I had the privilege of watching this match on SBS on Saturday night at Jordan and Ellie's as we discovered why our TV struggles to pick up Ten and SBS - we have no antenna!
This match saw an Australian side that seemed to lack the pizazz of the Hiddink era playing an understrength Paraguay side. I'm relatively new to observing football but I knew not one player in the Paraguay line-up. Having said that, they are a nation higher-ranked than us in the FIFA World rankings and hence deserve our respcet.
I was pleased to see some sporting sentimentality allowed into the game with retirees Lazaridis, Popovic, Kalac and Vidmar all starting on the pitch. All made credible performances, but perhaps that pizazz was lacking as none of them really got much game-time under Hiddink (except perhaps Popovic, hired as a hitman against Uruguay and getting some time in Germany. Notably he was the one Arnold singled out, after a best on field performance, questioning if he should be retiring!).
This match saw an Australian side that seemed to lack the pizazz of the Hiddink era playing an understrength Paraguay side. I'm relatively new to observing football but I knew not one player in the Paraguay line-up. Having said that, they are a nation higher-ranked than us in the FIFA World rankings and hence deserve our respcet.
I was pleased to see some sporting sentimentality allowed into the game with retirees Lazaridis, Popovic, Kalac and Vidmar all starting on the pitch. All made credible performances, but perhaps that pizazz was lacking as none of them really got much game-time under Hiddink (except perhaps Popovic, hired as a hitman against Uruguay and getting some time in Germany. Notably he was the one Arnold singled out, after a best on field performance, questioning if he should be retiring!).
Once Archie Thompson (Melbourne Victory), Jason Culina (PSV Eindhoven, Holland) and Jade North (Newcastle Jets) came on, we started looking more dangerous and indeed got our only goal of the game. It was wonderful to see Popovic get that goal in a fitting farewell to him.
History will now say that Michael Beauchamp (former Central Coast Mariner, now Nurnberg player in Germany) scored a silly own goal, but some Socceroos claim he was fouled and the referee was blind to miss it. This raises an interesting point.
Kashihara's refereeing was abysmal. It was an unusually rough match for a friendly and more yellow cards should have been given to rein in the tough tackles. Cruder tackles began to emerge as players saw no justice was being given from the referee, so some "playground justice" was required. The referee also blundered by calling time at half-time ignoring the 3 extra minutes signalled by his second official. Reminds me of the referee in the Australia-Croatia World Cup group match that gave 3 yellow cards to Simic. Farcical.
In the end, a 1-1 result against Paraguay is creditable, and signals that without the sentimentality (ie no mucking around with the line-up) we should be well placed to beat Bahrain and take top spot in our 3-team group (thanks to the no-show of war-torn Lebanon). The great thing about being in Asia now, and not Oceania, is we have more qualifying games in which we can fine-tune our line-up. Expect to see Archie Thompson start alongside Aloisi up front; some of Emerton, Bresciano, Grella and Sterjovski in midfield and fresh new defence of Beauchamp, Neill, Wilkshire and North at the back. I'm biased, but I reckon there's a role for Adelaide United's Michael Valkanis in the centre back position, with his height. Another option is A-League leading goal-scorer Kevin Muscat.
History will now say that Michael Beauchamp (former Central Coast Mariner, now Nurnberg player in Germany) scored a silly own goal, but some Socceroos claim he was fouled and the referee was blind to miss it. This raises an interesting point.
Kashihara's refereeing was abysmal. It was an unusually rough match for a friendly and more yellow cards should have been given to rein in the tough tackles. Cruder tackles began to emerge as players saw no justice was being given from the referee, so some "playground justice" was required. The referee also blundered by calling time at half-time ignoring the 3 extra minutes signalled by his second official. Reminds me of the referee in the Australia-Croatia World Cup group match that gave 3 yellow cards to Simic. Farcical.
In the end, a 1-1 result against Paraguay is creditable, and signals that without the sentimentality (ie no mucking around with the line-up) we should be well placed to beat Bahrain and take top spot in our 3-team group (thanks to the no-show of war-torn Lebanon). The great thing about being in Asia now, and not Oceania, is we have more qualifying games in which we can fine-tune our line-up. Expect to see Archie Thompson start alongside Aloisi up front; some of Emerton, Bresciano, Grella and Sterjovski in midfield and fresh new defence of Beauchamp, Neill, Wilkshire and North at the back. I'm biased, but I reckon there's a role for Adelaide United's Michael Valkanis in the centre back position, with his height. Another option is A-League leading goal-scorer Kevin Muscat.
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When we had our antenna checked in Adelaide - or the lack thereof - the 2 companies that gave us quotes said that different suburbs need antennae! They are not that expensive either. Jessie and Kerran (and all their visitors pre-antenna) will attest to the fact that a coathanger works wonders!
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