Socceroos comfortably beaten by Brazil in final pre-Confederations Cup outing

Brazil defeated Ange Postecoglou’s listless and uninspired Socceroos 4-0 in Melbourne, though things might have gone even worse for Australia after an embarrassing gaffe from defender Bailey Wright allowed the visitors to score just 12 seconds into their MCG friendly.

The preamble hadn’t set pulses racing, and only when Brazil threatened to make a rout of it in the closing stages did 48,847 Melburnians get involved. In the lead-up to this encounter Brazilian coach Tite made more changes to his line-up than Mark E Smith. Eight of his starting XI from Friday night’s friendly against Argentina made way for lower profile squad members, with Thiago Silva, Philippe Coutinho and Paulinho the only survivors from that side.

Manchester City striker Gabriel Jesus was an enforced absentee after suffering a fractured eye socket in the SuperClasico. Australia, in turn, lost captain Mile Jedinak to a groin injury, which not only ruled him out for this game but the upcoming Confederations Cup as well, leaving Tim Cahill to lead the Socceroos.

Of course, Australia entered this game with their path to Russia 2018 suddenly far less precarious, which relaxed fans so much it appeared in the moments before kick-off that they wouldn’t even bother showing up. Neither did the Socceroos, initially.

In an opening sequence of scarcely believable sporting comedy, the home side conceded from their second touch when Wright’s errant pass was expertly cut off by a whip-smart Giuliano, who snaked his way forward and played in Diego Souza to fire across startled Australian keeper Mitch Langarak. Much of the talk about Postecoglou’s side this week has related to their contentious defensive formation, but there was not much any combination could do with those raw ingredients. It gave Souza his first international goal and Wright 89 and a half more minutes to ponder his monumental cock-up

For a while the Socceroos settled, Cahill made a nuisance of himself on the ends of crosses from James Troisi on six minutes and Aziz Behrich after 14, but it rarely got better for the home side. Coutinho celebrated his elevation to the national captaincy by making every Australian in his orbit look second rate and half his pace. Every time the Socceroos chipped it around at the back another Wright-style catastrophe seemed possible. The greatest local aerial threat for the rest of the night was a flock of persistent seagulls.

On 57 minutes Postecoglou made a trio of changes, bringing Jamie Maclaren on for the mostly anonymous Matthew Leckie, replacing Tim Cahill with debutant Ajdin Hrustic and introducing Jackson Irvine in place of Trent Sainsbury. They were bearers of ill tidings. Five minutes later a mad scramble in the aftermath of a Coutinho corner ended when Thiago Silva had only his team-mate Paulinho to beat for the telling header. It would be kind to describe Australia’s defensive efforts thereafter as shaggy.

“I thought our first half wasn’t too bad,” Postecoglou said afterwards, before taking responsibility for the procession of line-up changes that preceded Australia’s late collapse, which he said were part and parcel of such friendlies.

“Second half, I’ll take responsibility for that. I made a lot of changes. By the end of it we probably weren’t as clear with the instructions as we could have been. We needed to get some game times into some players. That was important for guys like Bailey Wright and James Troisi. It was good to get them out there and get some meaningful minutes.”

With 20 minutes to go Tite brought Coutinho off for Willian, who immediately allayed fears the Brazilian boss had removed the main item of interest from a game that wasn’t particularly thrilling to start with. In the 75^th minute Willian shimmied effortlessly around Irvine and set the stage for a delightful one-two and back-heel pass from Paulinho, who gifted Brazil’s third to Taison.

By then Tite could have subbed himself on without altering his team’s sweat-free dominance. Diego Souza competed the cakewalk in injury time with a glancing header from a Willian corner, but it could easily have been five or six in a shambolic finish for Australia. They and the fans couldn’t get out quick enough.

“I’ve never said anything about the critics, go hard,” Postecoglou said in response to the likelihood of knee-jerk responses to the loss. “I’m not in the mode to start telling people what to say and what to do. People can make their own judgments.”