The good news for Australia after their 1-1 draw with Uzbekistan on Tuesday is that they’ve topped Group B at the Asian Cup and will advance to the knockout stages. They’ll do so undefeated with two wins and a draw and having conceded just once across 270 minutes of football, with the lone blemish coming after they set a new benchmark for miserliness in A internationals. Thanks to some fortunate results elsewhere, their knockout stage bracket will likely see them avoid the likes of Japan, South Korea, Qatar, and Iran until the final.
“We came here at the start of the tournament to top the group and we’ve got the job done,” coach Graham Arnold said. “And it’s the most important thing. And we move forward now one game at a time and see who our next opponent is.”
Indeed, if you’d offered this scenario to most Socceroo fans before the tournament started, maybe without breaking down the games themselves, most would have taken it. It’s tournament football, after all, and surviving to advance is the name of the game. It would be remiss to not at least acknowledge that at some point, if nothing else to avoid being accused of missing that forest for the trees of deeper analysis.
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“Our main objective was to finish top of the group and thankfully we did that,” goal-scorer Martin Boyle said post-game. “It was a hard-fought draw. I feel like we created a lot of chances today and could have put more away, but fair play to them; they stayed in the game and got their goal.
“We’ll have to look at the mistake that caused the goal and be defensively better. That’ll hurt us tonight, we wanted to keep another clean sheet. We know we need to be a bit more ruthless at the other end. The link play’s good and we’re getting in the right areas. We just need to put the ball away.”
Putting the ball away. That old chestnut, the issue at the core of the not-so-good news surrounding this Socceroos team not just out of these group stages, but quite a bit of time now. It’s a profligacy and lack of inspiration that means two games on from their blunt performance against India to open their tournament, they remain yet to produce a display that suggests they’re ready to stand up and demand they be considered a side capable of lifting the Asian Cup based on their play, rather than their reputation.
Across the last 180 minutes of football, a 1-0 win over Syria and this 1-1 draw with the Uzbeks, the Socceroos have only been able to fashion two shots on target, both of which, fortunately for those of a green and gold persuasion, resulted in goals. Only one of these actually came from open play, and even that, Jackson Irvine seizing on the loose ball after Boyle’s attempted pass for Riley McGree was deflected and ricocheted around the box, carried a significant degree of fortune.
On Tuesday, it was a controversial penalty decision that provided the Socceroos with their avenue to goal: Odiljon Hamrobekov was adjudged on VAR review to have improperly handled the ball as he, unsuccessfully, attempted to slide in and dispossess Kusini Yengi. Given that the only thing the arm was doing was supporting the 27-year-old’s weight, and that the contact wasn’t enough to prevent the Socceroos striker from skipping onward, it felt like an incredibly harsh decision, even if current interpretations of the handball law may have given referee Yusuke Araki little option to award it.
Admittedly, that weaving run around multiple defenders from Yengi shouldn’t have needed reassessing anyway: the striker recovered the ball after it contacted Hamrobekov and put a cutback on a plate for an open McGree, only for the Middlesbrough man to fire wide. And by inducing his opponent to leave his feet, Yengi has already scored a win of sorts, with any defender that leaves their feet putting themselves in a position wherein their fate is in the hands of the footballing gods and their unflinching eye in the sky.
The former Western Sydney Wanderers man had also had the ball in the back of the net in the 11th minute only for it to be chalked off after Boyle was adjudged to have been offside in the build-up, while the Uzbeks were perhaps lucky that Umar Eshmurodov was still on the park at that point after VAR opted not to upgrade his yellow card to a red after potentially denying Boyle a clear goal-scoring opportunity on the counter in the 25th minute.
🎥 HIGHLIGHTS | 🇦🇺 Australia 1️⃣-1️⃣ Uzbekistan 🇺🇿
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But while these twists of fate may have served to alter the narrative somewhat, they wouldn’t have obfuscated the issues that have continuously dogged this team; that when it comes down to actually moving the ball into threatening areas and converting, of building play up in a manner that pulls the opponent out of position and creates spaces to exploit, of players wanting the ball in tight spaces and being able to make that defining run or pass, the Socceroos are yet to demonstrate that they have a reliable answer.
Per Opta, Arnold’s side got the ball into the Syrian and Uzbek penalty areas 54 times across their last two fixtures but have just one on-target shot from open play to show for it. Frequently, it feels like there’s very little underpinning the side’s attacks beyond getting it down the flanks and whipping the ball into the box, with the pre-eminent backup plan frequently descending into the domain of fortune or individual moments of brilliance from players.
They’re hardly alone in this regard at this tournament, of course, with several of the perceived heavy hitters in Qatar all having laboured to find a way through against nominal lesser foes across the group stages. Really, they’re hardly unique in a global context when it comes to needing to figure out what to do with the ball during periods of extended build-up, be it at a club or international level. But regardless of how much company they have, it’s still an issue that needs solving.
“Overall, we’re getting better as we go,” Arnold said. “What some people don’t understand is we have four players here that have had Asian Cup experience. And in this squad of 26, we only have 12 players that were here in Qatar for the World Cup.
“So I’m blending and gelling a new squad together.
“It’s about us connecting as a group and I couldn’t be more proud of their work rate and their effort. Of course, we can do things better but when you’ve only had them for about two, three weeks to get them sorted out — and we’ve got to play games as well.
“It’s always about that culture and commitment the boys give that is very, very good.”
Ultimately, that’s probably why — despite the challenges thus far — you can’t write Australia off completely. For all their struggles, it’s tournament football now, one-off games where anything can happen and you can grind through. The higher seeds in Doha have demonstrated enough foibles of their own to suggest they can be exploited if their opponents are brave and decisive — like Iraq were against Japan — and the talent is there in the Socceroos camp to perform at a higher level.
Importantly, though there’s potentially something to work on surrounding being caught flat-footed by balls in behind, the defence remains a strong foundation to build upon. There were shaky moments against the Uzbeks but they still only fashioned one shot on target throughout the 90 themselves. Additionally, many of these moments were the result of the Socceroos giving the ball away in the dangerous positions rather than outright defensive breakdowns: Srečko Katanec’s side setting up in a strong defensive shape, zeroing in on attempts to play through the lines to midfielders often far too static and hidden in cover shadow, and breaking in the opposite direction line a wolf pack. Flashes of nervousness on the defensive end, but ones tied to the issues with the ball in possession.
“They had one shot on target,” said Arnold. “It’s what we build on.
“We played some good combination football, some good attacking football, but it’s the last pass, it’s the last cut-back or finish. That’s down to the individual. The individual has to be able to put them in the back of the net. I can’t do that.”
But now, attempts to find better connections and demonstrate a more lethal touch, though, will now have to come in the crucible of sudden-death football. And while there’s been plenty of talk about a potential meeting with Saudi Arabia in the quarterfinals amidst an otherwise favourable draw, there’s still the manner of a round-of-16 contest, likely against Palestine or Indonesia, to deal with first.
