Australia v China – A Review

Australia 0 – China 0

In the end this was a good result for us, Pim was left with no effectively no strikers going into the game (Archie Thompson, Mark Bridge and Brett Holman could be the only players left standing in the squad who could be considered strikers). From the outset it appeared both teams were going to be satisfied with a draw and the goal of both teams was not to lose.

I was surprised to see Australia setup as a 3 – 4 –1- 2, it was always likely that Pim was going to go with two DMs covering the defence so I wondered at the sense in playing a back three. That being said it worked well to a point. The Chinese tactic of the long ball over the top was successfully negated and all three worked well together all game. The other end of the pitch was much more of a concern. With Jason Culina starting as the creative attacking midfielder I was expecting little in terms of our shots on goal and was not disappointed.

I think in total we created two real opportunities to score and should have done so on both occasions. For all Australia’s good work though we were damn lucky to escape with our deserved draw, the penalty really should have been converted and the gods were certainly shining when Shao Jiayi directed his penalty effort into Mark Schwarzer’s legs.

It would be a gross understatement to call China’s tactics peculiar. The first half they didn’t put any pressure on the Socceroos coming out of the back at all. This played into Australia’s hands by allowing us to maintain possession and build up slowly. I thought the reason for the tactic was their fear of the altitude and their hope they could snatch the game in the second half once Australia began to tire. This wasn’t to be however as again in the second half they stood off the Socceroos and allowed us to dictate the pace. In the end they appeared to value the point from the draw more important to their overall qualification than the win.

Here are my Australian player ratings

Mark Schwarzer 6.0
Hard to rate Mark, he had very little to do. The penalty he gave away was dubious but then again he should never been in that position, he left it too late to come out for the ball. The penalty save was more a poor kick from Shao Jiayi than any brilliance from Mark.

Jade North 8.0
Brilliant game by North and the best player on the pitch for me. Did everything asked of him and more. His positioning at the back was excellent and he clearances strong and full of determination. Would love to see him given a chance in a good European league because on that performance was good as good if not better than Beauchamp.

Lucas Neill 7.5
Neill looks so much better when he is not allowed to try long balls from the back. Back in 2006 Hiddick pretty much knocked it out of his game and he looked brilliant, in the last few years the long ball pass from him has been creeping back into his game he has looked the poorer player for it. Yesterday we saw the Lucas of 2006. He marshalled the backline with confidence, his positioning in defence was spot on and most importantly his distribution out from the back was excellent.

Michael Beauchamp 6.0
One of two players who I thought under preformed last night. Over the last year there has been constant question marks on the Central Back position and last night we saw why. Beauchamp is not comfortable when draw out wide and when caught one on one against skilful opponents gets turned too easily. Nearly all of China’s chances came from attacks down our left hand side and on several occasions Beauchamp looked in real trouble.

Luke Wilkshire 7.5
Luke is the most underrated player currently in the Socceroos setup. He constantly draws criticism from media pundits who see in him all that is wrong with Australian football (too much emphasis on athletic ability and not enough on skill) but he continues to put in solid if not outstanding performances. Again yesterday he played his role, breaking up attacks when needed and pushing forward when required.

David Carney 5.5
A poor performance from Carney, he was after all overdue (to date this is the only game in the yellow strip where he has under preformed). It must have been a nightmare out there for him yesterday, he was constantly caught in possession and lost it several times while pushing forward. He was caught out of position on several occasions and was the main reason China was getting so much joy done our left hand side. To top it all off, he should have put away the chance he had at the end of the game. Whether Fatigue had kicked in or not we will never know but his lack of intensity to get to that cross from Brescanio looked woeful.

Vince Grella 6.5
He started the game really well, getting lots of touches and controlling the distribution and tempo (mind you China put him under no pressure what so ever). As the game wore on little cracks started to appear. The second half was below his best mistiming some passes and on at least two occasions completely missing the player. This is yet another occasion where Vince has noticeably tired after a long flight in.

Carl Valeri 7.0
I thought Valeri played well, he was busy screening the defence and was always available to take a pass. As a screening DM he is developing well however I think he is still a little limited in his play as you rarely see him passing the ball forward with those probing attacking balls that Vince Grella can generate.

Jason Culina 6.0
I thought Culina played well but as he was playing as the creative midfielder I need to rate him that way. Australia had two real chances for the match, just two ! The reason why was because Culina just could not provide that killer ball that would set Brescanio or Holman through onto goal. I couldn’t help but wonder how Nicky Carle would have gone last night.

Marco Bresciano 7.5
The best part of Brescanio’s game last night was his energy. I kept waiting for Pim to sub him off as his work rate started to drop off but it never did. He ran up and down that left hand side all night and just about all of our attacks went through him. He was extremely unlucky to not score in the first half and it was only that the ball was a little too far in front of him, and so denied him the ability to place the shot, resulted in the ball hitting the keeper on the chest rather than the back of the net.

Brett Holman 7.5
When Archie went down injured I thought we were in real strife, Holman doesn’t exactly fill me with a bucket of confidence. His game yesterday however was first class. He created plenty of headaches for the Chinese attack and made a real nuisance of himself. How much better he would have been if he had a centre forward to run off is debatable but on last nights effort he deserves another chance to show us.