The performance reminded me of the way we played against China in Kunming except with one big difference: we had a much better balance between defence and attack and when opportunities arose, we really bombed forward in numbers and with purpose. Like against China, Pim set out the team to control the game and retain possession as much as possible. He wanted to take any remaining wind out of the Uzbek’s sails and really take the crowd out of the game. Except for a period of about 15 minutes after half time, this objective was very much achieved.
Uzbekistan is a team that is really lacking confidence, form and cohesion in their football. Since their blistering start in the last group phase that saw them win five games in a row, nothing has gone right for the Uzbeks. Their attack has been blunted while their defence has turned porous. Pim’s objective in the first 20 minutes was to ensure that this trend continued, to ensure that the Uzbeks couldn’t build confidence through their passing game or through crowd support. In this opening phase, we didn’t play with much cohesion either but importantly, we ensured that they also had no flow to their game. The crowd was silenced while their players looked increasingly clueless in attack. For the rest of the half, the Socceroos exerted a more apparent form of ‘control’ over the game (we controlled the initial phase as well simply by executing the game plan of keeping the confidence depleted Uzbeks on the canvass). We started to get on top in the possession stakes and really moved forward with purpose in our attacks.
Four Out Of Four
Coyne and Neill were an excellent central pairing throughout the game. While some, including myself, have called for the fast-tracking of Spiranovic, Coyne really showed why there is good reason for keeping him around. He was dominant in the air and showed that playing in the lowly divisions of England doesn’t mean that you can’t distribute or bring the ball out from the back.
How did this guy remain completely unknown to the Australian footballing public until he earned his first cap at 29? Why is he playing in England’s third division and why can’t he get a start at this level? The theory goes that the football market does not lie. If Coyne plays in the third tier of English football, then that is the right level for him. But like all markets, the football market has failures. Some are expensive and well known. Has there been a market failure in relation to Coyne? He is excellent in the air, composed on the ball and has good distribution. He is also clearly a natural leader. Slater mentioned during the commentary that Coyne could be moving to a bigger club. Let’s hope this occurs because he may no longer be just a viable option, he may actually now be the preferred given that he is better at bringing the ball out than Beauchamp and more experienced than Spiranovic.
As for Neill, his distribution at the start of the game was somewhat wayward but really settled into the game after about 20 minutes. Like Carney, Wilkshire’s move from midfield to defence will probably be permanent. His lack of pace did get exposed on occasions. Like against Holland, he setup a goal. After a one-two with Kewell, he flicked the ball over a sliding challenge before delivering the ball to the completely unmarked Chipperfield who ghosted in from left-back.
The performance of the returning Chipperfield showed why he should probably be considered the incumbent despite the impressive performances of Carney. Due to his greater experience in the full-back role, he doesn’t get caught out as much as Carney and Wilkshire. While wingers can expose Wilkshire’s lack of pace, the similarly paced Chipperfield proved much harder to expose due to his better defensive positioning.
1 Comment
September 12, 2008 at 7:21 pm
if the market was always correct, there`d be no such things as “diamonds in the rough”.
hopefully we will soon reach a level of depth where no-one owns a spot anymore; spots in the NT will have to be earnt.