The Socceroos were fortunate to leave Tehran with a point from their 1-1 World Cup Qualifier draw against Iraq on Thursday evening, after having survived sustained pressure from an Iraqi team desperate to keep alive their chances of reaching Russia.
Playing on an uneven surface in wet, cold conditions, the match predictably turned into a physical scrap, with frequent turnovers and contested balls. Socceroos boss Ange Postecoglou sprung a couple of surprises opting for a 3-2-4-1 system with Langerak in goal in place of Matt Ryan, and Luongo alongside Jedinak in the holding midfield position, screening a back three of Degenak, Milligan, and Bailey Wright.
Jackson Irvine also got his first start in the World Cup campaign in an advanced midfield role alongside Aaron Mooy.
The Iraqis began as the better of the two sides with striker Abdulraheem looking dangerous. An excellent Langerak save and poor finishing prevented them scoring first. It wasn’t until the 30th minute that Australia was able to threaten with a string of corners culminating in a Matthew Leckie header for the opening goal of the game in the 38th minute. The goal lifted the Australians’ confidence and for the rest of the half they produced the best football of the match, increasing the tempo and fluency of their passing.
However, they were unable to recreate this fluency of passing and movement after the break as the Iraqis adopted a direct approach, putting the Australians under increasing pressure. An Ibrahim header forced another fine Langerak diving save. At the other end, Mooy missed a great chance to double the Socceroos lead, and when Ahmed Yasin scored an equaliser at the far post in the 76th minute, it set the stage for a torrid last 15 minutes for the Socceroos. Coach Postecoglou threw Cahill and Troisi on in a bid to snatch a late winner, but in the end the Socceroos were grateful for Langerak’s saves, Jedinak’s interventions, and profligate finishing by the Iraqis which enabled the Socceroos to escape with a point.
Postecoglou commented after the match, “Especially in the second half we didn’t really cope with them being fairly direct and we just weren’t strong enough in our defensive areas, we continually scrambled and never really got hold of the game”.
When asked if he was happy with the team’s performance he replied “You want to win every game because of your performance. Our performance probably didn’t warrant three points today. Fair credit to them. They worked awfully hard. We didn’t cope well particularly in the second half. In the end they probably got the point they deserved.
“At the end of the day regardless of the system we came up with, there were just some contests out there that we were second best, causing us all sorts of problems. Just about every header in the defensive half, we just failed to clear it and they caused us some problems. But anyway, we’ll move on.”
The Socceroos have just five days to recover, before taking on UAE in Sydney on Tuesday night and they’ll be desperate for a win to break their four game winless streak and keep within touch of the top two nations in the group, Saudi Arabia and Japan. They both won their away matches to Thailand and UAE respectively, on the same night the Socceroos dropped points.