The classic phrase ‘a week is a long time in football’ never rings truer when the world’s biggest sporting competition gets underway.
There is so much to unpack from this World Cup from an Australian perspective, so let’s go back to where it all began: the opening match against the reigning world champions.
Saudi Arabia’s shock win against Argentina earlier in the day had given us some hope that we might be able to repeat the trick against France, as unlikely as it seemed. Nine minutes in, the dream morphed into a possible reality.
It all happened so quickly we could hardly believe what we’d seen. A long ball from Harry Souttar, an excellent touch from Mathew Leckie past Lucas Hernandez and then a perfect ball across the box for Craig Goodwin to fire into the roof of Hugo Lloris’ net.
It was a wonderful moment which reflected the first 20 minutes of that game. We were up for the fight, keeping hold of the ball for decent spells and getting chances to attack the French defence.
Once the opening quarter of the game passed, the tide swiftly turned, and we were on the back foot for the rest of the contest. Adrien Rabiot equalised and then a mistake from Nathaniel Atkinson led to Olivier Giroud giving France the lead.
After half time, I was hoping we would be able to apply more pressure and make France work a little harder, but it wasn’t to be. Whether it be the gulf in quality or the gameplan, we couldn’t keep up and in the end, it was a relatively easy opener for Didier Deschamps’ side, running out 4-1 winners.
A lot of criticism was directed toward Graham Arnold for the lacklustre second half performance and his late substitutions, which made no impact on the game. Harsh criticism in my opinion, given we faced arguably the best team in the world when we barely even qualified for the tournament.
Our litmus test was going up against Tunisia last Saturday. One of the least fancied sides along with us, this was our chance to get a win on the board. Just the one change from the loss against France; Atkinson out and replaced by Fran Karacic.
It was a tense opening stanza, with both goalkeepers not called into serious action. A moment of class was going to make the difference, and it came in the 23rd minute. Craig Goodwin’s cross deflected wickedly into the air at the perfect height for a header, which was glanced magnificently from Mitch Duke into the far corner past the outstretched glove of Aymen Dahmen.
A special celebration between Duke and his son was captured in a moment which will be looked back on with great fondness. In such an even contest, getting the first goal was so crucial.
All we had to do was hold firm in defence and our first World Cup win in 12 years would be secured. Thank goodness we had Harry Souttar, coming off a serious injury with limited minutes at Stoke in the build up to Qatar. Two perfect last ditch sliding tackles capped off a herculean performance from the big defender, one which has Premier League clubs talking.
Amazing header aside, Mitch Duke put in an incredible shift and was rewarded with Man of the Match. Caused headaches for the Tunisian back three the whole time he was on the pitchand worked his backside off as the lone striker.
Satisfied with a rare World Cup win, attention turned to the final match of the group against the side ranked 10th in the FIFA standings. Denmark hadn’t set the world alight in their two matches and as long as France didn’t lose to Tunisia, a draw against the Danes would be enough to send us to the knockouts for just the second time in our history.
Again, Graham Arnold made a solitary change to the side from the Tunisia win and again, it was a change at right back. Karacic replaced by Milos Degenek.
With both sides desperate not to lose, the first half turned into another cagey affair for the Socceroos. Defending for most of it, we dealt with the threat from the Danish wingers Jesper Lindstrom and Andreas Skov Olsen relatively well.
After conceding three headed goals in the opening game and some question marks surrounding the centre back partnershipof Souttar and Kye Rowles, the pair took their game to another level against Tunisia and Denmark. Unfortunate slip from Rowles against Tunisia aside, they played superbly when the games went to the wire, and we had to defend deep in the box.
Aziz Behich deserves a lot of credit too. Played on a yellow for over 90 minutes and was excellent against Skov Olsen in 1v1 battles, while also managing to get forward on a few occasions and make dangerous runs into the box.
Fifty-eight minutes in, the news we dreaded came through. Tunisia had taken the lead against a shaky France side, which meant we had to win to advance. Disbelief and shock turned into utter jubilation two minutes later when we managed to break away.
Riley McGree had the ball and only one option running forward: Mathew Leckie. The pass was perfect to the Melbourne City winger, allowing him to keep stride and run at Joakim Maehle. A faint to the right, then a faint back onto his left, firing across his body through the legs of Maehle and beating Kasper Schmeichel, nestling in the far corner.
For the remaining half hour and extra time, we spent most of the time defending for our lives and hoping France would get a goal to alleviate some of the pressure. The France goal came right at the end and was eventually ruled out, but we didn’t need it. A resolute display kept the Danes at bay. They didn’t get anything clear cut, which is a credit to the way the whole team played.
Graham Arnold deserved praise for his subs in this match. Watching live, I wasn’t too thrilled seeing Keanu Baccus come on for Craig Goodwin. I thought it was bit too defensive early on, but I did think it was done to give us an extra body in the midfield. It worked a treat.
The Danish midfield were receiving the ball and spraying it out wide too easy in the first half, allowing Lindstrom and Skov Olsen to run at our full backs. With Baccus in the mix, the likes of Christian Eriksen and Pierre-Emerick Hojbjerghad to come deeper to get on the ball and weren’t able to influence the play like they did earlier on.
The individual quality of the players may not match the golden generation of 2006, but the teamwork and camaraderie is so strong within this squad. It’s the reason why we’ve made it to this point in the tournament. The team believes in the system Graham Arnold has in place. I also think compared to our qualifying matches in Asia, we’re going into these matches as the underdogs. We’re more effective when we don’t have to dictate the play.
Seeing the whole country get behind the Socceroos has been incredible. The scenes at Federation Square can’t be created by any other sport, and it demonstrates the love Australians have for football. In Perth, the venues showing the games live have had an incredible atmosphere, and it should be even better when Northbridge Piazza hosts the live site for the game against Argentina.
Whatever happens against La Albiceleste, we can be extremely proud of what we have achieved. Coming in with little to no expectation, a win would have been nice. We’ve had two, scored more points in the group than any Australian team previously, kept a clean sheet for the first time since 1974 and then kept another one and been in the lead for longer than every other Socceroos World Cup side combined. It can only be considered a success and I can’t wait to watch us take on one of the favourites to win the whole thing. Bring it on.
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