What a shame that Robin van Persie wasn’t playing for the Dutch against the Socceroos because if he did we might have seen the goals that such a dominant performance deserved.
Australia did do well to not concede but that was a big a nil-all thrashing you will see.
Just listening to the mixed messages after the game from players and coach Pim Verbeek, was a little bewildering to be honest.
Pim Verbeek seemed pleased with proceedings and described the performance thus: “especially the first half we did quite well.
“We started also good in the second half and then for 15-20 minutes the Dutch were coming and coming and we were struggling..and the last 15 mins we were OK….It was a fair result.”
Sorry Pim, but the only thing pleasing about the first half was that it ended scoreless because clearly Australia was not at the races.
Harry Kewell wasn’t of the same opinion of his coach, saying the team needs games like this because the Socceroos need “putting back to reality”…. We didn’t play well, but worked hard and kept a clean sheet.”
The thing is many fans know when a team plays well and when it doesn’t, and surely many would agree with Kewell.
A thrashing might have made for some ugly headlines, but it would clearly show just where the team needs to improve before the World Cup.
The Dutch enjoyed 61% possession and shot 21 times at goal compared to four, although only four shots were on target compared to just one by the Socceroos.
Australia looked a little better in the second half when Kewell played up front and Emerton provided a little more pace wide in midfield, but remember the Socceroos were at home.
Is it too much to expect the team to try and pressure sides a little more when playing in front of their own supporters.
It’s hard to think that this was same team that played Ireland.
Well actually it wasn’t because in truth it was a better line-up.
But the Socceroos never came to the party as an attacking line-up although as Pim Verbeek’s team has already demonstrated, they are hard to beat.
Sadly this won’t be enough at the World Cup.
It was brilliant to watch the Dutch spread the ball around so precisely at such a high tempo, and the Socceroos can only dream of playing at that level, but they can surely keep the ball better and attack with more quality.
Like with Adelaide United it’s hard to remain convinced that a 4-2-3-1/4-5-1 is the way to go for the Socceroos as it seems to produce so few goals with the players we see selected by Verbeek.
And also as we saw against Holland, like Adelaide United the team struggled to even keep the ball.
As much as it was wonderful to watch the Dutch, it was frustrating to watch the Socceroos.
And it was more frustrating to hear some of the post match comments.
There’s simply no need to put a spin on coming second best to the number three team in the world so why even try?