And as Postecoglou adds how “embarrassed” he was by tonight’s pitch (“When you invite somebody to your house you make sure it’s clean, nice, tidy and welcoming, and that’s what we need to do as a nation”), I’ll leave you until another time.
Thanks for your company, see you next time.
A few words from the Socceroos’ gaffer before I go: “I thought we deserved it on the night,” says Postecoglou. “It was a good all round performance in difficult circumstances and against a good opponent.”
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Australia will be delighted to come away with a win, quite obviously. They dominated possession and had the best chances; notably Burns’ missed one-on-one. Kruse might also have been awarded a penalty and then Cahill had the ball in the back of the net late only to be denied by a linesman’s flag. We saw his mansierre for nothing.
It took 94 minutes but Australia got there in the end.
Still, it wasn’t Greece’s best side and Australia struggled at times to apply the killer touch. The pitch, it has to be said, was not conducive to one-touch football, nor did the heavy track make things any easier.
Full-time: Australia 1-0 Greece
You can’t say Australia didn’t deserve that on the balance of play but it was looking for so long like this would end in a 0-0 draw on a 0-0 kind of night in wet ol’ Sydney town.
The goal? Fed from the back Gersbach squared from the left wing and found Leckie on the edge of the box with his back to goal. The man known for his lack of goals turned sharply and laced a low shot into the bottom left corner past Kapino at full stretch. Leckie was just married the other day so you could say married life has improved his game.
GOAL! Australia 1-0 Greece (Leckie 90 min + 3)
And with the last touch of the game Leckie wins it for Australia!
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90 min + 2: The crowd feel royalty cheated by that non-goal. I can’t recall seeing that before. Time for a winner?
Goal Australia! No goal, Australia!
89 min: Cahill has wheeled away in joy and whipped off his shirt (revealing one of those ‘bras’ athletes like to wear these days) to celebrate his late winner. But as he does so the whistle goes. (On for Brad Smith) Alex Gersbach’s corner was adjudged to have just swung out over the plane of the byline before curling back to meet Cahill’s head about two-yards out.
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87 min: Sokratis earns the first yellow of the night for man-handling Leckie off the ball after the Australian went on a threatening run down the left wing. Leckie was well covered so he probably needn’t have bothered.
85 min: Now Greece come close. After a nice exchange between Aravidis and Vellios, Bakasetas whips in a cross that Vellios can’t keep on target. What has been an average night for the Socceroos could turn into a terrible one.
83 min: Sub: Jackson Irvine comes on for Mark Milligan.
81 min: Australia inching closer to that much needed goal! Sainsbury, up for an Ikonomidis corner, turns on a dime to shoot a short through-ball onto the post! Greece just couldn’t clear the ball from danger there and nearly paid.
79 min: Another missed chance for Australia! Cahill gets close with, you guessed it, a header. Jedinak delivered a right side free kick into his path and Cahill bulleted a free header just past the base of the lefthand post. Hold on, Cahill was just off-side. It wouldn’t have counted anyway. As you were.
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77 min: Rogic might have done better there in forcing a save out of Kapino. Taking possession after a fast counter Rogic galloped up the centre of the pitch with the Greek defenders hanging off him, expecting him to lay off to Leckie. But Rogic got close enough to get off a shot, though he scuffed it in all honesty and it skewed wide of the post. Kapino got the faintest of touches, I think, but no corner was called.
75 min: So nearly a goal! But to Greece! Cholevas swings in a left-footed cross from the right touchline and, amid a scrum of players, Torosidos gets a head on it. But it flies over the bar. A close call for Australia who could well have paid there for their failure to translate possession, and shots, into goals.
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72 min: And here it comes, perhaps. Cahill is finally on, replacing Giannou. Ikonomidis is also on, for Burns.
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70 min: As Torosidos launches a long, long ball from the right back position to the left wing, Cholevas brings it down well and gets to the byline. He tries to find a teammate following through but there isn’t one to be found. Have to remind myself it’s still 0-0. Greece could pinch this despite not threatening all night. Australia need a goal to be sure.
68 min: It’s a sign, I suppose, how far the Socceroos have come in recent years that our expectations are as high as they are:
Fans waiting for a goal...just a goal...#AUSvGRE pic.twitter.com/dgBAtUc4zM
— TITO (@TitoPerez89) June 4, 2016
66 min: Leckie, though boxed in, manages to get a head to a short Smith cross. But he can’t direct it on goal. Milligan then, with his back to goal, flicks a Burns corner on target with the outside of the right boot but it goes straight to the keeper.
63 min: Nice skills by Rogic, who pulls the ball back towards him thus catching Tachtsidis by surprise. It gives him room to rifle a left-footed shot which skids along the deck but just wide of the posts. The worst thing about that piece of skill was that you just knew Harps would climb aboard with gusto: “It just takes your breath away!” he exclaims. It was good, but not THAT good.
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62 min: A calm hangs over the game at the moment. Is a (metaphorical) storm coming? We can only hope.
59 min: Subs aplenty: Samaris, who has had a busy night (a lot of it on the ground, or bringing people to ground), has departed the field, and he gives Postecoglou a big hug. Tachtsidis is on.
For Australia, Kruse is replaced by Leckie and Mooy is replaced by Rogic.
59 min: Matt Ryan catches a cross from Torosidos on the right. He’ll be pleased to get a touch. He’s had nothing to do for some time.
57 min: Andy Harper is really winding up now. I’m imagining his co-commentators rolling their eyes and elbowing each other in the ribs.
55 min: Jim Douros from Newtown writes in from Greece: “Spent an frustrating hour trying to find the game on in a bar here in Mykonos . The regular tv channels don’t have it on and no one seems to have the necessary pay tv. I think the Greeks have given up on football. Nice place but horrifically busy with cruise ship types.”
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53 min: Giannou just misses a stabbed shot at goal, flaking the paint on the right post! Oh, he was a fraction offside so it wouldn’t have counted. In any case, it was a sweet counter by Australia and a lovely cross into Giannou’s path by Geria from the right wing.
51 min: Samaris clips Kruse on the edge of the box bringing him down. Mooy and Jedinak again stand over the ball. Surely not Jedinak after his efforts so far. Jedinak it is! He lofts it over the wall but it doesn’t come down soon enough. That was at least in the same post code as the goal.
49 min: A Greece foray is shut down by Jason Geria and a breakaway ends in Kruse chipping over a cross from the right byline. Boo-urns is thereabouts by Kapino leaps to catch it before the Aussie striker has a chance to get his head on it.
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47 min: Andy Harper is claiming it’s been a great Socceroos performance so far. I think he’s gilding the lily somewhat.
Peeeep!
Greece kick us off, running left to right in Mediterranean blue. I forgot to mention, the Aussies have on their gold shirts and shorts and green socks.
Greece, meantime, have made two changes. Cholevos is on for Christodoulopoulus, Bakasetas is on for Diamantakos
And we’re back. What, if any changes, have been made at the half? None from what I can see. So no Cahill just yet. Mark Bosnich says “If [Cahill] comes on he will score.”
Half-time: Australia 0-0 Greece
And there’s the whistle. A rather frenetic finish to the half. Australia have had the better of play but can’t find the right pass often enough. One time they did Burns failed to make Greece pay.
No doubt we’ll see a lot of Ali over the coming days, but while I nip off to see a man about a Shih Tzu, here’s some footage of Ali out of the ring, using one of his best weapons; his mouth. Forget his athletic ability for a moment, he was a compelling speaker with a charisma that transcended the remove of the television camera and even the distance of time:
45 min + 2: Australia pour forward and Mooy has a couple of attempts to shoot blocked at the source.
45 min + 1: Australia on top here. Kruse chases down a long ball before cutting back at the by-line. He tees up a trailing Milligan inside the Greece penalty box. His first time left foot shot is about to sneak inside the left post before a full-stretch Kapino palms it away.
43 min: Geria’s ball to Kruse in the box isn’t quite as well placed as it should be so Kruse is forced to double back whilst inside the area. As he turns away from goal Maniatis slides in and brings him down. There were no great penalty appeals from Australia that I noticed but if there were they would have been reasonable ones.
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42 min: Samaris is down again, but because he’s over the touchline play goes on.
39 min: Mooy shoots, I think, across the face from wide on the left. It might have been a cross but since there were no gold shirts there to tap it in we’ll go with a shot.
Balls in the opposition’s box score? Australia is up 13-3. Goal count? Still 0.
38 min: Australia almost hit the lead through an own goal! Kruse crosses from the right but Mooy is outnumbered by three blue shirts. Nevertheless, Oikonomou decides to slide in to intercept but only succeeds in looping it towards his own goal. Kapino does well to tip over the bar before landing heavily on his back. He’s ginger but as he’s the sub keeper he’d need to be fully red to go off.
36 min: Not much happening at the moment as the Socceroos pass it around at the back.
33 min: Milligan, who’s come into the game of late, just clears the bar after taking a 25 yard snap shot to beat Kapino who was out of his goal mouth. That was very close.
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31 min: Jedinak thinks he’s Charlie Yankos. He’s gone for another 30 yard screamer after Christodoulopoulus cleared into his path (following a cross into the Greek box by Smith). Jedinak just hit that teenager again after he’d barely got his phone back in his hand.
28 min: Further to that bit about it being willing, the foul count is now 15. Goals still 0.
Greeks are here to play. You can stick that in the bank. (Prob an Aussie one, just to be safe). #AUSvGRE
— Sam Mac & Jules (@thebleague) June 4, 2016
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26 min: Burns misses a gilt edged chance! Mooy on the right finds Kruse in the middle and the Aussie No.10 flicks the ball with panache ahead of Burns who suddenly finds himself in a one-on-one with the new keeper, Kapino. Too much time to think? Whatever, he shanks his shot wide of Kapino’s right hand post. Should have buried that.
23 min: Gianniotas turns Jedinak beautifully and outpaces him down the right flank. Did Jedinak pull up a little there in the chase? Hmm.
Moments later, Milligan slides in vigorously in a challenge, now Samaris does the same on Kruse. It’s willing enough for a friendly.
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20 min: Giannou turns Samaris nicely and is brought down for his troubles. Free kick Australia 30 yards out, dead centre. Mooy and Jedinak stand over it, before the skipper puts his laces through it and (I presume) knocks the phone out of the hands of a texting teen in Row W.
19 min: Both teams are struggling to develop what you might call a rhythm. Final passes are going astray.
17 min: A free kick for Greece from wide on the right. I missed who took it but he was a lefty and he kicked it straight to Matt Ryan in the Socceroos’ goal.
15 min: Another Australia corner, this time from the right. Again Mooy aims for Jedinak but Maniatis gets there first and heads back towards his goal, accidentally you’d think. Karnezis leaps to claim it — but then gestures to the bench. He’s still not right and wants to be replaced.
SUB: Stefanos Kapino comes on in his place.
13 min: Greece captain Torosidos storms down the right past Smith and whips in a dangerous, low-level cross, but the Socceroos clear with some desperation.
12 min: Karnezis still being treated.
What’s happening with the weather? Take it away, Supertramp:
10 min: A lovely in-swinging corner from Mooy which is met by a flying Jedinak. But Jedinak hits Karnezis in the act. And the stomach. Karnezis looks like he was driving a Fiat and just had a head on with a lorry.
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9 min: Nice work on the left by Smith and Burns. Smith found Burns who threaded a nice ball to the overlapping Smith. Smith managed a cross but it was too close to Greece keeper Karnezis.
Now a corner to Australia on the left.
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7 min: Brad Smith is beaten on the right by Gianniotas but he hares after him and dispossess him. Nice recovery from the Liverpool players.
Adam Goodes is in the house, and the Fox Sports gents are trying to imagine him as a Socceroos central defender.
6 min: Jedinak finds Geria with a looping ball. He passes and moves but when it comes back to him he boots it over the sideline. Kruse, his target, was there one minute, gone the next.
4 min: Samaris is down injured but he’s up. Moments before Vellios goes down himself. He’s up now, too. As you were.
3 min: Christodoulopoulus on the left tricks Geria by letting the ball run past him and it leads to a cross from the right wing which Bellios meets in the box. It’s a free header but he can’t keep it down. An early scare for Australia.
2 min: A few players have hit the deck already. The surface looks pock-marked. You can see Paul Gallen’s sprig marks.
Peeeeep!
The Socceroos start us off, Giannou making no mistake with his first touch, a 15cm sideways pass to Robbie Kruse. Good start!
Stand by...
How devo must the FFA be about this rain #AUSvGRE
— rocket league mvp (@thompooo) June 4, 2016
Really, really devo. You’d imagine the crowd will be down, giving Melbourne a chance to out-do Sydney on Tuesday night. Lots of empty seats.
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Teams are in the tunnel!
Mile Jedinak is leading Australia out. That beard. It’s so long since I’ve seen him clean shaven I’ve forgotten what his chin looks like. Perhaps it’s like Chesty Bonds’, meaning his beard is only a couple of cms long, not nearly as impressive as it seems.
Teams are on the field!
Teams are about to sing the anthems!
First Greece (sorry):
Now Australia (not sorry):
Plenty of mixed allegiances in da house tonight. The friendliest of friendlies?:
Check out some of our fans at @ANZStadium as we prepare for kick-off! https://t.co/XSPlbIsxOY #AUSvGRE #DodoniSeries pic.twitter.com/ade6UHjRWu
— Caltex Socceroos (@Socceroos) June 4, 2016
Rare praise for a ground announcer so I have to post this:
The stadium MC at ANZ just smashed the pronunciation of the entire Greece squad. Superbly done, sir! #AUSvGRE #GoSocceroos
— Melanie Dinjaski (@MelanieDinjaski) June 4, 2016
Craig Spittle has tweeted to either praise or chastise me for my Clash of the Titans (1981) reference. “Come on now!” he writes. That’s praise, right?
Meantime, on the visiting side: I have to say, most of those names are Greek to me, and they make me worry more than is healthy about vowel placement, so apologies in advance if, in the heat of live-blogging, I uo when I should have ou’d. There are a couple of players in the Greece line-up that, speaking as a live blogger only, I hope never touch the ball.
Greece, obviously, will not be playing at the coming European Championships. Neither will Australia, despite the efforts of Dami Im at Eurovision. But like Australia Greece have World Cup qualifiers of their own to worry about and plan for.
As you can see, their star striker Kostas Mitroglou isn’t touring with the squad, but up-and-comer Andreas Samaris is. You may have heard that Samaris credits Postecoglou —his coach at Greek 3rd division side Panachaiki back in the day— with igniting his career. The two shared such a long hug by the waterside the other day that looking away seemed the decent thing to do. Good luck to him tonight.
Robbie Slater is talking on Foxsports right now as the teams warm up. I don’t know what he’s saying, however, as my tele is on mute.
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Equipment checks are vital before any sporting match. “Yep, all present and accounted for.”
THE @EthnikiOmada have hit the field to get their legs moving before kick-off! #AUSvGRE pic.twitter.com/IKlQUOZKiS
— ANZ Stadium (@ANZStadium) June 4, 2016
Here’s a more graphically pleasing look at Australia, and if I find a similar one for Greece I’ll post it:
Ladies and gentlemen, your lineup for tonight's match against @EthnikiOmada !! #AUSvGRE pic.twitter.com/2UKreJ5c2M
— Caltex Socceroos (@Socceroos) June 4, 2016
I feel I’ve become a little distracted. Where was I? Rather, where should I be? Yes, the football. Right then. Teams. You want them? You got them, via the official match sheets (there seems to be some confusion as to whether you place a tick or a cross against a player’s name. Ange has ticked his starters, whereas Greece coach Michael Skibbe has gone for the ‘x’). It’s almost like we’re there in the sheds, isn’t it?
The line ups for @Socceroos & @EthnikiOmada. #AUSvGRE #GoSocceroos #DodoniSeries pic.twitter.com/HoFUtCxqRz
— Caltex Socceroos (@Socceroos) June 4, 2016
It’s been raining so much in Sydney over the past 24 hours that backyard ark builders are not looking quite so barmy now. So much rain, in fact, that Football Federation Australia felt the need to issue a statement earlier today advising fans that the game would go ahead tonight, not least because, wonderfully, the ground is draining like a horse at a urinal after six schooners. Or words to that effect.
It’s not raining right this second...
Hold it right... there. Don't move. #AUSvGRE #BigWet pic.twitter.com/jeO6imF3KC
— Australian Football (@AustFootball) June 4, 2016
... but the pitch will be wet, however, which will surely louden complaints issued in advance that the Socceroos and their international guests shouldn’t, in this day and age, have to play on surfaces churned up by league, union and Aussie Rules matches. Tonight’s venue, Sydney’s Olympic Stadium, played host to State of Origin rugby league just (*counts on fingers*) three days ago. It surely won’t be billiard table smooth for tonight’s friendly.
Let’s hope the players of Australia and Greece can rise above it, like Perseus riding Pegasus to, ah, chop off Medusa’s head. Heads. Yes, most of knowledge of ancient Greece comes from, ah, watching the historically accurate Clash of the Titans when I was a boy.
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Preamble
Evening, folks. Let’s get you out of those wet things, and in the mood for some action. Which of course brings me, with no further foreplay, to tonight’s game. What’s to say? Well, it’s a friendly, the first of two against Greece, which is a kind of sister country to Australia (to wit, the souvlaki is quite possibly Australia’s-post-11pm-on-a-Saturday-night national dish). As well as the sizeable contribution Greek immigrants have made to this country, Australian football has been blessed by so many wonderful players of Greek descent over the years and, of course, the Socceroos’ current coach (who’s doing so well he should be current for quite some time to come) Ange Postecoglou was born in Greece and goes there annually. Around this time of year, as it happens. On this occasion, however, Greece has come to him.
It’s three months until the Socceroos next round of World Cup qualifying gets underway so Australia’s two matches against Greece, like their match last week against England, will give Postecoglou another chance to tinker with formations and personnel ahead of bigger tests to come. Postecoglou seems intent on blooding as many as he can, and getting them familiar with his system so that in the event 23 or so players all break a leg the day before his World Cup squad is chosen he’ll have another 23 or so ready to fill the breach. He’s got back up plans for his back up plans, does Postecoglou.
There have been a number of changes to the squad that went down 2-1 to England at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light. For instance, Tim Cahill, Mat Leckie, Nathan Burns and Apo Giannou – who ironically played a friendly match for the Greek national team last year before switching allegiance to Australia – are all back after missing the England game. Giannou, interestingly enough, represented Greece in a friendly last year before switching his allegiance to Australia. Let’s hope he doesn’t start running the wrong way at some point. “Wrong way, Apo! Wrong way!” we’ll all be yelling at our TVs, like parents at a under-6s game.
Yep, should be fun tonight. So glad you’ve joined me. On that, please drop me a line tonight at paul.connolly.casual@guardian.co.uk. Doesn’t even have to be about football.
Kickoff: 8pm.
Paul will be here shortly. In the meantime, there was another Australian national football team in action earlier – read about the Matildas’ 2-0 win over New Zealand in Ballarat here:
