The Socceroos have a lot to work on. Fortunately, they have a lot to work with.
That’s the bad news and the good news from Friday night’s 1-0 victory over an impressive New Zealand, which coach Tony Popovic hopes is just the start of what is to come from the younger players he is trying to integrate into the national team set-up.
Some of them are further along than others.
Australia’s standout player was Jordan Bos, the 22-year-old who recently joined Feyenoord, one of the biggest clubs in the Netherlands. Bos has long been marked as a prodigious talent, but hasn’t been able to showcase himself at international level often enough due to an unfortunate run with injury.
As the Socceroos were monstered physically by the All Whites in the first half, smothered by their press and generally outplayed, Bos proved to be their only real outlet. His pace, power and directness down the left flank created openings that otherwise would not have been there.
His performance was further evidence of what many in the game know to be true: the only thing stopping him from reaching the very highest level will be his body.
“We haven’t seen him since November, unfortunately - and that’s his first full game with me,” Popovic said. “He hasn’t played a lot with us, but from what I saw in November to now, he’s a much improved player. That’s a real positive going forward.”
Popovic’s side grew into the contest as it wore on, eventually gaining a level of control in the second half, before a series of substitutions provided the spark that led to the decisive moment of the match.
The introduction of Nestory Irankunda brought the biggest cheer of the night out of the almost 20,000-strong crowd at Canberra’s GIO Stadium. Though he had his moments, he was outshone by his former Adelaide United teammate Mohamed Toure, who showed fantastic maturity and awareness to, after twice having shots blocked, spot an unmarked Max Balard amid a crowd of bodies in the penalty box.
Balard had only been on the field for a few moments, brought off the bench for his Socceroos debut, and with just his second touch, stroked the ball into the bottom-right corner.
“I was surprised he did that, actually,” Popovic said of Toure’s assist.
“I thought he was going to try and hit the far post himself. Great composure. He saw the free player, and Maxi did the rest. Good all-round from a good group of young players.”
Another debutant, goalkeeper Paul Izzo, also impressed by making several key saves to deny the Kiwis, including a one-on-one chance against Chris Wood, the New Zealand captain and Nottingham Forest star who is arguably one of the world’s most in-form strikers. The best compliment Popovic could give Izzo, who has had to wait a long time for his first taste of action for Australia, was that he looked like he “belonged”.
But, by and large, Popovic was unsatisfied with the team’s overall performance, though he is prepared to persist with the players he says are learning on the job when it comes to the difficulties of international football.
“It was okay,” he said.
“At moments we found it difficult against them, a really strong physical team. But we got the goal, we did some decent things ... with the changes and the lack of experience in certain areas, it showed a little tonight.
“I keep saying it’s a different type of pressure, and a different level when you play for your national team.
“You need games, you need to get comfortable in that. We had a lot of players that didn’t quite look comfortable. [They] put the effort in, fantastic effort. Endeavour was great, but they need the games and they need these type of moments to experience them.”
The Socceroos will play the second match of their Soccer Ashes series in Auckland on Tuesday night at Go Media Stadium.