Final thoughts
Australia are in the final and that’s the important thing. They’ll get a chance to win, on home soil, their first Asian Cup but to do so they will have to find a way through South Korea’s staunch defence.
I think it’s fair to say they’ll need to lift from tonight’s performance. Australia started well and were full of running as expected. But it was almost as if the two early goals took away their edge, their Eye of the Tiger if you will. The UAE weren’t crash hot themselves and though Khalil, particularly, and Omar schemed, they never looked like overhauling Australia’s early lead. But they should be pleased with their showing at the tournament. I’m sure they exceeded all their expectations.
Australia can now focus on the final.
A few quick words from goalscorer Jason Davidson before I go: “Since I left home at 14 it was always my dream to play for the green and gold. And to score a goal for the team and help them get to the Asian Cup final is a dream come true.”
Join us on Saturday night for what we hope will be an historic night for Australian football. Thanks for your emails and eyes. Cheerio!
Full-time: Australia 2-0 UAE
Peeeep! Peeeeeeeeeeeep!
And that’s that. Australia will face South Korea in the final on Saturday night.
90 + 3 min: And just before the whistle James Troisi weaves through the penalty area to the byline but his square ball doesn’t find its mark.
90 + 3 min: Eliot Owen helps out Tom Georgeson: “It’s on Eurosport 2.”
Quick, Tom, there are seconds left!
90 + 2 min: The crowd comes to life as the end approaches. You can take that two ways. You decide.
90 min: Sainsbury slides in brilliantly to dispossess Mabkhout just as the danger man steadied for a shot from inside the area.
Leckie is the target of a breakaway but his shot is smothered.
89 min: Leckie, on the ball, wins a freekick after he gets a huge shoulder in the back. Whose huge shoulder? I missed it dangnabbit.
88 min: The UAE look too tired now to fashion a miracle ending. They are hardly damning the torpedos.
86 min: Tom Georgeson joins us late to ask a question that seems to have an obvious answer: “Why can’t I find this game on English TV? Am I being dumb???”
85 min: Juric does well to make space for himself with a zig-zagging dribble. He manages a left-foot shot but he drags it wide.
84 min: The UAE have indeed done better in this second half without creating much it has to be said.
75' UAE have come back into this match in the 2nd half. Will they be rewarded? #AUSvUAE #AC2015 pic.twitter.com/j4xVgx7sr4
— AFC Asian Cup (@afcasiancup) January 27, 2015
82 min: Sub Australia: Kruse off, Troisi on.
81 min: Kruse is put into space by a nice Leckie through ball but twice he is foiled by some good defence as UAE clear.
80 min: Apparently Postecoglou is twitching on the sidelines like a man with a meerkat in his trousers. He’s not happy at all with Australia’s poor passing and poor decision making. Australia are also lacking intensity, but I won’t tell Ange. He is bothered enough already.
78 min: Kruse goes down like the proverbial sack... He was caught late by a lazy boot, but he’s fine. Just chagrined.
The crowd? 21,079. Could have been at least three times that at Stadium Straya. Ah well.
77 min: A Luongo corner after some good work from Kruse... It finds Jedinak at the back of the area but his header troubles no-one, least of all Naser.
74 min: Naser definitely touched that one! Leckie, from the edge of the box, hits a too weak right foot shot across goal. Naser dives to his right and very obviously gets a glove to it before it goes over the byline. Again no corner is given. Leckie makes a polite enquiry with an angry face.
72 min: Luongo comes very close! Leckie turns himself into space, slides a ball to Luongo on the right and the Swindon Town man has time to measure a left foot curler that may have snuck inside the far post were it not for Naser’s fingertips. But no corner is given. Perhaps Naser didn’t touch it after all. Or the ref got it wrong. It happens.
70 min: Gareth Williams is enjoying the MBM and he’s watching from Gaborone Botswana. “Loving it ... loving the score even more!!!”
68 min: Penalty UAE? Nah. Davidson slides in to rob Sanqour in the box, and Sanqour falls over Davidson’s leg which clearly made contact with the ball. Omar’s corner is dreadful.
67 min: Sub Australia. Sir Tim gets an early rest. Juric gets some decent time to get a telling goal.
66 min: Sub UAE: Khalil off, strangely. Al Kathiri on.
Moments later the UAE appeal for a penalty after Omar threads a nice ball into the box that Abbas chases. Franjic was close but Abbas went down without being touched from what I could see. He should have been carded for that.
64 min: Luongo tries to find Kruse in behind the defence with a clever reverse pass but it’s intercepted. Not clever enough, I guess.
As the rain falls heavily Jedinak stands on the heel of our man Omar and he earns himself a yellow. Previous yellows were expunged prior to the semis so Jedinak will still play in the final. If Australia make it, that is.
62 min: Australia corner. Cahill rises like the morning sun and is about to get his forehead to it with the goal open but a well-placed Naser fist punches it away with no time to spare. Cahill is called for a foul but I couldn’t spot one.
61 min: Don’t think Milligan was too happy about being subbed. That’s how I look when I hear I have another kids birthday party to attend.
58' SUB for @Socceroos: Mark Milligan OFF, Matt McKay ON. #AUSvUAE #AC2015 pic.twitter.com/6y2dLI3ZSg
— AFC Asian Cup (@afcasiancup) January 27, 2015
60 min: Oh dear. Luongo attempts a left foot lofted pass ahead of Leckie but it sails way too far, as if Newcastle is at altitude. The Socceroos have been somewhat sloppy this half.
58 min: Sub Australia: Milligan off. Matt KcKay on. Yes, his shirt is tucked in. Impecable grooming, Matt.
57 min: A poor touch from Kruse following a ball from the Socceroos’ defence catches his marker by surprise and the ball races into the UAE half. Kruse pursues it, catches up, and dribbles into a dangerous area. When he finally gets a shot away he scuffs it. Should have done better.
55 min: Australia counter through Davison and Kruse on the left but it comes to nowt.
53 min: A good period for the UAE here. On the right, Mabkhout beats Davidson with pace and slides a dangerous cross along the six-yard box. Khalil was the target but he couldn’t get there.
51 min: Another Omar cameo, a reverse pass to Sanqour, I think, but it’s over-hit and goes over the byline.
Moments later, Khalil turns on a pass 30 yards out and he thumps it goalward. Ryan dives to his left but the ball just curls past the left post. That was hit with real venom. He’s threatened tonight, Khalil.
50 min: Australia win successive corners, the second of which causes Naser more trouble. He comes off his line to punch but almost cracks Sainsbury in the back of the head.
47 min: No rhythm to speak off just yet this half ... a bit of too and fro.
And speaking of ’fros Omar digs a lovely lofted ball to the feet of Mabkhout at the top of the area but as he takes a soft touch and shapes for a shot the flag goes up. If he was off-side it was line-ball. A tough decision for the UAE. That could well have been a goal.
Peeeeeep!
The UAE start us off but Cahill pilfers the ball and finds Kruse but his through ball to Luongo is over hit.
And they’re back on the pitch. The Socceroos can’t afford to think this game is won.
Sub UAE: Mohamed Abdulrahman is subbed for Ismail Al Hammadi
.@socceroos Half time stats: Australia 2-0 UAE #AC2015 #AUSvUAE pic.twitter.com/95G0LwxWrm
— AFC Asian Cup (@afcasiancup) January 27, 2015
.@uaefa_ae Half time stats: Australia 2-0 UAE #AC2015 #AUSvUAE pic.twitter.com/F86vSJIL5E
— AFC Asian Cup (@afcasiancup) January 27, 2015
Some emails before I get a quick cuppa:
Wes Court writes in from Abu Dhabi: “Watching the match at an Abu Dhabi university cafeteria surrounded by uproarious students. It’s very inspiring, yet I can’t help but think UAE just aren’t good enough for a comeback. But if Bradford City can score four uninterrupted goals against Chelsea, then anything’s possible. At least the fish sticks are good.”
That’s what Jose Mourinho said when he went to the Stamford Bridge cafeteria after that loss to Bradford.
Nick Mangafas is also abroad. Not, to be clear, a broad: “Good morning from Perchtoldsdorf, Lower Austria.I’m lovin’ it. Come on Australia!”
I had to look up Perchtoldsdorf, Nick, just in case it was German for ‘Get a Rat Up Ya’. Not that I doubt you, just being safe.
Todd Baker reckons the atmosphere is lacking: “Poor stadium for a semifinal. No atmosphere.”
Half-time
Peeep! And it’s time for snakes and gummy bears! Australia will be delighted with their two goal lead though Ange will get up them, to speak in layman’s terms, for some of their loose passing. The UAE had threatened, mostly through Khalil, and Omar, but they’ve only created on clear chance.
45 + 1 min: A long ball from Omar falls just outside the area but Ryan comes for it anyway and, winning it, heads clear. Got to love that.
45 min: Cahill called offside again and again Ange looks annoyed. But the Socceroos regain control again and Kruse and Davidson exchange passes trying to fashion an opening. But Australia turn it over. Not for the first time.
44 min: Franjic clears an Omar cross and finds Leckie is plenty of space on the right. He finds Luongo but he turns it over cheaply. It’s the first time this tournament he’s looked out of sorts. No Mas? Give him time.
42 min: Leckie gets a yellow for coming in late to a tackle. At the same time Matt Leonard asks: “It’s nearly time to play my second favourite Tim Cahill football drinking game: ‘Pick the minute he gets his yellow card’.”
40 min: Omar dribbles like a beautiful baby through the Australia area but he’s doggedly followed and he can’t quite get a shot off. But the UAE win a corner. Nothing comes of it.
39 min: Or was that quote from Commando? Anyway, Matt Ryan lofts a cracking kick 50m over the head to Cahill but the No.4 is called offside. Cahill was on his own side of halfway when the ball was kicked. Ange wasn’t happy.
36 min: The AFC stats boffins confirm Khalil’s right side romping. Or is that a still from Predator? Get to da chopper!
Mabkhout & Khalil switching wings & UAE looking dangerous on the break, especially down the right. #AUSvUAE #AC2015 pic.twitter.com/EIuUMub0cA
— AFC Asian Cup (@afcasiancup) January 27, 2015
34 min: There are acres of space on the UAE right side. Davidson could set a tent up without being troubled.
But here’s Khalil romping down the right flank. Is he the UAE’s Didier Drogba? But his attempt at a square ball is poor and Ryan picks up the crumbs.
33 min: The game has hit a bit of a lull, oddly. And as I write that Simon Hill says Ange Postecoglou looks peeved and wants the Socceroos to step it up.
Endeavouring to do so Luongo runs the ball over the byline. Ah well. He tried.
30 min: Khalil turns Spiranovic inside out and left foots towards Omar near the spot. Taking no chances Davidson kicks it out for a corner.
Khalil gets to the cross despite three yellow shirts around him but he can only head over.
28 min: Peter Oh spotted the Gravity reference and adds to it. “It looks like the UAE have already done a George Clooney in this one, doesn’t it?”
Phil Withall writes in to advise caution. “Are we supposed to think the cup is in the bag now or take a more measured approach? Social media currently suggests the former but I’d rather take my views from an MBM any day.”
You are a wise man, Phil. This MBM’er has a reputation for not getting carried away. About anything. I only put exclamation marks in my copy because I feel it’s expected of me.
26 min: Davidson chases down a Kruse one-two and it eventually finds it’s way to Milligan, then Luongo, on the right. Luongo mishits his cross and it worries keeper Naser for a moment before he realises it’s too high.
Updated
24 min: UAE coach Ali Mahdi has his red cap on in case you were wondering.
Leckie, meanwhile, works in well with Davidson on the left but his attempt at a cross is intercepted. Be great to see Leckie get a goal. He needs one like Hamlet needed a root. I get the feeling if he scores once he’ll find it to his liking.
22 min: Omar lofts a quite delightful ball over the top as Khalil chases it gamely. But he started his run too late. Off-side.
21 min: Cahill tries to ghost through a couple of Emiratis but stands on it when it looked like he was through. The UAE counter but back it comes and Kruse wins a throw-in deep in UAE territory. Franjic finds him with his throw and he’s in so much space he may as well be Sandra Bullock! He looks for Cahill but can’t quite hit the mark.
19 min: An uphill slog for the UAE now. Australia really have their tails up.
Peter Oh is enjoying the AFC Twitter game photos: “What’s with the [Austin Powers finger gesture accompanying the quotation marks] ‘laser beam’ superimposed on the official Asian Cup Twitter photo of the Sainsbury goal? That looks so 1995!”
They are quick on the mark but, yes, a little hit and miss. Like my commentary.
16 min: That’s 12 goals for Australia, from the 10th different player. And it started with Franjic as I began earlier... he found Kruse inside him and the possum-eyed No.10 chipped it to Cahill on the penalty spot. Cahill went for a spectacular side volley but he didn’t get a boot to it and it rebounded to Leckie. Leckie’s shot was blocked and Luongo slid in to toe the loose ball to the left side of the area. There was Davidson to side-foot it in!
GOAL! Australia 2-0 UAE (Davidson 14)
Davidson scores his first goal for the Socceroos! What a start!
Congratulations @jasondavidson29 on your first goal for the @Socceroos #GoSocceroos #AUSvUAE #AussiePride pic.twitter.com/LT2EvIgzxI
— Socceroos (@Socceroos) January 27, 2015
Updated
14 min: Franjic skips past Mohamed Abdulrahman and...
13 min: Davidson and Kruse exchange passes on the left and Davidson launches a long high cross for Cahill. Cahill gets his head to it of course but didn’t threaten the goal.
10 min: The UAE hit the post! Sanqour, again, does well to carve himself some space and he gets around Davidson before squaring it. Front man Khalil hits it first time and it brushes the foot of Ryan’s left post. Ryan was nowhere near it, either. A let off for Australia, and a reminder too that this game ain’t even close to being over.
9 min: Good for the game that goal, as the say. The UAE will be forced to bring the game to Australia now. And here they push up the pitch and, under pressure, Spiranovic mishits it over the sideline.
8 min: Sanqour gets into some space on the right but sends in a woeful cross that spoons to Ryan who looks to get the Socceroos heading north quick smart.
That goal?
Cahill was marked but Sainsbury ghosted in behind and connected truly. #AUSvUAE #AC2015 pic.twitter.com/qA8Euz2VDH
— AFC Asian Cup (@afcasiancup) January 27, 2015
6 min: Omar gives us a brief glimpse of his tricky ball-work in the Socceroos’ area but in trying to worm his way through three gold shirts he loses it.
4 min: Hell of a start for the Socceroos who’ve made a habit of starting badly this tournament. Rope-a-dope, baby! Or not.
GOAL! Australia 1-0 UAE (Sainsbury 3)
OMG, as the kids say. The corner curls to a good area and Sainsbury rises unopposed and finds the corner of the net.
Updated
3 min: Kruse is found after Sainsbury moves the ball out of defence with alacrity. He tries a cross but it rebounds off the near defender for a corner.
1 min: There are some fans on the grass banks behind both goals but in a few rows of hastily established bleachers only. There is grass behind them. Plenty of bum room. Shame the AFC wouldn’t allow it to be filled.
Peeeep!
Australia get us underway, running right to left on my screen. And they immediately turn it over and Ali Abbas trots down the left flank before Australia concede a throw-in.
Lynette Salt agrees that Tim Cahill goes a little far with his goal celebrations, which we all hope to see tonight. “The pushing [of his teammates] isn’t even the worst part,” she says. “The vicious assault on a defenceless corner flag is even more baffling.”
Anyway, kick-off is upon us!
Philip Davis writes in to disagree vehemently with the choice of Viduka as an Australian footballing antihero. “Mark Viduka? You’re kidding, right? Surely the ultimate anti-hero from Australian football has got to be Kevin Muscat.”
It’s hard to argue with that, Philip. Will you concede defeat Matt and Karen?
Anthem time:
The UAE:
Australia (sorry, I can’t help it):
They’re in the tunnel! As you’d expect, the Socceroos are in their gold shirts and socks with green shorts. The UAE are in white with touches of red. The refs? Black shirts, aqua shirts and socks. Something like that. As we saw last night the officials are making some effort to mix it up.
Meanwhile, next door...
A pre-match look at UAE's dressing room. #AUSvUAE #AC2015 pic.twitter.com/Zn2XmRKRe8
— AFC Asian Cup (@afcasiancup) January 27, 2015
Getting closer, folks
A look inside the @Socceroos dressing room pre-match. #AUSvUAE #AC2015 pic.twitter.com/Q2LFmfJRVE
— AFC Asian Cup (@afcasiancup) January 27, 2015
So no real surprises with the Socceroos’ line-up. Matthew Spiranovic comes straight back in (at the expense of Alex Wilkinson) having served his time for a couple of yellows. Mark Milligan gets a start, at the expense of Matt McKay. It could be that Postecoglou thought McKay’s penchant of tucking his shirt in and hitching his shorts high might slow him down, or that Milligan has got a bit more in his legs for what promises to be an Australia run fest.
Matt and Karen Leonard, meantime, write in with a suggestion for an Aussie antihero. One “Mark Viduka”. Is that because for all his gifts he never found the net often enough in a Socceroos shirt?
Your starting teams for tonight!
Australia:
Start list: @Socceroos #AC2015 #AUSvUAE pic.twitter.com/KroW3ratgq
— AFC Asian Cup (@afcasiancup) January 27, 2015
and the United Arab Emirates:
Start list: @uaefa_ae #AC2015 #AUSvUAE pic.twitter.com/BwrJmzi5vx
— AFC Asian Cup (@afcasiancup) January 27, 2015
There’s a good interview with Postecoglou by Gerard Whately on ABC’s Grandstand. Among his various thoughts and observations Postecoglou says this in regards to Australia’s front man (somehow overlooked when Tony Abbott went looking for a knight in all the wrong places), Tim Cahill:
My one pet hate is putting the ball in dispute and usually that comes from when the ball’s in the air or a crossing situation. I just hate it, it goes against everything I believe in. But I’m telling them to whip it in from anywhere because if it goes anywhere near [Cahill] ... I still think in the penalty box he’s world class.”
This banner first appeared in Melbourne and it's been at all our games! #AUSvUAE #SocceroosDay #GoSocceroos pic.twitter.com/blLUQ4TQdm
— Socceroos (@Socceroos) January 27, 2015
On Cahill, and I hope this doesn’t sound like Tall Poppy Syndrome because I think he’s an out and out champ (and not only because he’s king of the kids, even his own), but am I the only one who wishes he’d stop pushing his teammates away when he scores a goal and, rather, embraces them because, you know, they’re his teammates?
But as I say, it’s not him, it’s me. I think I’m just showing my age. To that point, this has been my favourite goal celebration of the tournament, from one of tonight’s UAE dangermen as it happens:
The Socceroos go into tonight’s game full of confidence and they have every right to do so, regardless how much it worries the rest of us who prefer to shroud ourselves in pessimism just to be on the safe side. One loss in four games, and that loss was a narrow one to South Korea when, without Tim Cahill, Mathew Leckie and Robbie Kruse for the majority of the game, we created a wealth of chances.
In every outing so far the Socceroos have played with purpose and boundless energy and while they’ve looked vulnerable at times at the back it hasn’t seen them fall into conservatism. There’s still a worry that the Socceroos struggle to break down organised teams willing to sit deep and play on the break but it would be churlish to suggest the Socceroos’ tournament to date has been anything but a success.
For all that, if they don’t win tonight, at home, with a full-strength squad against arguably the weakest of the semifinalists then that will become the host’s Asian Cup legacy. Sport is cruel.
The warm up has started and we are just over 30 mins away from kick off! #AUSvUAE #SocceroosDay #GoSocceroos pic.twitter.com/sfsh40flZU
— Socceroos (@Socceroos) January 27, 2015
Of course there’s nothing fictional about Omar Abdulrahman (unless his Sideshow Bob do is a rug… but if you’re going to wear a rug you may as well go the whole hog) so the Socceroos will be all over him like nits on a kid. It’ll be interesting to see how the Socceroos try to contain him. They’ve largely left behind their reputation as athletic brutes so I hope there’s no turning back of the clock to the Muscatine Era.
If you’d asked Ange Postecoglou and his team who they would have preferred facing in a semi-final out of Iraq, South Korea and the UAE (and bearing in mind they only recently would have been expecting Japan) you’d have to think they would have picked tonight’s opponents. But while the Socceroos are clear favourites the Emiratis have shown in this tournament that they are no easy beats.
And it’s not just because they are happy to park the bus and, in clear view of everyone, duct tape the keys to a horse’s back and give it a firm slap on the arse, as they did to winning effect against Japan. No, they’ve also shown they can stitch together some very nice attacking football, not least due to the goal-sniffing prowess of Ali Mabkhout (four goals so far this tournament) and the wand-like left boot of their slightly-built but spectacularly-coiffured No.10 Omar Abdulrahman.
So impressive and cool has Abdulrahman been in this tournament (that panenka!) it’s possible he’s usurped Omar Little as the baddest Omar of recent times:
As an aside, wasn’t Omar Little one of the great fictional antiheroes of recent times? Personally, I love an antihero: Holden Caulfield, Ignatius J Reilly, Travis Bickle, Al Swearengen, Harry Flashman, Boyd Crowder… (your suggestions welcome). They’ve all got that certain something.
Good evening!
Welcome to our minute(ish)-by-minute(ish) account of Asian Cup semi-final No.2 featuring the United Arab Emirates and, perhaps you’ve heard, Australia. The venue? A wet Hunter ‘Hunna’ Stadium in Newcastle where, in a mean bit of scheduling, no more than 23,000 punters will be in attendance —unless the Asian Football Confederation has allowed seating on the grass hills behind both goals. Surely sense will prevail. It would be madness, you’d think, to reduce the capacity of a stadium that is already insufficient for a match of this magnitude (about 5.8 on the Richter Scale, give or take), but then sporting organisations have a habit of making mad decisions (Qatar 2022, anyone?)
Anyway, I’ll be your host tonight, so feel free to drop me a line and share your thoughts. A thought will do. My address? Certainly: paul.connolly@theguardian.com. Kickoff is at 8pm.
So, here we are then, a day of reckoning if there ever was one. Asian Cup semi-final number two, with a place in Saturday’s final against South Korea at stake. It’s all going down in Newcastle, most likely a soggy Newcastle if today’s wet weather is anything to go by. Much is expected of Ange Postecoglou’s Socceroos - there has been a confidence oozing through the side this tournament, they’re fit and healthy and have their best XI players available. What can possibly go wrong? Find out with Paul Connolly, who’ll be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s a little bit about the tonight’s opponents the UAE, from John Duerden.
[Omar Abdulrahman] has a way of catching the eye and it’s not just due to his David Luiz-style haircut – the Brazilian wishes he had anything like the same talent as the 23-year-old who came close to joining Manchester City in 2012 – but it is the way he has been the best player on pretty much every pitch he has played on in Australia over the past two weeks. It has happened before. In 2012 after the first half of the Olympic opener with Uruguay at Old Trafford, I received a text from my brother at the stadium asking who on earth was this bushy-headed magician running the game against the South Americans.
For an afternoon, thousands of people in Manchester fell in love a little with the slight star and the UAE team but it was a fleeting feeling in the context of a massive event like the Olympics, one highlight of hundreds. Here, it’s different and it’s growing.
Read the full story here.
