Well, a nice confidence booster for the World Cup bound Australians. The Czechs didn’t exactly throw the kitchen sink at it, and even then should have got on the board, but the Socceroos certainly deserved the win, though perhaps the margin flatters. Like a tailored jacket.
Thanks for your company tonight. See you all soon. Cheers!
Mat Leckie now: “We believe that what were doing is working and will give us a chance. It feels good knowing we can pull off what we’ve been working on. [For France] we’ll continue working on what we’ve been working on. We’ll continue to work hard.”
In short, if I’ve got it right, the Socceroos have been working hard and will continue to work hard.
Van Marwijk speaks, though he says very little, keeping his cards so close to his chest he could barely see them himself:
Has he picked his 23 players yet? “No not yet, maybe 80-90%.”
When will you know? “I think I have to announce it on the 3rd of June and I’ll do it then.”
Are you content with the build up for France? “I’m never content.”
It’s difficult to make too many definitive calls on van Marwijk’s Socceroos at this early juncture, but they certainly seem less fixated on possession football than Ange’s team. They also don’t mind a long ball over the top and employed that on numerous occasions tonight, helped, it should be said, by the Czechs who employed a high line.
Mooy and Milligan played well in midfield, though Rogic struggled to get into the game. Leckie, Behich and Ridson worked the flanks well and Nabbout and Kruse put themselves in good positions.
The score looks comprehensive but it might have been rather different had the countering Czechs put away their chances in the first half. But they didn’t and the Socceroos made them pay; Leckie with a double, Nabbout with a memorable first goal for his nation, and an own goal created by the sub Degenek.
Lovely to see Arzani get his first cap.
Full-time: Australia 4-0 Czech Republic
A solid win for the Aussies. Though they allowed the Czechs a few too many shots they’ll take a result like that every day of the week and twice on Friday afternoons in Lower Austria.
90 min: Behich crosses from the left but it has too much air on it... and that will be that. The ref has no time for time added on. He has a bus to catch.
89 min: Arzani is running in and out looking to make a good target of himself but the Aussie midfield seems determined to shuttle it from side to side. Give him the ball!
88 min: Sainsbury races back to clean up and finds Ryan, who is happy to boot the ball upfield. Reckon he’s had more punts forward this game than under Postecoglou’s entire tenure.
86 min: Great instinctive save by Ryan to deny Sykora’s point-blank header after a sharp cross from Darida on the right.
84 min: Oh, here’s a lovely moment! Arzani finally (oh, okay, he’s just 19 so has hardly been waiting long on the sidelines) gets his cap! The young lad is on for Mathew Leckie who’s been busy tonight.
82 min: Irvine, it was, who started the move for the fourth Aussie goal, turning on the half to find, as Mooy did earlier, a non-existent Czech midfield. He waltzed to the edge of the area, slid a ball for Degenek to meet near the byline and cross. Degenek did just that and it hit Jugas on the legs and deflected past Koubek diving to his left.
The ref should just call this off now. The Czechs certainly won’t mind.
GOAL! Australia 4-0 Czech Republic (Jugas O.G. 80 min)
Well a Czech has finally put the ball in the net. Shame it was his own.
Updated
78 min: A yellow card for Jankto, I think for kneeing Leckie in the arse then giving him a shove when Leckie objected to said knee in said arse.
76 min: The Czech’s shooting has been lamentable tonight and here’s the bitter icing on that caved-in cake. A cross from deep on the left splits both Behich and Sainsbury. Novak is there to meet it on the six-yard box. With Ryan beaten, his touch sends it over the bar and high into the stands.
73 min: Sub Australia: Kruse comes off for Petratos. A minute later Risdon makes way for Degenek.
GOAL! Australia 3-0 Czech Republic (Leckie 72)
Leckie bags a brace! From halfway, Mooy turns on the ball to find himself in acres, the Czech defence having switched off somewhat. He runs unopposed towards goal with Kruse and Maclaren either side of him. But here’s Leckie arriving late on the right, and it’s to him Mooy passes. Leckie’s first touch is to chop the ball between his legs. This gets him inside Jugas and sets the ball up on his left boot. Leckie finishes the job, smashing it low into the bottom right.
70 min: Ryan’s goalkick sails over the half and Irvine untangles himself from a challenge to claim the ball. He crosses early to Maclaren in space but it’s a tad heavy and Maclaren just can’t get around it in time to get a shot on.
68 min: Boril crosses into the Australia area from wide on the right. Schick jumps highest to flick on and it’s Jankto on the left smashing a shot into the legs of Ryan. Oh, the flag was up, it wouldn’t have counted.
66 min: Another sub for Australia: Rogic gets a spell, Jackson Irvine comes on in his stead.
A quiet first half from Rogic who grew into the game. Not the kind of performance we’ve seen him put together at Celtic mind. Must be saving that for the World Cup.
64 min: Slick from Schick on the right, skipping inside a challenge from Behich. He finds Novak in the middle but his attempt to find the wide man goes awry.
63 min: Behich rakes a long ball across goal to Maclaren but there’s too much loop on it and the new man on can’t get over it.
61 min: Nabbout’s reward for scoring is to get an early shower. He’s off, substituted by Jamie Maclaren.
The Czechs made a sub of their own moments earlier. Barak, central mid, is off, Sykora is on.
60 min:
Nice way to break your international duck @andrewnabbout! #GoSocceroos #AUSvCZE pic.twitter.com/eNTjN3mS9O
— Socceroos Active (@SocceroosActive) June 1, 2018
58 min: The Aussies have certainly dominated the second half. No doubt the fact they have more to play for will keep their minds on the job.
56 min: That Nabbout goal now: Jugas misjudged a falling ball 30m from his own goal allowing Nabbout to nip around him and pinch it. Heading towards goal Nabbout jinked inside, dragging Kalas with him, before going out again. Having created space for a shot he slammed it low and hard across Koubek and into the far corner. Lovely goal and, as I said, his first for his country. A few years ago he couldn’t get a game in the A-League. That might have secured his World Cup passage.
55 min: Moments after the restart the Socceroos nearly get a third. Rogic slips a lovely reverse pass into the path of Kruse who is needling into the Czech area. The pass, however, is a smidgen too heavy for Kruse.
GOAL! Australia 2-0 Czech Republic (Nabbout 54)
Nabbout scores his first ever goal for the Socceroos!
Updated
51 min: Nice work by Rogic and Leckie in midfield to wriggle out of a congested midfield. Rogic is gradually working his way into this game.
50 min: Sainsbury knocks over Schick from behind 30m out. The freekick is whistled out to the right flank and is returned into the Aussie box. But the Socceroos clear.
48 min: Kruse is flagged offside as he races onto a through ball which he’d have won the race to get to. Fair call though.
47 min: Ryan finds Risdon in acres on the right and he gallops way over the half before linking with Leckie. He finds Kruse whose cross is cleared on the edge of the Czech six-yard box.
Peeeeeep!
46 min: We’re underway again. No Aussie subs to report at this stage but they will surely come. Six subs are allowed from the bulging Aussie bench.
Half-time: Australia 1-0 Czech Republic
An entertaining enough half of football. The Czechs have had the better chances but it’s the Australians who go into the half with the goal and the lead.
As I wet my whistle, here are a couple of things worth looking at:
Socceroo legend Alan Davidson picks his best all-time Australian XI:
And here’s your chance to choose your own best XI.
Our man Richard Parkin, with help from stats guru Andy Howe, painstakingly put this together, so it would be rude not to give it a crack:
45 min: Sainsbury overruns a bouncing ball and Darida almost makes him pay. But that’ll do us for now.
44 min: Behich and Rogic combine well but Rogic’s return pass is uncharacteristically poor and he puts it so far in front of Behich that it rolls over the byline.
42 min: The Czechs with another corner, but Darida finds the first man. Moments later Leckie, from deep on the right, smacks a long long ball ahead of Nabbout but the keeper, Koubek, comes way out of his area to clear.
41 min: The Czechs attempt to work it down the right where they’ve been the most dangerous so far. If they were more clinical they’d have at least a goal of their own.
39 min: Leckie and Novak wrestle in the box under a falling ball. Leckie does enough to keep Novak at bay and his weak clearance gives the Czechs a corner. Nowt comes of it.
36 min: Rogic turns on the ball and squares to Mooy in space. Standing outside the D he has a peak and rifles a right foot shot that Koubek does well to block. Nabbout’s attempt to turn in the rebound is foiled.
Updated
33 min: Moments after the restart Rison again finds space and sends a long exocet of a pass to Kruse who cleverly knocks it down for a teammate to fire straight at the keeper. Who was that teammate? Good question! I missed it.
GOAL! Australia 1-0 Czech Republic (Leckie 32)
Against the run of recent play, Australia score! Rogic gets the ball in centre field and, despite barely getting a touch all game, he’s aware enough to find Risdon racing down the right. He crosses early and finds Kruse at the back post. Kruse dabs one along the six-yard line and Leckie is on hand to tap it it!
Updated
31 min: Another half chance for the Czechs. Schick whips in a sharp cross to the right edge of the six-yard box. It’s coming across Krmencik but he attempts to get his left boot on it and only manages to scuff it.
28 min: Mooy and Luongo combine to spoil a promising Czech move deep in Australia territory. Moments later, however, Barak crosses from the right and Darida almost meets it at the far post.
26 min: Australia look to go over the top again, partly because the Czechs have a high defensive line.
Is this evidence of van Marwijk’s ‘philosophy’? Is Ange Postecoglou watching this from his bunker and ruefully shaking his head the way you do when someone unstitches a quilt you’ve painstakingly put together over a number of years?
24 min: That crowd (bearing in mind it is 1.30pm on a Friday):
Live from the NV Arena. #GoSocceroos pic.twitter.com/OQg8uHDmZC
— Steven Russo (@russos1991) June 1, 2018
23 min: Sainsbury nicks in to clear as Schick gasses down the right. From the corner, Darida gets a half look at it but can’t keep his angled header down.
21 min: A corner now for the Czechs after Darida jinks in from the left flank and his shot is blocked.
As the corner is taken Milligan goes over in the box and the Czechs make the most of some mild chaos in the box before Risdon loses track of Barak. Sneaking around the back he blasts over the bar from four yards! Another lucky escape for Australia.
19 min: Corner to Australia after Kalas gets in the way of a speculator. Mooy takes a short corner but the Czechs are untroubled.
17 min: Now it’s Mooy looking for Kruse, this time with a lofted ball down the middle. It would have found Kruse, too, but for Husbauer’s stretching intervention to nick it away.
15 min: Behich inveigles a ball through three defenders to find Kruse with open space in front of him. He dribbles into the box and is clipped by Jugas as he shapes to shoot. But Kruse doesn’t go to ground and by the time he retrieves the ball the opportunity passes.
14 min: Again the Czechs break smartly from deep in their own half, and again it’s Kopic in space. This time he does get an angled shot away but Ryan blocks the shot with his body. Another warning sign for the Aussies.
13 min: Australia are enjoying a good spell of possession at the moment and they seem to be keen to go over the top of the Czech midfield.
11 min: The Socceroos patiently work it out of their own defensive third before Behich, with some space in front of him, races forward. He slides a ball forward for Kruse and as Kruse is about to cross from the byline he’s fouled. Mooy’s freekick is quickly cleared by the Czechs.
9 min: Risdon looks to free Leckie down the right wing but he slips as he passes and he puts too much on it; Czech keeper Koubek clearing up ahead of Leckie.
7 min: Much is being made on my tele at the moment about the size of the Czechs. Like your average high schooler these days there’s certainly some height going on. Something in the Pilsner I expect.
5 min: Rogic loses possession on the half and the Czechs counter. A quick one-two sees Kopic race down the right channel before Sainsbury slides in to dispossess him before he can get a shot away. Nice work by the Aussie captain.
4 min: Mooy, on the right, chips to Nabbout who is in space up front but it’s called offside. Not a lot in that.
3 min: Behich clips Schick from behind and gives away a free kick. No real malice in it, I should point out, more of a ‘just so that you know I’m here’ kind of challenge.
2 min: The Czechs play out from the back and the Australians let them, pulling back to the halfway line. No full court press at this point.
Peeeeeep!
1 min: Here we go, folks. The Czechs kick us off and are running right to left on my screen. The atmosphere in the ground is, well, not quite electric. More like candle power.
The teams are out in front of a crowd you could safely describe as modest.
The Czech anthem gets first dibs. The Czechs are in red shirts with blue shorts and red socks.
The Aussies, much to the chagrin of many, are in their all gold kit, the new one with the scribbles on the sleeves. Let’s hope they play better than they’re currently singing. Yikes!
Kick-off moments away!
For the record, Australia has played Czech Republic just once. The Czech’s won 3-1 in Teplice in March 2000, Craig Foster the goalscorer for Australia. Prior to that Australia played Czechoslovakia eight times for no wins. Draws in 1980 and 1986 were as good as it got.
Worryingly, the Australians haven’t won outside of Australia since September 2016 (1-0 v UAE) despite having played 11 matches since. Do you break that sequence tonight and/or against Hungary or save it for France?
How will the Aussies play this one? As you might have heard, Mat Ryan has alluded to the fact van Marwijk has being putting Atletico Madrid up on the whiteboard, in a manner of speaking, while in Turkey. What’s that mean?
Defensive discipline, Ryan said: “That’s one of the biggest things when you watch Atletico in a defensive sense, they’re back in their shape and everyone is organised and close together. That’s proven to be the most successful way in terms of opponents finding it difficult to break down.”
Ange v Bert - the key stats#AUSvCZE #GoSocceroos pic.twitter.com/7Cf2P8GMob
— FOX SPORTS Football (@FOXFootballLive) June 1, 2018
Atletico are compact in defence, structurally disciplined and industrious. They don’t press constantly but when they do, they do so aggressively to force errors. In attack, their threats mostly come from out wide and on the counter and in these early stages of the Socceroos’ World Cup preparations, it appears that’s exactly how van Marwijk’s team will play.
So there you have it. No major surprises in the Socceroos’ starting side. Notably, Risdon gets first crack at right back and Nabbout gets a start up front ahead of Maclaren and Juric (who, along with everyone else, is named on a bench so long they’ll need to go to the nearby church and borrow a pew). You’d expect a lot of substitutions as the game wears on.
Teams:
Australia
Here is your team for @Socceroos v Czech Republic #GoSocceroos pic.twitter.com/CFhxarCg2N
— Caltex Socceroos (@Socceroos) June 1, 2018
Czech Republic
📋 Do prvního zápasu v rámci rakouského soustředění nastoupí #ceskarepre v této sestavě 🇨🇿🇦🇺 Souboj proti Austrálii startuje ve 13 hodin ⏱ pic.twitter.com/DrrA5Pr6Jp
— Česká fotbalová reprezentace (@ceskarepre_cz) June 1, 2018
After 11 days spent putting his charges through their paces in Turkey, van Marwijk has a full squad to choose from tonight after the late arrivals of Tom Rogic and Mile Jedinak. No doubt many are hoping to see a debut for Melbourne City livewire Daniel Arzani. Perhaps, too, we’ll get to see 21-year-old squad bolter Fran Karacic get a run at right back. The Croatian-Australian was born in Zagreb to an Australian father but the Locomotiva Zagreb player has never stepped foot in Australia. As a result, for most fans, he’s a mystery wrapped up in an enigma. Be interesting to see the cut of his jib tonight.
The Czech Republic, meanwhile, are ranked 45th in the world but after they finished behind Germany and Northern Ireland in qualifying they don’t have a golden ticket to Russia. Players you might recognise incude Roma’s Patrik Schick, Chelsea loanee Tomas Kalas and Vladimir Darida, who plays with Mathew Leckie at Hertha Berlin.
Picturesque, innit? Today/tonight’s venue:
The scene is set! #GoSocceroos
— Caltex Socceroos (@Socceroos) June 1, 2018
⚽ @Socceroos v Czech Republic
⌚ 9pm AEST
📺 @FOXFOOTBALL 501 and @tensporttv pic.twitter.com/66bFKakE7J
Evening, folks.
Thanks for joining me for tonight’s second-last Socceroos’ warm-up match before the World Cup. Yes, it’s just 15 sleeps until the Aussies face France (sacré bleu!) in Kazan, Russia, in their opening group fixture of the 2018 World Cup.
Short-term gaffer Bert van Marwijk, then, has just tonight’s game against Czech Republic in Austria and next weekend’s fixture against Hungary in Budapest to refine his team’s preparations for the big show. He’s said he’d settle for two 5-0 losses in these games if it meant beating France, but I think we can all agree that if the Socceroos do lose both of these friendlies 5-0 they’ll have as much chance of beating Les Bleus as I would of winning a Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson lookalike competition.
Of course between these two warm-up matches van Marwijk needs to cut four players from the current 27-man squad. He said this week that he’s 60-70% sure of his WC squad, so one wonders if he’ll give a few fringe players a chance to impress tonight —like Jamie Maclaren, who was called into the squad as a backup while Tomi Juric recuperates from injury. Then again, van Marwijk would want to give his favoured team an opportunity to gel before Russia. It’s a tricky one.
It doesn’t help matters that this is only van Marwijk’s third game in charge; his two previous games being the Australians’ 4-1 loss to Norway in Oslo in March before, a few days later, a more creditable 0-0 result against Colombia in London. It’s not much of a preparation, especially when he doesn’t have the riches another fly-in-fly-out coach Gus Hiddink had to work with in 2006.
Still, his job could be tougher. He could be coaching my daughter’s futsal team. It’s not just that they’ve the attention span of blow flies but that nine (squad players) into five (starting spots) doesn’t go, so I spend my entire time on the sideline making rolling substitutions (unlimited) to ensure every kid gets equal time on the court. It’s stressful! Those kids can give you some vicious stink eye if they feel they’ve been short changed!
A few times I’ve attempted to work it out mathematically —to calculate exactly how often I need to make a sub to ensure every one of the nine players gets equal time on the court in a 28-minute game— but I find the maths harder to catch than a ghost. If only there were smart people out there who could help. Cough. Cough.
But I digress. Socceroos v Czech Republic from St Polten, Austria is almost upon us. Don’t go anywhere.
Kick-off: 1pm local (9pm AEST)
Welcome
It’s almost fifteen days to the minute until Australia’s World Cup gets underway against France in Kazan and finally (finally!) fans might get the slightest hint of what the Socceroos could look like under Bert van Marwijk.
Yes, there were those two early friendlies against Norway and Colombia in March, but the Roos supremo has as good as admitted he would have preferred a training camp.
Now, having spirited his chargers away to an extended camp in Antalya, Turkey, we might finally see some fruit of what BVM has been working on - and early indications are the Roos-celona of Ange Postecoglou is out, and the Atletico Ma-rwijk is in.
Who will start up front? Has Jamie Maclaren done enough to press a claim? And will we finally meet Fran Karacic!
Paul Connolly will be here shortly to give you the lowdown, the high vantage and everything in between. In the meantime, some big news about one of Australia’s group stage opponents:
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