Australia’s Asian Cup title credentials and stingy defence will be properly put to the test for the first time in Qatar when it faces Saudi Arabia or South Korea in the quarterfinal.
The Socceroos’ next opponent will be confirmed on Tuesday when Roberto Mancini’s Saudi Arabia and Jurgen Klinsmann’s South Korea meet in the last 16.
Whoever wins, Australia will face a step-up from anything it has faced so far at the tournament.
The bedrock of its pursuit of a second Asian title -- it won it on home soil in 2015 -- has been a miserly defence that has conceded one goal in four matches.
“Clean sheets win tournaments,” coach Graham Arnold said after defeating Syria 1-0 in the group phase.
The Socceroos reached the quarterfinal on Sunday with a 4-0 victory over an Indonesia side ranked 121 places below it.
Australia was a deserved and ultimately comfortable winner against the lowest-ranked team left in the tournament, but the one-sided scoreline flattered it.
Arnold took Australia to the last 16 of the Qatar 2022 World Cup before giving eventual champion Argentina and Lionel Messi a fright in a 2-1 defeat.
The run to the knockout rounds -- equalling its best performance at a World Cup -- was hailed at home as a major success.
At the Asian Cup, however, it is expected to challenge for the title against far more moderate opposition, and preferably with more attacking verve than it has displayed so far.
ALSO READ: South Korea coach Klinsmann has no fear, only respect for Mancini’s Saudi Arabia
Prior to the Indonesia game, Australia had scored four times in three games.
The combative Arnold agrees his team needs to be better offensively, especially individually, but feels it has been unfairly characterised as overly defensive.
“I think back in Australia they’d rather see you lose 1-0 than keep a clean sheet,” he said.
Most important
Australia conjured up one shot on target in beating Syria and even though it hit four against Indonesia, the first was an own goal and it had four shots on target all game.
Arnold might argue that shows a clinical edge.
Harry Souttar, the towering central defender, got the fourth with a header and is arguably Australia’s biggest goal threat, namely from set-pieces.
His record is a remarkable one and more akin to a forward -- 11 goals in little over 20 appearances.
The winger Martin Boyle, who like Souttar was born in Aberdeen in Scotland, scored the second with a diving header and was on script afterwards with his manager beside him.
“Clean sheets is the most important thing,” he said.
“As forward players you know you can really rely on that, it gives us the freedom up front not to be scared to make mistakes when you know you have that defensive structure behind you.”
If fit, the 33-year-old Mitchell Duke, who averages one in three at international level and carries a physical presence, will spearhead the attack in the last eight.
He is Arnold’s first-choice centre-forward but missed the 1-1 draw with Uzbekistan with a hamstring niggle and came on in the second half against Indonesia. He is yet to score in Qatar.
In his absence, Arnold gave a first international start to the raw Kusini Yengi against Uzbekistan and tried out the 36-year-old Uruguay-born Bruno Fornaroli for Indonesia.
Both ran willingly but failed to muster a shot on target between them and neither has ever scored an international goal.
Comments
SHARE