Olympics: Olyroos v Serbia

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There will probably be a lot of negative reports for this game so I’ll start with the positives:

Positives

Federici was excellent. While most of his saves were routine (although difficult), I was impressed by his general command of the box. He needed to be commanding as Serbia racked up the corner count (14 to 1). He produced one exceptional save from a Serbian set-piece. He probably would have seen the shot late as it came low and around the wall. Unfortunately for him, when he returns to England, he will still find Marcus Hahnemann occupying the number one jersey.

Spiranovic was generally good and if the Socceroos ever have problems in central defence in the next phase of qualifying, he has the quality to come in and fill the void. He made several crucial tackles and interceptions in the second half while his composure on the ball also fits in well with the Dutch system. His solid partnership with North bodes well for the future. Amidst his good defensive work, he also provided Australia’s best attacking moment in the first half when he picked up the ball in midfield and beat three defenders with a mazy run before testing the keeper. His shot was too close to the keeper but his neat footwork and confidence was refreshing. It also says something about our attack in the first half that Spiranovic provided our best moment.

Musialik really showed why he was instrumental to the Jets last year but only after Milligan was taken off. I don’t think Musialik likes another central midfielder or play-maker in his space which is the zone in front of the back four. The presence of Milligan effectively sliced the zone he usually commands by himself in half. Musialik is the type of player that only wants a minder next to him, to win back the ball and cover defensive duties. I thought Musialik went into his shell a bit, particularly in the first half, and mainly allowed Milligan to be the first option out of defence. Another problem with the Milligan/ Musialik combination is that they were very square relative to each other. They were basically in line and did not provide angled passing options for each other further up the field. When you see Culina/Grella/Valeri combining for the Socceroos, you will notice that while there will be two defensive midfielders, the transition from defence to attack will see one of the pair push up field and create an angled passing option for the other. This gives the deeper lying midfielder plenty of options: wide, through the middle or back to the defenders. When Milligan or Musialik would get the ball, there would be no central passing option. The ball would inevitably be hit down the flanks long for the forwards to chase.

When Milligan was taken off and Celeski was brought on, Musialik got more involved in the game. He commanded the space in front of the back four and started to dictate the flow and direction of our attacks. The presence of Celeski also helped Musialik as Celeski would provide an angled passing option further up the park.

The positive impact of Celeski was the highlight of the game for me. He changed our attack by reducing our dependence on long balls while his willingness to run at defenders presented Serbia with new problems.  He provided the link between the midfielders and the forwards which we were missing. He passed the ball to the strikers’ feet which allowed them to hold the ball up while his presence also stretched the Serbian midfield because his runs were much more unpredictable relative to Milligan. This in turn created room for other players. Before Carney’s beautiful slide run between two defenders and setting up Zadkovich for the goal, Celeski was trying to do the same thing and he almost succeeded. If this kid isn’t in the starting line-up next game, then Arnie and I follow different sports.

Negatives

From the above, you could probably see that I didn’t think much of Milligan’s performance. He gave the ball away too frequently, particularly early in the first half. He then started to play hopeful long balls behind the defence for the forwards to run onto. They were always too heavy. Mind you, the majority of the other players were doing the same, including Musialik (although Musialik’s long passes had better weight on them and actually allowed the strikers to contest for the ball. Milligan’s passes just went out for goal kicks). Will Arnie be brave enough to drop his skipper? Or at least redefine his role so that he is a ball-winner and not a play-maker (his passing ability just aren’t up to scratch)? I doubt this will happen but we can always live in hope.

Can I bag out the goal scorer? When I read forums and match reports, it seems that you cannot have a go at goal-scorers, like they had won immunity in a reality TV show which effectively makes what they did in the preceding week irrelevant. I’m not a Zadkovich-hater. There are a lot of them out there after his performance against China. Still, I get the feeling that we are only playing with ten men on the park when his on. He was basically anonymous in the first half. The runs he makes, and the ones that he fails to make, suggests that he doesn’t have much of a footballing brain. And the only thing that he does seem to be able to do when he gets the ball is to try and knock it pass the opposition and then try and run around. It is sometimes effective but good defenders can deal with this nine times out of ten.

I thought the full-backs didn’t have great games either. McClenahan struggled to get a hold of the tricky Tosic who caused all sorts of havoc down the right. Topor-Stanley really seems to struggle to make a challenge without committing a foul. Sometimes he was unlucky with the call but generally, his challenges would be clumsy and they would be made to look worse because his long legs often get tangled up in the opposition.

Neither Here Nor There

The rest didn’t really have particularly good or bad games. Carney’s excellent run and cross setup a goal for Zadkovich but some of his decisions in general play was questionable. His tendency to hold onto the ball when an early cross would be dangerous was frustrating. The strikers got little quality service and were basically required to run after hopeless balls over their heads.

Frustrating

The predominately long ball strategy, although it did subside late in the second half, was very frustrating. It was like the bad old days where they would be football and we would play long ball. We were lucky that they couldn’t take advantage of their domination in general play. This was partly due to solid defending and partly due to poor finishing.

I read this article which basically stated that we would play like this. Dan Silkstone said that “It is a big, strong line-up, perhaps one that lacks a little creative finesse but which is capable of addressing Arnold’s fear about the Serbian’s forest of tall timber”. It is lacking a lot of creative finesse. Can someone please tell Arnie that football is not about size. The Argentinean team is positively tiny in attack.

This is made all the more ironic that Serbia equalised from a set-piece with their tall timber, the exact threat that the team was selected to defend against because we certainly struggled to defend against their general play.

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