Australia vs Iraq preview

Holger Osieck and the Australia team will face crucial World Cup qualifier game Tuesday against Iraq. Australia needs a win to gain a place in Brazil next summer. Anything could still happen but with just one win in seven games, the almost eliminated Iraq would not represent a great challenge for Socceroos. Vladimir Petrovic’s side will be without former captain Younis Mahmoud and star player Nashat Akram too. But Australia will play under high pressure. Failing to qualify does mean a huge step back for an improving movement as Australian soccer is. On the field, Osieck seems to have found a right mix between youth and experience. He still relied on a veteran back line anchored to Sasa Ognenovski, and Lucas Neill as centre backs in front of goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer. Luke Wilkshire is the established right back while Matt McKay gained the starting role into a troubled left back spot. Mark Bresciano and Mark Milligan’s performances as central midfielders were a reason for the Socceroos' success in the past matches while Tommy Oar and Robbie Kruse has been showing flasehs of good football on the flanks. Australia’s fans and media has long waited the next generation to rise up and lead the way. Now, both Oar and Kruse seem to get answers to their questions. Osieck could like to start Tom Rogic, the next rising star, up front but he could still be a bit conservative lining up 29-year-old Brett Holman as attacking midfielder behind the centre forward Tim Cahill. Osieck still has the chance to get Australia to the World Cup, although he could made it not in the way the country have hoped. As we said, Australian fans wanted a more easy road to 2014 World Cup and they was waiting for a young, talented new bunch of players to step up and produce. But Osieck was faithful to his veterans during this qualifying campaign, prefering to infuse in the team blend of experience rather than youth. Osieck’s gameplan has always been based on a classicc 4-4-2 formation with a British-style brend of football focused on direct play as his team showed against Japan. This is why Osieck needs Kruse and Oar: they have to be able to repeat their recent performances in the way to have an impact on the game. They will have need of full backs’ support and could also take advantage from Holman’s cutbacks, as it happened against Jordan. On the other side of the game, the 4-4-2 formation Osieck employed wasn’t able to keep Keisuke Honda, lined up as attacking midfielder, out of the game as he was free to operate between the lines in the match against Japan. So Australia’s two backs of four will have to do a better job against Iraq if it will happen again. Osieck has to find a balance between attack and defence in the way to don't suffer a setback.

USMNT: some thoughts

One year from now and 2014 World Cup will start in Brazil. U.S. men’s national team is nearest to the tournament after they claimed a 2-0 victory over Panama. Plenty about USMNT remains unsettled as the team needs of a man to pair to Michael Bradley and of a winger to place on the left side of midfield. But head coach Jurgen Klinsmann's plan to reach the goal produced although he almost did it running a different way from that he showed to fans and media when he was appointed in July 2011. His proposed changes never flourished. When his team tried to play pressing higher up the field it didnt work. His revolutionary approach wans't implemented and USMNT started to display good performances when Klinsmann came back to an ordinary world playing a more pragmatic brend of soccer. But the German coach was smart enough to adapt oneself. And he give his contribution. He added depth and quality. Young players such as Matt Besler, Omar Gonzalez and Graham Zusi step up. Geoff Cameron, Eddie Johnson, and Fabian Johnson boosted the options in the midfield. Offense finally showed some consistency. And, above all, the back four seems settled, after Klinsmann found two strong centre-backs in Besler and Gonzalez and a good enough left-back in DaMarcus Beasley. Some questions remain at right-back after Brad Evans' poor performance against Panama but things are better now than they was a couple of months ago. With the defence settled, U.S. coach gave his team the needed foundation.

Erratic effort put Choi Kang-hee under high pressure

Another erratic effort against an Asian minor team raised questions about Choi Kang-hee’s regime as South Korea manager. 

 

Choi is under pressure now that South Korea will face Uzbekistan. It will be a key clash in the way to secure South Korea a place at the next World Cup. Korea comes into the match after so-so performances, and with a lot of questions to answer.

Until now, Choi wasn’t able to repeat the same kind of success he had during his stint as Jeonbuk Motors head coach, when he turned a low level K-League side into one of the best team in Asia. 

In the midfield Korea struggled without the regular center midfielders Ki Sung-yueng and Koo Ja-cheol. But the first thing in which Choi was blamed was the lacking of offensive power. Against Lebanon too, the team's poor finishing was a big worry as team wasted so many goal scoring chances. Son Heung-min, the 21-year-old Hamburg striker, didn’t produce under Choi, such as Koo Ja-cheol and Ji Dong-won did. Choi was relying on Jeonguk Motors forward Lee Dong-gook but this choice didn’t pay off. He don't re-acted the playing level he showed with Jeonbuk Motors when he was lined up as forward in Choi 4-3-3 formation. Team was better in the second half when Kim Shin-wook was brought on to add more offensive power up front. So wasn’t able to reply his Hamburg success at the next level. He also lead a tactical question: where Choi should utilize him? His size doesn’t suit a lone forward role but his skills are exploited at the best when he had the chance to play near the goal rather then playing wide. An idea could be to utilize Son Heung-Min as second forward in a two-man attack. A similar problem surrounded Ji Dong-Won’s career with the National Team as he has been lined up wide left during his gigs with Sunderland and Augsburg and under Olympics head coach Hong Myeong-Bo. Under Choi, Korea seemed to be a rebuilding a team built around old player with no enough spaces for promising youngsters.

USMNT vs JAMAICA: some thoughts

Before last Friday’s World Cup matchup against Jamaica, fans and media was questioning about how consistent USMNT's defense is. The US came into this game seeming vulnerable defensively after they allowed seven goals in a two games span. The performances of USMNT back line in the 1-2 away victory against Jamaica, although it is still far from perfect, were strong. Omar Gonzalez played like a first choice at center back and Matt Besler also did the same. DaMarcus Beasley emerged at the left back spot for now, while at right back the rising of Brad Evans made him the front runner for the job in a spot where there is Geoff Cameron too, a center back switched at right back at Stoke City. Plenty of doubts were raised over the recent efforts of center backs Gonzalez and Besler. After good performances both answered questions. Gonzalez was strong in the air while Besler was able reading the game bypassing some tough moments. Also, despite he weren't good with his distribution, Gonzalez was sure in his tackling against Jamaica forwards and made no mistake. On his side, Besler were everywhere playing a strong muscular game as well. On the flanks, Beasley had some troubles defending on the left, and he still has a lot to learn, but he made a good performance on the fullback spot and, as Jurgen Klinsmann said, the veteran is "locked in at that position". Evans improved in the second half and his goal marked the game. Just a few season ago, the idea of playing right back was not a good one to Evans. He's still learning as right back but he has the skills to handle the job. Evans seems to be the answer Klinsmann was looking for at right back as he seems able to produce there while Steve Cherundolo and Timothy Chandler seem not.

Japan first to qualify for World Cup after 1-1 draw vs Socceroos

Keisuke Honda’s injury-time penalty gave Japan a place at the 2014 World Cup after a 1-1 draw with Australia.

Alberto Zaccheroni unsurprisingly named his usual starting XI, lining up a four-man back line featuring Maya Yoshida and Yasuyuki Konno as centre-backs with Atsuto Uchida and Yuto Nagatomo on the flanks. He stuck with centre-forward Ryoichi Maeda up front, with Keisuke Honda as attacking midfielder just behind him and with the Shinji Kagawa, Shinji Okazaki duo operating on the wings.

Holger Osieck left out the injured Alex Brosque (groin) and Mile Jedinak (ankle) to field a similar 4-2-3-1 formation but it was more a kind of 4-4-2 with Holman pairing Tim Cahill up top, while Tommy Oar and Kruse was pushing up and down the flanks.

The game ran a familiar theme, with Japan keeping possession and Socceroos relying on long ball sto get Japanese defence out of shape. With both Yasuhito Endo and Makoto Hasebe controlling Mark Milligan and Mark Bresciano in deep midfield, Australia wasn’t able to provide much through balls but it wasn’t clearly Osieck’s game plan as Socceroos play was flanks oriented in the way to provide nice crosses to Cahill. Unfortunately for him, Australians nver provided good crosses. With Endo and Hasebe facing Milligan and Bresciano, Honda was free to exploit gaps between the lines and he was good doing so. Japan’s offense was built around quick, short, tiki-taka style passes between  Honda, Kagawa and Okazaki playing near to the penalty box, while Uchida or Nagatomo provided width overlapping on the outside. But Endo and Hasebe was slow at distribution and the whole offense were rarely sharp. Mark Schwartzer made some good saves keeping Australia in the game on short-range shots from Kagawa and Okazaki but Japan produced few goal scoring chances compared to time of possession. Australia remained faithful to  long balls but they have a great scoring chance when a rare through ball punished a high Japan’s defensive line allowing Holman to face 1 vs 1 Eiji Kawashima. By the way Japanese goalkeeper was able to block the shot, nullyfing Australian chance.

Just 15 minutes inside the second half, Zaccheroni made a change taking off Maeda and inserting a third centre-back in Yuzo Kurihara, switching to a 3-4-3 pattern. The change was clearly made to gave Japan a 3 vs 2 edge in the middle of the back line and more height in preparation for the second part of the half when Socceroos probably would have sent more long balls into the penalty box. While Japanese offense was swift, specially on the left side where Nagatomo operated, Japanese continued to wast scoring chances, so Zaccheroni clearly went to play for the draw. With this goal on the mind, his substitutions made sense. But things get worse when Oar’s 82nd effort gave Australia an unexpected lead. In the injury-time Matt Mackay handled a cross and Honda converted the obvious penalty giving Japan the needed point to reach 2014 World Cup.

Clearly, Honda’s penalty saved Zaccheroni’s decision to swtich to a three-man back line whithin the game. Zaccheroni’s thought made sense as his team looked unable to score. Although Japan dominated the first half and they was effective playing their kind of football and putting Australia under pressure, Samurai Blue were unable to close the contest. On the other hand, Osieck’s idea to play long balls withouth Josh Kennedy on the field has not been a good one. Kawashima’s mistake allowed Australia some hope but it was more than the Socceroos deserved.

Di Canio's Sunderland overhaul

Paolo Di Canio's Sunderland overhaul has the goal to give club new culture and attitude. Fining players which didint attend shirt-signing sessions or arrive late for team meetings isn’t a new into more structured clubs. Maybe it is in a club like Sunderland, where former managers Martin O'Neill and Steve Bruce embrice a more soft approach with first-team players. Changes was both in and out field. Under new director of football Roberto De Fanti and new technical director Valentino Angeloni, Sunderland already brought in midfielder Cabral and defenders Valentin Roberge, and Modibo Diakité. The France-born Diakité and former Marítimo Roberge came to strenght a defence that will see Titus Bramble and Matt Kilgallon to leave when their contracts expire this summer and with Phil Bardsley's future uncertain. 

Cabral, a 24-year-old Cape Verde native but a Swiss International, is a defensive midfielder who can also play centre-back. Di Canio plans to  add a minimum of six players. New manager is monitoring also Le Havre midfielder El-Hadji Ba, Aston Villa's Andreas Weimann and Celtic’s goalkeeper Fraser Foster if current starter Simon Mignolet leaves.

The new team will be built around Adam Johnson, the winger that struggled under Martin O'Neill but flourished since Di Canio’s arrival. Stephane Sessegnon too benefit from new tactics: he was outstanding playing as attacking midfielder behind the centre-forward after the time he wasted operating as right-winger under O'Neill.

Di Canio built a new tactics attitude without the ball, with the team no more sitting deep as they did under Bruce but with new boss recommending at his players to go forward and close the ball down in a high-tempo, pressing approach. Under Di Canio, Sunderland were less worried about time of possession, asking his squad to play on fast-break. Di Canio’s attention to details played a huge part in their succesfull run as the Italian was spending hours to examine opponents, teaching his players how capitalise opponent’s weakness. And tactical training took on a huge part into Di Canio’s training week. Di Canio wants to spend as much time as possible every possible moment teaching  tactics on the training field.
The plan to rebuild concerned the club’s academy too as Sunderland parted ways with youth coach Craig Liddle after just one season at the club. The arrival of Di Canio and his staff brought on freshness and new ideas, an European-style attitude and new discipline, It worked during last couple of months. Time will say if it will work during a whole campaign.