able to punish a bad error from their goalkeeper which put it on a platter for him. Before then, they were sloppy, slow and ponderous.
Substitute Jordan Bos scored his first international goal later in the second half to make sure of it for the Socceroos – but overall, the performance did little to quell concerns about Australia’s ability to break down stacked defences, which was the big question mark over Arnold’s tactics in their last appearance at this tournament five years ago and during their most recent World Cup qualifying campaign.
Later in the second half, once Arnold turned to his bench, they finally began to look like the bright, effervescent team they have been over the past 18 months. By that stage, Irvine’s strike had broken India’s will, their players began to visibly tire, and fresh legs off the Aussie bench helped bring them out of their funk.
Having landed on the same side of the draw as Asian powerhouses Japan and Saudi Arabia – and with their next two Group B matches to come against Syria and Uzbekistan, two nations who have given them serious troubles in the past – the Socceroos must lift multiple gears if they are to contend for a second continental title.
If nothing else, at least a few cobwebs were blown out.
Arnold promised to field his strongest possible starting line-up; except for Riley McGree, who looked fantastic off the bench, it was pretty close.
Gethin Jones, the Perth-born Bolton Wanderers defender who once said he felt more Welsh than Aussie, was the surprise pick at right-back, while Kye Rowles got the nod over Cameron Burgess as Harry Souttar’s centre-back partner.
Behind them, captain and goalkeeper Maty Ryan wore a protective face mask as he played his first match since fracturing his cheekbone on club duty for AZ Alkmaar last month. He didn’t have much to do.
India’s Lallianzuala Chhangte controls the ball as Australia’s Gethin Jones holds him during the Asian Cup Group B soccer match.Credit:
The problems were further up the field, when the midfielders and forwards were confronted with an organised and highly committed Indian side. They sat deep, packing sometimes as many as 10 players into their defensive box, and they all heroically put their bodies on the line to block crosses and parking lanes and clog up space. A disjointed and cumbersome Australian side huffed and puffed and … nothing happened.
The stats sheet will say that the Socceroos had 14 attempts on goal in the first half, but it conceals the fact that they created practically zero.
Hardly any of the shots were in good positions, in moments of control. Creativity was lacking and combination play was rushed.
Graham Arnold watched on from the sidelines, increasingly exasperated.Credit:
Set pieces were supposed to be the circuit breaker, but even they were rubbish. From a dozen corner kicks, Australia did not truly threaten once.
Arnold watched on from the sidelines, increasingly exasperated.
To get to half-time with the scoreline still at 0-0 was a victory in itself for India – and in truth, they generated the clearest chance to that point, when a deflected cross evaded Souttar and reached Sunil Chhetri, their veteran skipper and talisman, whose diving header pushed the ball just wide of the mark.
Still, there was a sense that India would eventually collapse under the weight of possession and territory – and they did, five minutes into the second half, but the Socceroos can claim no credit for it.
India’s goalkeeper Gurpreet Sandhu flapped at a cross, inadvertently parrying the ball into the path of Irvine, who accepted the gift gratefully and smacked it straight past him with his weaker foot.
They could not find another until after Arnold rang the changes, with three of his substitutes – McGree, Bos and Bruno Fornaroli – combining to great effect for Australia’s second goal, just moments after the latter two had come on.
McGree set it up, surging into the box along the byline from the right, but it was Fornaroli’s intelligent movement that pulled three Indian defenders away which enabled Bos the space to receive the ball and tap it in with his very first touch of the game.
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