Socceroos Smash Luckless Irish 3-0

An undermanned Australia outplayed the Republic of Ireland to beat them 3-0 in Limerick this morning.
The banner “Superman wears Tim Cahill pyjamas” doesn’t look so outlandish now after the Australian dynamo lashed home another brace for the Socceroos in the first half. It was a dominating display by the Australians and the game was well and truly sealed with a David Carney peach from his very top drawer.
Australia lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Wilkshire and Jedinak protecting the back four. The attacking trio of Kewell, Cahill and Bresciano provided support for the lone forward McDonald. The Socceroos were without their captain Lucas Neill at the back, believed to be completing a transfer move to a new club.
Unlike Australia, Ireland have yet to qualify for the World Cup and were using this friendly as an important warm up to the upcoming World Cup qualifier against Cyprus. Under Italian boss Giovanni Trapattoni Ireland have been defensively sound with world champions Italy only managing a 1-1 draw at home against them.
This was all about Australia though and how far they can go when they get to South Africa next year. After competing against Asians teams for the past 3 years it was a good chance to see how Australia would perform against a combative European team. Pim Verbeek has spoken of Australia not having the best individual players in the world and so creating a world class team unit is important. Australia certainly played as a tight knit unit against Ireland and not one player let the Dutch coach down. As we’ve come to expect from Pim he doesn’t get too excited and downplayed the result as usual.
"It was a good test, I'm very pleased with the result, but I think 3-0 was too much," he said.
"The third goal was a fantastic goal but Ireland created some chances, especially Robbie Keane, who was a handful.
"But we created chances in the first half and scored goals and we were in control in the second half."
Ireland’s coach Trapattoni agreed that Australia was the better team however a wry smile at the end when Carney scored may suggest he thought the scoreline flattered the performance.
"This was a lesson - Australia deserved their win, they were the better team. We played better in the second half and we had opportunities to score that we did not take. I would have been happy had we taken just one."
Wilkshire and Jedinak controlled the play in the middle distributing well to Kewell, Cahill and Bresciano. You could have been mistaken for thinking the duo had partnered each other in the heart of Australia’s midfield for years however this was their first time playing the defensive midfield role together.

Without captain Lucas Neill at the back Patrick Kisnorbo took control and looked very comfortable leading the line. He dealt with everything that came his way in the air and almost scored from a corner in the first half forcing Given to make a good save. His partner in the middle Jade North had a shaky start but settled in well and had a terrific second half before going off with an injured cheekbone. Before David Carney scored his bullet in the last minute he was excellent at left back limiting the impact of the dangerous Damien Duff.
Without doubt the heart and soul of this Australian team is Tim Cahill. We used to look to Kewell as the game breaker but now the Everton superstar is most definitely the man to turn to. The most pleasing aspect and most daunting for opposition is he scores goals in quick succession which can turn a game on its head. Against Ireland he broke the deadlock with a cool left foot finish into the bottom corner after some neat play by McDonald. Then six minutes later he was in the right place at the right time (as he always is) when Shay Given parried Rhys Williams fierce shot into Cahill’s lethal direction.
Possibly the best news story of the game was the performance of Rhys Williams at right back. He was solid defensively and was threatening when he bombed forward. The Middlesbrough youngster turned his back on Wales earlier this year after he made 10 appearances for the Wales' Under 21 side and featured in the senior squad on a number of occasions. As he had yet to make a senior appearance the Perth born prodigy was free to turn his back on Wales. Their loss is most definitely Australia’s gain.

With Grella, Neill and possibly Viduka still to fit into this side Australia can certainly start getting excited about what this team could achieve.