Last night @SFS wasn’t a game for the ages, but in broader strategic terms there was a fair bit going on.
Since taking up the post Verbeek has been casting his squad net fairly widely, with an eye on sussing out reliable WCQ troopers and tonight we got to see a few more fringe players in action and some Olyroos put under the spotlight. Against a mid-strength team of similar calibre* some performed, others not so much.
Among the A-League standouts were Mile Jedinak in centre midfield and behind him Jade North who despite pressure from the pacy Ghanaian forwards held up well in partnership with Michael Beauchamp. Joel Griffiths by contrast was lackluster, stranded at the tip of a classic Dutch 4-2-3-1 when he’d much rather have been tucked in behind another forward.
The Olyroo performances were a mixed bag, U23 standout James Troisi didn’t get into the game at all, while Adam Griffiths had solid performance at rightback, in contrast to Nikolai Topor-Stanley’s fumbling performance on the left. Mark Bridge had one to forget as well, airswinging his one good chance. James Holland didn’t have a lot to work with but looked more assured than Danny Alsopp, another late sub.
Despite a fair bit of press coverage, fringers didn’t feature heavily; Chris Coyne didn’t make the bench and Spiranovic was a late, albeit capable, sub. Jacob Burns didn’t do much harm to his chances but didn’t set the world on fire either.
But what’s up with Harry Kewell? He was heavily marked all night, had some good touches but faded drastically after ‘30. A bit of a worry there, methinks. The Sterj and the Schwarz were standouts of the regular Euro contingent by a large measure.**
Going forward it looks like the competition for Craig Moore’s vacated CB spot is well and truly alive, North, Beauchamp and Spiranovic all handling it well, while the Schwarz looks safe between the sticks for a good few years yet. While Jedinak’s dogged display probably got him a few ticks as well. But how relevant this all is depends on events in a far-flung, strife-torn region…
*higher if FIFA/Coca Cola World Rankings are to be believed
**and Dave Carney was awesome at LB, but it’d be redundant to point that out.
3 responses so far ↓
Guido // May 27, 2008 at 2:22 pm
There seems lots of people (especially in SBS land) gnashing their teeth about the Socceroos performance.
OK it wasn’t great. But we had not even our second best team out there.
It shows that Verbeek is right. Lots of A-League players are not yet of international standard.
Mungo Amanda // May 27, 2008 at 6:25 pm
I missed this post when you put it up Leinad. Not champagne football maybe but I had fun and surely the point to having a longer/more competitive qualifying period and a better class of friendly is to work stuff out, so not every single thing rides on two games at the death.
Pim was in the paper this morning saying he didn’t want to see so much of the long ball — that should pacify Craig Foster a little, for a brief moment.
Club Troppo » Missing Link Daily // Jul 22, 2008 at 7:15 am
[...] Mike Salter (who also reviews the Olyroos win over Ireland and a couple of other things) and Leinad all review the Socceroos versus Ghana “friendly” which sounds like it probably should [...]