Just like to say that (admittedly only from a lounge chair) I thought our effort lay somewhere between the opinions that we were wonderful and we were shockeroos. It was a friendly with the main function of letting Frankie and the boys work a few things out. I thought we did well in attack and this is confirmed by the shot numbers, but like another side in which I have a slight interest, we did not put many of them away.
I think I would like to have seen The Ankle out wider on the left - what IS wrong with him? Perhaps he is bit bosnichoid at present - I guess he is still making enough dosh to keep himself in handkerchiefs, perhaps the fabled "World Cup Glory" might eventually shake him out.
I agree Viduka is at times frustrating and I so wish he had got his toe onto that extra time cross, but he is capable, apart from being a strong front hold up man, of using his remarkably quick feet to create and even turn a match as per our second goal.
I have been enthusiastic about Cahill for as long as I have been lucky enough to see him on the box - pray to Eric he remains uninjured. For years I though Emmo to be crap - I now withdraw that view. Bresh and Skoko, as the man says, done good. Not very intrusive to the watcher - but few cock ups, nice covering and some good passing long and short. Poppo - perhaps it is true no great pace, but height, strength and timing make him OK for me.
Nobody seems to have mentioned Lucas N, so I will. I reckon he will do the job. I am a self confessed Man Fan, but it was sad to see Stan obviously not match fit and possibly knackered by Anno Domini. I fear he may soon be and ex-Socceroo, but hasn't he pleased us for a very long time? Vidmar, ditto, but never "the man". Schwarzer - not much to do. Perhaps he might have parried the shot which gave them their first more forcefully, but the error was made earlier in naive failure to "track the runner" - very basic stuff IMHO (but the function of the match was to sort out just this kind of thing).
Their second was a shocker and I agree with Alan Clark - WTF was nobody on the far post? Danny Boy was pretty well totally responsible for the whole mess - I guess he may have vestigial Aussie Rule habits deeply ingrained and unsighting Mark was enough for me to understand why some people I know refer to him as "Twatto". I actually thought for the first three minutes or so after he came on that my previous opinion of him might have been wrong, but he reverted to type soon enough.
Of the other subs Ehrlich and Grella I thought blended in more or less seamlessly, but I can't actually recall anything that Chipper did. We do have some reasonable talent on the bench now and perhaps the days of someone having to be subbed causing a major shambles are behind us. Aloisi and Moore will reinforce this all the more. It was a friendly we should have won and, though I am as an enthusiastic winner as anyone, I can see benefit ensuing from the exercise. February is a bloody long way off!
written by David Marshall