Australia coach Ange Postecoglou said his team are heading in the right direction, but still have work to do ahead of the FIFA World Cup next month after an uninspiring 1-1 draw against South Africa on Monday.
While Australia did not play injured first-choice squad members Mile Jedinak, Mark Bresciano and Matthew Spiranovic for the warm-up game, there was little to enthuse about before they depart for Brazil today.
Yet Postecoglou was keen to put a positive spin on the game, as he trimmed his traveling party to 27 yesterday by axing Curtis Good, Adam Sarota and Josh Brillante.
Photo: Reuters
“I can’t be too critical of the players,” he said, after Tim Cahill equalized for the Socceroos in the 14th minute following Ayanda Patosi’s opener a minute earlier.
“We have worked them really hard for 10 days and when you do that, obviously they’re going to pay a little bit of a price in the game. I think we’re heading in the right direction and we’ll continue to do so,” the Greek-born manager said. “There’s a lot of work for us to do, but we’ve got a couple more games and another three weeks [so] hopefully we can keep improving.”
The inexperienced Australia squad are the lowest-ranked team in the World Cup at No. 59 and face a daunting task in Brazil against Spain, the Netherlands and Chile in Group B.
In addition, the Socceroos are in transition following the dropping of former captain and defender Lucas Neill, as well as the recent retirements of goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, forward Harry Kewell, and midfielders Brett Emerton and Brett Holman form international play.
Veteran Cahill, 34, said there were some good signs against an injury-depleted South Africa, adding that Australia were working on a plan to be ready for their World Cup opener against Chile on June 13.
“There was some glimpses of some great stuff. We did a lot of things we were supposed to and we’ll probably work on the things we didn’t do,” he said.
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