Why white-knuckle Aussies could surprise at Confederations Cup

AUSTRAL IA’S c ava li e r approach may have contributed to their precarious position in 2018 World Cup qualifying, but it could help them spring an upset or two in June’s Confederations Cup.

The Socceroos remain out of Asia’s automatic qualification places despite a crucial 2- 0 victory over the United Arab Emirates in Sydney on Tuesday night. They’re third in Group B, three points behind joint leaders Japan and Saudi Arabia.

And by the time the Asian champions head to Russia in mid- June to face up to Germany, Cameroon and Chile, their hopes of playing in a fourth consecutive World Cup could be on life support – after a June 8 qualifier at home to the fearless Saudis. With an away game in Japan to come, a loss, or even a draw in Adelaide, would be disastrous.

Watching an Australian team coached by Ange Postecoglou is always a white knuckle ride. The former national full-back lives and breathes attacking football, and wasn’t afraid to introduce a bold 3-2- 4-1 system at the pointy end of his team’s campaign.

After his players struggled to adapt in last Thursday’s 1-1 draw against Iraq on neutral soil in Tehran, Australia looked more comfortable with Postecoglou’s new system, as goals from Jackson Irvine and Mathew Leckie saw off the dangerous Emiratis at the Sydney Football Stadium.

The tactic allows pacey wide players like Leckie and Brad Smith to push forward, giving the team width and multiple attacking outlets, with two No. 10’s in the middle, sitting behind target-man Tomi Juric up top. Against the UAE, Irvine and James Troisi filled in admirably for the absent Tom Rogic and Aaron Mooy in attacking midfield, with Tim Cahill used as an impact substitute for inform striker Juric.

The attacking philosophy looks as though it could soon pay dividends, but playing three at the back is a risky proposition – particularly because Australia weren’t strong defensively to begin with. Tuesday night was only the third clean sheet of their third-round campaign.

It means that in Russia the Aussies will be more than capable of finding the net against the Germans – they held the reigning world champions to a 2-2 draw in Kaiserslautern in 2015 – but the scoreline could well end up 5- 4.

“The job ... ( is) to play a style that’s going to stand us in good stead heading into Confederations Cup,” Cahill explained this week.

The mini-World Cup will also see the Socceroos play a rematch with South American champions Chile, to whom they lost 3-1 at Brazil 2014. In that game in Cuiba, Australia were brazenly pushing for an equaliser in added time before substitute Jean Beausejour struck Chile’s third in the 92nd minute.

It’s this sort of fearless approach under Postecoglou that has some nervous Aussie fans wondering if the dull and conservative style of his predecessors Pim Verbeek and Holger Osieck wasn’t so dire after all. Verbeek’s qualification for the 2010 World Cup under Lucas Neill was a lot smoother than the wild ride for 2018 with Aston Villa’s Mile Jedinak as captain.

“I’ve sat here for three-and-ahalf years and I haven’t changed in anything I’ve said I was going to do,” Postecoglou said after the win.

“I expect to be held accountable for what I say and the kind of football we want to play. But it seems I’ve been held accountable for doing what I said I’d do this week – that’s the bit I struggle with.

“Maybe if it was a foreign coach we’d all sit back and say, ‘what a genius he is, he’s coming up with new ways to challenge these guys.’”

What will please Postecoglou most about the victory over the UAE will be the way that fringe players stepped up in the absence of missing regulars like Rogic and Mooy, and how new stars have emerged since Australia won the Asian Cup on home soil in January 2015.

Smith has rarely featured for Bournemouth at left- back this season, but was arguably the Socceroos’ best in the more advanced role where Brendan Rodgers gave him his Liverpool debut off the bench as a 19-yearold against Chelsea in 2013.

The versatile Irvine, who’s with Burton Albion in the English second tier, was once better known as a defensive midfielder or even a centre- back. But the 24-year-old was full of confidence with a more attacking mindset as he gave Australia the comfort of a seventh-minute lead.

Of course, the bar will be raised much higher when Australia face up to the giants of world football in the Confederations Cup, starting with a June 19 meeting with the Germans in Sochi.

It’s a tournament where the Socceroos have performed well, finishing runners up behind Brazil in 1997, and coming third in 2001.

The Class of 2017 will be hard pressed to match that, with Portugal, Mexico and hosts Russia among the other teams in the tournament. But it should be an entertaining couple of weeks as Ange’s Aussies throw caution to the wind.

Jason Dasey is Senior Editor of ESPN FC, Borneo’s most popular football website which has a Southeast Asia edition. Twitter: @ ESPNFC