Debacle in Durban
Monday, June 14th, 2010
Qualifying for a tournament is one thing, but actually performing in a tournament is a completely different thing. And that’s what we learned last night as the Socceroos crashed to a 4-0 defeat in Durban at the hands of Germany.
In a similar situation four years ago against an opponent of a similar stature to Germany (namely Brazil) the Socceroos probably played their best game of the tournament despite going down 2-0. The reason why we did so well is because we took the game to our opposition on the day and didn’t take a backward step.
Contrast that to the game against Germany earlier this morning where Pim Verbeek telegraphed his intention from the time he announced that the Socceroos would be starting their match without a recognised striker. He may have called it a 4-4-2 but in all reality it was a 4-6-0 with both Garcia and Cahill playing as advanced midfielders/strikers.
So without a ball being kicked we had already handed the advantage to our opposition. If you are playing the best team in the group shouldn’t you be playing your best team in response and the decision not to give either Kewell or Kennedy a run was truly mindboggling.
The decision to play Tim Cahill and Richard Garcia as ’strikers’ smacked of tactical naivety by Verbeek at worst and clutching at straws at best. Both players are ill-suited to the role and Verbeek should have known this from Cahill’s performance in that role against Japan during qualification. Why take your best player and play him out of position?
Two of our better performers were the returning Brett Emerton and the ever dependable Luke Wilkshire who both patrolled the right-hand side of the pitch. However, a lot of their efforts were wasted as when they got into good positions to get the ball into the box there were never enough bodies to really take advantage of their good work.
Credit has been and should be given to the Germans for their performance with Mesut Ozil being outstanding as he ran the show from the midfield. He appeared to have heaps of space in which to display his considerable talent despite the fact that the Socceroos were playing with five in their midfield.
So with that out of the way let’s hope Pim reverts to the formula that provided much success during qualification. There’s that old adage, if it broke . . .
