That’s just Greece’s third win in 16 games, I believe, so they’ll be delighted. It also puts into perspective (in a bad way) Australia’s performance this past week.
The doomsayers will be out, no doubt, but it may be foolish to read too much into a couple of ‘off-season’ friendlies. The sky isn’t falling.
That’s me out. Thanks for joining me. Cheerio.
Updated
A few words from Ange Postecoglou who joins the cadre of trench coats that is the Fox Sports team:
“They got the jump on us and we didn’t react well, particularly in the first half. We got sucked into playing their game a little bit and got frustrated , giving away silly fouls and jumping in. We lost our composure. Then we were chasing the game.”
Postecoglou then defends Federici, saying the high line his keeper was playing was “my responsibility, not his... we’ve been playing that high line for a while and every now and then you’ll get done on it.”
It’s been a good run for Australia since Ange Postecoglou took over. Even their losses have had a silver lining that hasn’t been hard to find.
But a good spade will be needed to uncover any upside to this one. Australia were awful and allowed themselves to be thrown off their game by Greece who rushed them into error over and over again. That’s just the second loss Australia have suffered on home soil in 34 matches since 2009.
Full-time: Australia 1-2 Greece
And that’s all she wrote. Greece record a well-deserved win, their first over Australia in 38 years according to Fox Sports.
90 min + 4: A few hopeful punts from the back don’t end up with a Socceroos shot on goal, oddly enough.
And just before the final whistle someone in blue attempts to catch Federici off his line one last time. Not far off, either.
90 min + 2: Sainsbury wins a one-on-one challenge in the box as Stafylidis, I think, tried to cut back on to his right boot for a shot.
90 min: There will be four minutes of stoppage time. The crowd has been announced: 33,622.
89 min: Corner Greece. Samaris can’t reach it, Rogic clears, and as Giannou scampers away Samaris bear hugs him. As the whistle is blown Samaris kisses Giannou on the head.
86 min: Rogic earns a yellow he should have got in the first half. He’s been cutting a frustrated figure and here he goes into a challenge with something more like a stamp.
83 min: Nick Mangafas writes in from Austria to gently let me know that that “Greece line-up” I posted way way back was actually the Australian line-up (written in Greek).
Ah, you play with fire you get burnt.
Just five minutes left. Australia don’t look like drawing level. Greece don’t look bothered getting a third.
81 min: It’s incredible how Cahill can get his head to anything. I reckon I could go outside my house now, boot a ball in any random direction and Cahill would appear as if out of a trapdoor to head it.
This is a roundabout way of saying that Ikonomidis’ cut back and cross is headed by Cahill despite him being boxed in by two defenders. It doesn’t trouble the keeper but he had no right to get to that.
80 min: Now Kruse is off. Nathan Burns is on. Can he find an equaliser that Australia scarcely deserve?
I’ll say it again, the intensity has really gone out of this game.
78 min: Kruse strokes a through-ball into the box for someone to run onto. Someone doesn’t run onto it, however. Someone wasn’t anywhere near doing so. A case of crossed wires, I’d say.
Vellios can now get those divots in his leg looked at. He’s off, replaced by a hulking lump called Papzoglou. He looks like a soldier in ‘300’.
76 min: Vellios slides down his sock to reveal some puncture wounds as Leckie departs now, replaced by Chris Ikonomidis.
74 min: From the left wing, Stafylidis launches a lovely ball that clears every player on the field but Mantalos on the right wing. It drops at his feet like a gift from the Gods but he wastes it with a lead-footed cross straight to a gold shirt.
73 min: Samaris shakes off two gold jerseys with a nice 360 turn on the edge of the centre circle.
71 min: The Socceroos pass it around the back before Bailey Wright’s through-ball to Smith is intercepted.
Australia make a third change: Mooy off, Giannou on.
68 min: Now it’s Maniatis’ turn for an early shower. He’s been strong tonight, even without that amazing 60m goal. He’s replaced by Tziolis.
66 min: A couple of subs made by Postecoglou: Gersbach and McGowan off, Brad Smith and Milos Degenek on.
65 min: Australia might have equalised there! Mooy’s freekick curls into the box and Cahill meets it with a strong header but it’s always slanting wide.
63 min: Yellow to Maniatis for dissent, complaining about a free kick awarded to Australia.
Cholebas is off, Christodoulopoulos is on. That’s an easy name for a live blogger to get his fingers around.
60 min: Greece set up a free-kick that Samaris almost sneaks inside the right upright from 40 yards! Federici looked beaten then.
The goal? It started with a Mooy corner from the right which Cahill again headed towards goal. Milligan met it en route but his header hit the cross bar and bounced out to Sainsbury. From a few yards out he couldn’t miss with his header. Well, he could have, but didn’t!
GOAL! Australia 1-2 Greece (Sainsbury 58)
Inches away from 3-0 down Australia now trail just 2-1. Funny ol’ game, football!
56 min: Greece rattle the post! Bakasetas sends in a corner from the left and it falls just inside the area where Torosidis leans into it like a downhill skier, his first time left-foot volley sending the ball slamming into the right hand post. So close to 3-0!
55 min: The Socceroos are getting slated on Twitter. It’s been a dream run, really, for Ange’s side, but is the long honeymoon over?
The mentality is a real worry – start sloppy & lazy, then as difficulty of task is realised, easily get fed up & dirty. Immature. #AUSvGRE
— Shane Henry (@Hirald0) June 7, 2016
53 min: Aussie subs warming up en masse on the sideline. No changes to either team during the break, by the way.
So far things seem far more sedate, as if something was slipped into the halftime oranges.
51 min: Australia win a corner which Mooy takes from the right. It’s another high, pillowy cross which comes down almost on top of Cahill’s head. Cahill at least gets it goalward where Sainsbury meets it, his attempt to flick into the net with the outside of his boot not too far away.
48 min: News from the dressing sheds: Ange wasn’t happy with what he saw in that first half. You heard it here first, folks.
47 min: Greece break free in midfield after Bakasetas holds off Rogic and slides a ball to the right for Vellios to run down. His cross isn’t a good one.
Peeeep!
46 min: We’re off again with Australia having it all to do. Still, one goal and it’s all tied up at 2-2. This is a two-leg tie, right?
How does that even happen? #AUSvGRE #GoSocceroos #Socceroos pic.twitter.com/lAmR52QXLu
— CK (@C_K_7) June 7, 2016
Mark Bosnich, wearing a black trench coat, has opened up. No, nt opened up the trench coat! It’s not even 930pm!
No, after praising Greece he says the Socceroos have been “pathetic”, adding it’s the worst performance he’s seen under Postecoglou’s reign. He also adds that some of the challenges the Australians have made have been “unacceptable”.
As Omar would say, “True dat”. Some of Greece’s challenges have been no oil painting either, mind. Some friendly, this one.
Yuk. @Socceroos - ugly, ugly football. Horrible tackles, lazy defending @AaronMooy taking corners like he's drunk a bottle of ouzo. #AUSvGRE
— Francis Leach (@SaintFrankly) June 7, 2016
As the two teams take a breather, and as I pop the kettle on, why not settle back and enjoy this timely look back on Greece doing a Leicester before Leicester at the 2004 European Championships. Incredible. And to think, Denmark did a Greece before Greece did a Leicester back in 1992! But that’s a video for another day:
Updated
Half-time: Australia 0-2 Greece
Well, we weren’t expecting that, were we? Australia have been put under pressure and so far they’ve buckled under it, showing neither the ball control or the composure to keep Greece at bay. They look rattled. What can Ange say to get them back on track? Is it too late?
44 min: Gersbach lucky to be on the field. Mantalos was scooting down field and the young Australian jumped on the slip-and-slide and clattered into him, nowhere near the ball. He hit Mantalos around the knees. Yellow for Gersbach. No arguments from him or anyone I’d say.
41 min: Sayings McSayings on Twitter says “leave Viduka alone Easily our best ever We all know his role was keep 5 opposition players busy then setup Kewell Skoko Emo etc”
Wasn’t knocking, Viduka, SMcS. Didn’t I say I’d love to see him in this team?
39: Kruse knocks in a cross that resembles someone kicking the ball away in anger. Then, a smart interchange between Cahill and Rogic frees up Mooy whose snap shot from distance is snaffled up without too much difficulty by Kapino.
38 min: Australia get a shot away! Rogic steals the ball off Maniatis 40 yards out, skips onto his left foot and attempts to curl the ball inside the far post. He hits it fairly well but it didn’t curl enough.
As Maniatis is treated, injuring himself in that meeting with Rogic, we get a different angle on that second goal. Perhaps Federici was at fault after all. He was standing outside the D.
35 min: Rogic’s in the referee’s sights now after a poor tackle on the right flank.
34 min: Rogic is all but lopped down by Papastathopoulos. A wood chopper at the Easter Show would have been proud of that. He gets a yellow card.
Mooy hits the freekick into the wall. His deadball delivery hasn’t been great tonight. And as I speak Mooy’s corner (following the deflection off the wall) doesn’t clear the first man.
32 min: Another corner to Australia but Kruse should have gone himself there from the edge of the area rather than look for Cahill who was surrounded by blue shirts. Like a hippie at a Liberal Party tea party.
The corner comes to naught.
30 min: Corner to Australia but Mooy’s delivery isn’t great. He gets another crack at it though when it comes back to him, but it’s another poor cross, high and looping. An up and under. Leckie gets a head near it but Greece boot it to safety.
29 min: Cahill does well in traffic to find Mooy whose early ball in behind gives Kruse something to chase. He’s looking a chance until Greece’s keeper, Kapino, races out to clear.
27 min: Leckie brings down Cholebas on the left —scything his legs out from under him— and gets a deserved yellow.
That second goal: you could blame Federici, yes, but who expects a shot from 60m out? Better to praise the vision and execution of the scorer.
25 min: Stunning few minutes by Greece who are cutting Australia apart in midfield. The Socceroos aren’t helping themselves by the amount of ball they are giving away. Milligan in particular has struggled on this front.
22 min: Moments later Greece cut Australia apart in midfield again and Cholebas is put into the clear on the left. His attempted chip of Federici winds up on the roof of the net. So close to a third!
GOAL! Australia 0-2 Greece (Maniatis 21)
WHAT A GOAL!
Maniatis picks the ball up 60m out (60m!), looks up and sees Federici off his line, and sends it soaring up and then down ... over Federici’s despairing arms and into the goal!
19 min: Greece scramble another dangerous ball to safety. Again it was Kruse getting in a cross. Leckie met it with a header and it was on target until blocked by a defender.
Australia are warming into the game now.
17 min: As with the Sydney game there’s a little niggle in this.
Now Kruse gets free on the left and crosses into the box, into traffic. Cahill’s his target but against Greece clear a tricky ball.
14 min: Mooy takes the freekick and his long-range shot, lacking sting, is palmed wide by the keeper. Kruse gets to it and tries to chip it back inside but Greece clean up.
13 min: Now Tzavellas is rolling about on the deck in “agony” after a coming together with Rogic. But it’s a free to Australia and someone won’t give Mooy the ball, sparking some push and shove.
Updated
11 min: Rogic’s heels are clipped on the halfway line. After the free-kick McGowan, in space on the right, knocks an early cross to Cahill charging into the box. But he gets too much on it and it sails over the byline.
Moments later Cahill flies in with a high boot on Papastathopoulos and the Greek defender yelps in anguish. Free-kick to Greece.
9 min: That was too easy. Vellios dispossessed Milligan near the half with a vigorous challenge, and Samaris picked up the crumbs. Striding goalwards he slid the ball right to Mantalos who put his laces through it from just inside the box, beating Federici to his right. Well hit, that.
Good for the game I reckon.
GOAL! Australia 0-1 Greece (Mantalos 8)
Greece’s early pressure has been rewarded!
7 min: Torosidis tries to lob Federici from 40 yards but the ball seems to have been filled with helium. On it goes, up, up and away.
5 min: Bright start from Greece who have been applying pressure to Australia and not allowing them to play out from the back at their leisure.
But here’s a thespian break. In the box Bailey Wright holds off Bakasetas with a high arm and he hits the deck holding his face as if he’d just seen Donald Trump emerge from the shower.
4 min: Samaris whacks the free kick straight into the wall. Australia clear and Greece get a throw in on the halfway line.
Updated
2 min: Which Bailey Wright heads clear.
But Greece are on the attack, not helped by some loose play by Sainsbury. In attempting to make amends he fouls Bakasetas on the edge of the box.
Updated
Peeeep!
1 min: Australia kick off and are dispossessed before they clear the centre circle, Samaris driving Greece toward an early corner.
The trackie tops are coming off and the Aussies are again in all gold, with green socks. The Greeks are all in blue, like an ocean in the sun. Simple elegance.
Kick off is nigh!
Anthems
(...as they might be brought to you by the national anthem co-ordinator —“You had one job!”— at Chicago’s Soldier Field during Monday’s Copa America match between Mexico and Uruguay):
Greece:
Australia:
As the teams assemble in the tunnel, here’s another look at the Australians (bearing in mind Federici is starting at goalkeeper, not Ryan, despite what it says here):
The line-ups are in! Congrats to former @SydneyFC man @AlexGersbach who makes his starting debut tonight! #AUSvGRE pic.twitter.com/2Ht5Y6rLNZ
— Caltex Socceroos (@Socceroos) June 7, 2016
I’m taking a stab that this is Greece’s starting team:
Και οι αναπληρωματικοί Αυστραλοί: Ράιαν, Γκέρια, Ντέγιενεκ, Γιάννου, Οικονομίδης, Μπιριγκίτι, Σμιθ, Μπερνς, Ρίσντον, ΜακΛάρεν, Ιρβάιν
— Ethniki Omada (@EthnikiOmada) June 7, 2016
Spot the spelling mistake? Me neither.
While we wait for kick-off, avail yourself of a match report on the Matildas’ 1-1 draw with New Zealand.
Ange is being interviewed pre-game talking up, again, his inclination to prepare as many players as possible for future call-ups. Results suggest he’s doing the right thing.
The wing backs, especially, have seen some kind of turnover. Remember Jason Davidson, James Meredith, Tarek Elrich and Ivan Franjic? They now appear to be in a long line behind the likes of Brad Smith, Jason Geria, Alex Gersbach, Ryan McGowan and Josh Risdon.
Oh, in case you didn’t notice, Mat Ryan is on the bench (which will help him smash a few more pages of Don Quixote). Adam Federici will start.
As in Sydney there will be plenty of divided loyalties tonight.
Another great night :)#GoSocceroos #AUSvGRE @EthnikiOmada @Socceroos pic.twitter.com/9H37dzxfBB
— Tony Margaritis (@sthmel) June 7, 2016
Nice looking Socceroos team, if you ask me. Gersbach made a nice cameo the other night so it’s good to see him start here with a potential 90 minutes to impress. Rogic and Mooy playing in behind Cahill looks tasty, too, with Kruse and Leckie on the wings.
Cahill, as you can see, will be a starter tonight, and will wear the captain’s arm band in place of Mile Jedinak who got his dates mixed up and scheduled an appointment for a beard trim. He could have cancelled it but there was a large cancellation fee and quite rightly he wasn’t about to fork out for not getting his beard trimmed. Actually, I don’t know why he’s not playing. He was released from camp for “personal reasons”. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious.
Like the fans in attendance tonight, Cahill will be delighted to start. Will he, however, be happy to finish? Awaiting him at the post-match presser will be questions, many questions, about his club future, about speculation that he might after all end up in the A-League (with Melbourne City). He’s said he’d address questions regarding all that after the game and you can be sure the media will hold him to his promise. Unless of course he sneaks out the back door, jumps into an unmarked black car and makes a break for it, his maniacal laughter emanating from the glossy black chassis even over the sound of its screeching tyres.
Tim + Bruno = headache for City https://t.co/4GLGUDipAA #FoxSports
— A-League Fanz (@FanzALeague) June 7, 2016
Teams are in:
LINEUPS | Teams have dropped for #AUSvGRE, and it's a starting debut for Alex Gersbach #GoSocceroos pic.twitter.com/rh1ocufYrK
— Outside90 (@Outside90) June 7, 2016
Much of the talk since Saturday night is recycled talk, namely; who, besides Tim Cahill, can Australia rely on to put the ball in the net? Leckie finally registered another Socceroos goal on Saturday night (that’s 3 in 30 games, as compared to midfielder Massimo Luongo’s 4 in 19, and Aaron Mooy’s 5 in 15) so he’ll not be the only one hoping that that will prove a catalyst for many more to come. Nathan Burns, who missed a gilt-edged chance on Saturday night (Boo-urns), will need to step up if he hopes to be high on Postecoglou’s list of strikers for the big games to come, while relative newbies like Apo Giannou and Jamie Maclaren have it all to prove at international level.
Apropos of all that, Cahill sits well atop the list of leading Socceroos goalscorers with 47 from 90 appearances. The big 50 beckons. Seven of those goals were scored against tiny Pacific Island nations early in his career, but that’s a superb conversation rate in anyone’s reckoning. Well might Australia dread his retirement. That said, I reckon you could put a much older Cahill in a wheelchair and park in on the opposition’s penalty spot. Train your wingers to land a ball in the vicinity of his melon and Cahill would find a way of getting his head to it and hitting the target.
After Cahill on the list of best Socceroos strikers is prolific NSL sharp-shooer Damian Mori with 29 from 45 (23 of which were scored against Pacific Island nations), while Archie Thompson has 28 from 53 (famously, 13 of which were scored in one game against American Samoa in 2001).
Possibly the best striker Australia has ever produced, Mark Viduka, isn’t even in the top 10. Unfortunately, Dukes never translated his club form into the international arena, but I suppose it’s always more complicated than that. A striker is only as good as the team behind him and the style of play that team employs. How good would it be to see a fully fit Viduka in Postecoglou’s setup? That’s a rhetorical question but to answer it I’d go as far as to say: “Really good, actually.”
The Matildas, meantime, have just completed their last game ahead of their Olympic campaign. A Lisa De Vanna equaliser ensured a 1-1 draw against a spirited New Zealand.
Here’s Mike Hytner’s MBM account:
Things have been warming up in Melbourne ahead of tonight’s game and if you have delicate constitutions I suggest looking away now. Oh the humanity!
Pre Socceroos-Greece friendly footage #AUSvGRE pic.twitter.com/KGxmGe5gNk
— Ari Charilaou (@Ari_Charilaou) June 7, 2016
Pre-ramble
Good evening, and thanks for joining me for the second and final friendly match between Australia’s Socceroos and Greece (or the Ethniki Omada, if you want to let your inner hipster off the leash).
Tonight’s game is being played in Melbourne. I haven’t done a headcount, so I can’t vouch for the veracity of this claim, but Melbourne is believed to have the largest Greek population of any city in the world outside of Greece itself. That fact, and a closed roof at Docklands’ stadium, should ensure the crowd tonight exceeds the one that managed to find enough pieces of driftwood on which to paddle their way to Sydney’s Homebush for the first game on Saturday night.
Some Melburnians, God love ’em, will take this as further evidence that Melbourne is the greatest city in the world since Babylon. But let them have their fun, I say. Compared to civil war, it’s harmless stuff.
On Saturday night, of course, on a pitch that “embarrassed” Australia coach Ange Postecoglou, the Socceroos dominated proceedings amid Sydney’s Great Wet but they struggled in the final third to convert that dominance into clear shots, let alone goals. But in the end they got what they deserved, a rare-as-a-third-nipple Mathew Leckie goal winning the game for the home side with what turned out to be the final kick of the game.
Tonight Australia will be hoping for a better playing surface and a more clinical attack, while Greece will be looking to feed off (though not literally: baklava is a performance non-enhancing substance according to WADA) a large contingent of supporters in the crowd. Moreover they’ll be pleased to better test Socceroos goalie Mat Ryan who spent much of Saturday night’s game in a goal-mouth hammock reading Don Quixote. The Greeks were spirited, and threatened with the occasional cross into “good areas” but the closest they got to scoring was a near own-goal.
So bring on tonight’s friendly; a seven-goal thriller would be nice. Friendlies, by their very nature, lack a little something, so filling that lack with a sack full of goals would do me very nicely.
What, dear reader, are your hopes and predictions for tonight. Drop me a line: paul.connolly.casual@theguardian.com or @PFConnolly.
Kick-off: 8pm local time. Ish (let’s be honest).
Updated
Paul will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s a reminder of what happened in the first meeting between these two sides, in Sydney over the weekend:
Updated
