Olyroos vs Serbia - Group Match 1

-------------------Federici

McClenahan--North--Spiranovic--Hyphen

---------------Milligan--Musialik

Zadkovich-----------------------------Carney

----------Rukavytsya--Thompson

 

Started nothing like I expected.  Even worse than expected actually.  Talk about negative tactics and selections that were hard to watch.

Federici looked ten times the keeper Velaphi or Pasfield looked in the leadup matches and definitely justified his selection.  His positioning was flawless Thursday night culminating in an excellent save from a free kick.

Spiranovic was definitely the other shining light to come out of the match, to me once again putting himself well ahead of North in the race to be included as the Socceroos central defensive partner to Neil.

Both fullbacks were constantly exposed by quicker Serbian wingers.  Carney was however our only real attacking flare since Zadkovich is a poor excuse for a human let alone a footballer and our two strikers were totally isolated thanks to a lack of a midfield link due to Arnold's tactics and team selection.  Since they didn't actually

 

-------------------Federici

McClenahan--North--Spiranovic--Hyphen

-------------------Musialik

Zadkovich-----------------------------Carney

-------------------Celeski

-----------Bridge

------------------Rukavytsya

 

Arnold changed up to this with Celeski and Bridge providing that missing creative link in midfield and hey presto we score and look a lot more threatening.  This is the formation we used a lot more in our successful qualifiers but it still frustrates me that it is Celeski in that position and in my opinion not the much better Ward, Burns or Holland.

1-1 is an ok result in the scheme of things.  Could have been worse, could have been better, depends how you want to look at it.  The verdict is still out...