Ange Postecoglou’s rebuild of the Socceroos has taken another small step forward, with Australia cruising to an easy win over Bangladesh in Perth. It makes it two wins from two outings for the Socceroos in this early stage of Asia’s World Cup qualifiers.
It was the champions of Asia against one of the confederation’s lowest-ranked teams, and it was a mismatch from the start. Mathew Leckie, who plays in the Bundesliga for FC Ingolstadt, needed just six minutes to find the net. Tom Rogic followed suit two minutes later.
Desperate to make the most of his recent call up to the national squad, 28-year-old Tarek Elrich controlled the right side of the pitch, and played a large part in both early goals. QPR’s Massimo Luongo – the player of the Asian Cup – was also involved in plenty of Australia’s key moves.
But it was Rogic running the show in his long-awaited return to the midfield. And on 20 minutes, the Celtic man had found the net again, though this time it came via a deflection. Rogic looked almost apologetic when the ball went in.
Tim Cahill – the only member of this Australia squad with more than three international goals to his name – was left on the bench. Instead, Leckie, Rogic and Nathan Burns were given the chance to open or double their accounts. Within half an hour, all had. On 29 minutes, Burns swooped on a loose ball for his debut international goal.
It looked like Bangladesh were heading for their first ever double digit loss, but Thursday night was not to be that night. The scoring slowed up considerably from that point on, thanks in part to some tardiness from the home side and some good saves by Tigers keeper Sahidul Alam.
Then on the hour mark, the industrious Aaron Mooy trapped the ball outside the area, turned and curled the ball past Sahidul for Australia’s fifth. There were shades of Luongo’s goal in the Asian Cup final about it.
There were many more chances to come for the Socceroos, but none of them were taken. Perhaps the best of those efforts came from Chris Ikonomidis, who headed the ball on to the crossbar shortly after replacing Rogic. Ikonomidis came close to scoring again in injury time, this time with his foot. More importantly though, the substitution means the Lazio youngster is now cap-tied to Australia.
Leckie resembled Cahill at times with his heading, especially in the first half. Jackson Irvine – a late substitution for Elrich – also had his moments.
In the absence of Mat Ryan and Mitch Langerak, the gloves were handed to the only member of the squad ‘playing’ in the Premier League, Adam Federici. He is yet to get off the bench at Bournemouth this season, and was only marginally more involved here. One of his rare touches drew one the biggest cheers of the match. Another almost turned into a howler.
Postecoglou rejected suggestions he was preparing his side for life without Cahill.
“We’re not looking at a post-anyone era,” he said. “At the moment what we are looking at is a team that is continually evolving and will continue to evolve until we get to the place where we feel that we can challenge for the World Cup. [Tonight] was our first home game since the Asian Cup final and the players enjoyed it out there.”
A crowd of 19,495 turned out for Australia’s first outing in Perth in a decade. It’s a record for this venue.
Australia need to finish top of the group to guarantee progression to the deciding stage of these qualifiers. They may come to regret not making more of their opportunities.
The next stop on their mystery tour is Dushanbe, where they face Tajikistan on Tuesday. They’re the third team in the group that the Socceroos have never played before. Bangladesh return home to face the group’s other big name, Jordan.
Australia face the reverse fixture to this one in November, in what may be the biggest logistical nightmare for the Socceroos in this leg of qualifiers. In June’s qualifiers in Dhaka, it apparently took Kyrgyzstan hours to navigate the busy streets between their hotel and the ground.
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