socceroos

An uninspiring match. Australia probably had the better of it, but were wasteful in the heat and humidity. It was nice to keep a clean sheet, but you can't win matches (our tournaments) if you can't score. Still more to do.

Australia broke an almost year-long drought with a scrappy 3-2 win over Saudi Arabia. It was a bit of an odd match. We got off to a flyer, up 2-0 after just six minutes. We improved in some areas, but dropped off in others. Saudi Arabia made a game of it, fighting back to 2-1 and 3-2, but we held on. Our 'keeper can consider himself lucky he wasn't sent off. A penalty was given which suggested a red card, not a yellow card to me. Still plenty more to do, but a win will help the confidence.

Postecoglou continues to experiment and try new players and combinations. It's important to re-build, but it would be nice to win a game, given the Asian Cup is only a few months away. Belgium, ranked 5th in the world, were too strong and ran out comfortable winners. We struggled on the attack, especially when Bresciano and Cahill went off. Defensively we seem to have more options than in attack. Our best defence should do reasonably well in the Asian Cup, but we need some goal scorers if we're going to progress.

Our third and final match played out as many would have expected before the tournament. It was always going to be difficult to score without Cahill and we lacked some of the energy and verve of our first two matches. In the end Spain won comfortably.

This game will probably remembered as one of the all-time World Cup classics. Ultimately though, for Australians, we'll look back at one that got away. The margins of error were tiny, but we were on the wrong end of them.

The new look Socceroos battled bravely, but in the end their inexperience cost them dearly. A 1-3 loss pretty much confirms we won't get out of the group stage (not that there was much chance of that anyway). We fought back from a poor start and with a little more luck might have salvaged a draw, but in the end were left lamenting what might have been.

There has been some upheaval in the Socceroos since our last match. Osieck is gone and Postecoglou is in the hot seat. A fresh approach has been promised and a rebuilding of the Socceroos for the World Cup finals and the Asian Cup (and even beyond). There has been a lot of debate about who should be captain, with Neill retaining the job for this match. A few older players have been dropped and legendary goalkeeper, Schwarzer, announcing his retirement and some younger players have been given their chance.

A second humiliation in a little over a month. The situation looks dire for the World Cup next year (and even the Asian Cup in 2015). Our team simply cannot compete against quality opposition at the moment. Our failure to regenerate our team under Verbeek and Osieck cannot be ignored any longer. It's hard to see Osieck doing that and the calls for his head will be loud and long. (UPDATE: Osieck has been sacked by Gallop.)

Brazil handed us an absolute football lesson in the early hours of the morning. Osieck described it as a "valuable lesson", but it was hard to see much value there. We were outpaced and outplayed by a younger, superior team. Brazil has completely regenerated their team since the last time we played them. We haven't. There will be calls for Osieck's head after this and demands for new blood. We've got so much work to do in the next nine months.

A high scoring, but ultimately fruitless match, as Australia went down 3-4. We finished the tournament with a single point from three matches. From that point of view it was disappointing. On the plus side, many young players were given their opportunity. It will be interesting to see what sort of squad Osieck looks to build for Rio 2014.