The Asian Cup With Ze Phibber - Aussie, Aussie, Oh
Australia's final pool game of the 2015 Asian Cup was against South Korea. This was undoubtedly going to be Australia's toughest game yet. The game did not have too much riding on it as both teams had already secured a place in the quarter finals, however it is always nice to go into that quarter final on a hot winning streak plus you generally get a slightly easier quarter final.
Both teams as suspected rested a few players with Australia making four changes and Korea Republic making six. A rather lucky goal for Korea Republic was all that separated the two teams. It was a hard fought game from both teams but Australia really were the dominant side and should have probably at least come away with a point.
Australia dominated the stats with 67.2% possession and 14 shots but Korea proved that at the end of the game it's not the stats that win the match it's the opportunities you take. Korea scored the lone goal in the 33rd minute from Lee Jeonghyeop who looked to be crossing the ball, and when no one managed to get on to the back of it, it ended up in the right hand corner of the net. It was hard on Matt Ryan, you can't commit too early to a ball like that because realistically a cross usually is going to either be cleared away from a defender or it's going to hit its target and then your going to have to try and stop a shot, which you can't do if you have committed too early.
I think Ange Postecoglou made a bit of an error by not starting any of the regular three front men, Tim Cahill, Robbie Kruse and Matthew Leckie. The front three players need to be able to work really well together and it is hard for that to be done by three players who have not played much football together. Don't get me wrong they are all great footballers, but I think I would have had Robbie Kruse and Leckie starting with either Nathan Burns or Tomi Juric up with them. I think Australia where a little too casual with this game and should have been thinking about the quarter final match ups and a way to make their run to the final as easy as possible. Any way what's done is done.
Australia now have their work cut out for them in the up coming quarter final where they will be facing an in form Chinese team. The Chinese are undoubtedly one of the stronger teams in the Asian Cup and Australia would definitely have liked to have faced them later on. Australia will have had 5 days rest and will hopefully be up for tomorrow night's challenge. They will need to improve for the match against China and really work on finishing as they had so many opportunities that went begging due to either poor finishing or outstanding goal keeping (which you can't do much about). If they play like they did against Oman there should be no issue with taking away the Victory.
Get up the Socceroos.