Young Socceroos Fail To Make Impression

Australia 0 – China 1

I am not the most negative of people. I usually avoid ranting and raving about really poor performances as I don’t think it serves any useful purpose attacking a player for what was most likely just a off day. However there were a few performances last night that deserve a mention because that were just abysmal.

For those of you who missed it Australia lost to China in the final World Cup Qualifying game. The game of course had no meaning to who progressed to the next round and Australia fielded a young team. It was a chance for us all to see our up and coming players in a quality international and see who may have the potential to make the squad for South Africa 2010.

Australia played so poorly I can remember only one or two long range speculative efforts on goal for the whole game. But it is a couple of individual performances that have me disappointed.

I am not a fan of Ruben Zadkovich, I fail to see what the Australian selectors see in him and it astounds me that Derby believe he has the quality to take them back to the Premier League. Last night only reaffirmed my belief that Zadkovich does not have what it takes to make it on the international stage. His decision making on the field is extremely suspect and his ability to control the ball and maintain possession is poor. I watched last night as time and time again he would kick the ball away and provide China with possession. It is no coincidence that he was involved in all of China’s chances ; failed clearance results in goal, terrible backpass results in indirect freekick, poor tackle results in penalty which China missed.

Mile Jedinak is not and will never be of Australian standard. Last night was a prime example of why he should never again wear the Australian yellow. To play a 4-2-3-1 we need the holding midfielders to control the tempo. To hold onto the ball and hit the passes to the three deep laying midfielders, playing the ball to their feet and ensuring a build up of attack. I was literally screaming at the TV last night as Jedinak hoisted ball after ball up the field to an isolated Bruce Djite, giving him little or no chance of support.

These two players were of course not the sole reason we lost, the team overall performed poorly (except maybe Jade North and Matthew Spiranovic, who both had good games). I am concerned at Pim’s decision to leave Djite alone up forward as a lone striker. I would have thought it would have been better to partner him with Kewell and maybe used Valeri as a lone DM. I understand though that Pim is trying to get the youngsters used to his preferred formation.

Overall the game was a useful learning experience for the younger players and Spiranovic certainly has pushed himself further into Pims thoughts (personally I would play him ahead of Beauchamp). Let us hope we have all of our senior Socceroos available come September as I feel we are going to need them.

,