DOHA, Qatar — Australia at the 2023 Asian Cup continues to be a walking, talking question in footballing existentialism. Does it matter how the wins come, as long as they do? Just how much does the style affect the substance? Does asking these questions perhaps unfairly, underplay the role of the opposition? Ultimately, does it matter how the footballing sausage gets made?
Because when referee Mohamed Abdulla Hassan Mohd blew at full time at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium on Sunday, the Socceroos were headed through to the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup. They did so after defeating Indonesia 4-0, with late goals from Craig Goodwin and Harry Souttar doubling a first-half advantage won via an own goal from Elkan Baggott and a header from Martin Boyle.
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It was the equal heaviest win of the tournament to this point and just the fourth time that a side has scored four goals in a single game. It was Australia’s biggest knockout stage win since they beat Uzbekistan 6-0 in the 2011 semifinals. They will now meet either South Korea or Saudi Arabia in the final eight and given the travails of those two heavyweights to this point, will inevitably fancy their chances of winning their way through to the final four.
That’s the high-level summary and the highlights of the goals will make for good viewing on the morning news broadcasts when Australia wakes up on Monday morning. But on a deeper level, yet again the questions that have hovered over this side throughout the tournament will continue to linger joined by something new. Even after a 4-0 win remains that longstanding query: can this team find a reliable way through defences and create quality chances? And now, there’s also the matter of what happens when the opponent steps up and looks to win the ball back high up the park?
Because when Boyle streaked through at the back post and hurled himself forward to meet a cross curved perfectly across the face of goal by Gethin Jones, he was recording the Socceroos’ first shot of the game, even if they now led 2-0. It was the 45th minute, and it doubled an advantage gleaned when an attempted cross from Jackson Irvine ricocheted off Baggott and nestled itself inside the near-post of despairingly out-of-position goalkeeper Ernando Ari. That, Indonesian coach Shin Tae Yong noted post-game, was a particularly unfortunate way to concede an opening goal, a moment that completely changed the game’s context.
Boyle’s strike represented a further body blow in that it was the first time all tournament the Socceroos had been able to take a two-goal buffer into the halftime break. Crucially, given that they’d conceded just once across their opening three games, the form guide suggested that short of disaster striking they’d done enough to secure their survival for at least another round of play. More importantly in the immediate term, however, it served to provide some level of protection for a lead that was coming under furious assault by Indonesia.
Team Garuda to that point, had been good. In fact, they’d quite simply been the better side. Far be it from sitting back and looking to play on the counter against a side ranked 121 places above them on the FIFA rankings, this young side was aggressive in their pressing and daring in their attempts to get forward and put the Australian backline under pressure. Socceroos coach Graham Arnold post-game was quick to praise the efforts of the Indonesians to a greater degree than he normally does with opponents, particularly their physical efforts.
They were helped by a large and vocal contingent of support amidst the 7,863 in attendance, whose cacophonous noise whenever something vaguely threatening developed helped add a heightened level of anxiety for their opponents, giving half-chances the air of something much more threatening.
“We can always improve, that’s for sure,” said Aziz Behich. “Especially in the first 15, 20 minutes, they pressed well. Sometimes in games, especially in tournaments, you’ve just got to adjust. You don’t you don’t know what the other team is going to come out with.”
During extended periods of possession where they weren’t jumped on Australia frequently fell into familiar periods of U-shaped possession that did little to trouble their opponents and gave Bruno Fornaroli, elevated into the starting lineup, little chance to utilise his strengths in receiving the ball to feet and facilitating teammates. There were teasing moments wherein a player such as Boyle, Jordan Bos, or even Behich from left back would drop pretence, take his man on, and flash danger in driving forward with aggression but they were unfortunately fleeting.
“We play football to win. So I just studied and had thoughts about how we win against Australia rather than just showing a good performance,” said Shin through an interpreter.
“I thought if we press, then probably we’re going to have more opportunities to score. But we didn’t finish well.”
By the time the game ended, Australia had won handily on the scoreboard and taken out the possession battle, but they’d only done the latter by a slight margin. The stats surrounding play in the final third had been just shaved by the Australians and it was the Indonesians who had proven more adept at getting the ball into their opponent’s penalty area, winning that 23 entries to 19. Alarmingly for Arnold, his side had coughed the ball up 40 times in their own half, compared to just the 28 times by their foes.
After 45 minutes, the Southeast Asians had sent in five shots to Boyle’s lone effort. They’d come agonisingly close to opening the scoring in just the sixth minute of play when Justin Hubner delivered the ball to Rafael Struick‘s darting run in front of Harry Souttar (who wasn’t as reassured as he would have liked to have been at the back), with the resulting flick on going just over the bar.
Inevitably, though, Indonesia’s energy faded as the second half wore on. This is a side still growing and a footballing nation still developing. They weren’t able to resemble the same kind of buzzsaw and the Socceroos slowly began to win more of the battles in the middle of the park, taking the sting out of the game and preventing a second-half shot. Nonetheless, they were still able to deny the Australians another shot until the 81st minute when second-half substitute Mitch Duke skied an attempted chip over the head of the onrushing Ernando from outside the box.
That ultimately led to something of a dam wall breaking, with a further five shots, three on target, arriving for Australia in the final exchanges. Goodwin’s goal in the 89th minute arrived after some slick build-up play in which Connor Metcalfe sprung Nathaniel Atkinson into space on the right and he sent in a cross that Irvine met with a powerful header that though Ernando did very well to keep out, was smartly finished by the winger on the rebound. Souttar’s effort two minutes later, meanwhile, was the quintessential Australian goal under Arnold: a set piece put right where it needed to be by Goodwin and met with an excellently-placed glancing header from the towering centre-back.
Inevitably, these final exchanges and some of the combination play therein will be something the team looks to use as a platform. Two goals from open play, both well-worked in nature, are positive. So is a set-piece header, normally a great strength but this one just the first of the tournament. Yet another clean sheet is also in the books, despite the added pressure that was faced.
“The improvements today was I think the individual belief and some of the actions the boys were doing, it was in a lot of ways more freedom from them and more relaxed,” said Arnold. “And that’s what I want. I want them to show their individual qualities.
“It’s good to have a great system of play, and it’s good to have great attacking patterns and that but I’d rather see these boys relax and show their skills and show their imagination and I saw that growing today.”
Shin had admitted in his official pre-match press conference that the odds were stacked against his side but to the enormous credit of the South Korean coach and his side, they didn’t simply retreat into a shell as a result. They took it straight to the Socceroos and pretty much got their approach exactly right.
But it was Australia that ultimately got their goals and will be moving on to the next adventure in questions of life, meaning, and the footballing universe — their Asian Cup campaign is still alive and, given the strengths they possess and the travails of others, still, remarkably, capable of producing silverware.
