The first half looked ominous. Only Marco Bresciano looked world class in a team led by McDonald because in Pim's words 'Josh couldn't play 90 minutes'. But clearly training in Germany is better than playing and scoring in Scotland. As soon as McDonald came off at 60 minutes, the Australians began playing with their heads up and in a brilliant flowing movement up from the back and across to Bresciano who beat his man, took the ball up field far right before whipping across for Kennedy to flick into the near post.
Australia did not have the game until the second half. Harry Kewell's game was redeemed by the needless penalty box foul on Garcia. Kewell made no mistake and soon after was subbed. Up to that time he was unstaged by the running play of the Uzbek forwards and marked out by their 11 behind the ball.
The Socceroos win provides more foundation to Australia's bid for the 2018 World Cup. It means that Australian governments that just committed $120m for an AFL stadium for the Gold Coast now need to insist that some of that money goes into making the stadium convertible for football matches. This would include allowing the capacity to be upgraded to the minimum seating capacity.
1 comment:
A great game - had the distinct pleasure of watching it live at the stadium.
I see with interest that Pim has claimed we were too slow in the first half, and not attacking quickly enough. I say "with interest" because the talk around the stadium at half time was frustration with the possession game, and the assumption that this was the direction from Verbeek himself.
Regarding your comments on the Gold Coast stadium, that will be for AFL and cricket only. It will be a purpose-built oval stadium, not appropriate for soccer, but that's okay. The stadium for soccer will remain the Robina stadium where the Titans and Gold Coast FC play.
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