Analysis: Socceroos soar in Sydney to secure Russia 2018 spot
Sydney: Australia booked their place at the FIFA World Cup 2018 Russia with an emphatic win over Honduras at Stadium Australia on Wednesday night.
Ange Postecoglou made four changes to the side that earned a 0-0 draw in the first leg and was rewarded with another dominant display from his team as Honduras had no answer for Australia’s aggressive game plan.
Terrific Tom
Celtic midfielder Tom Rogic produced one of his best performances in the green and gold to help steer his nation to the FIFA World Cup.
Rogic was one of four changes Postecoglou made to the side after starting on the bench on San Pedro Sula.
While his stats may not look anything special on paper, with just 24 passes at an accuracy of 75 percent, it was the work he did with the ball at his feet and with a packed Honduran defence in front of him that made his performance so important.
As you can see by his heat map above, he worked almost exclusively in his own half trying to find pockets of space between the Honduran midfield and defence.
Time and again his ability to play himself out of a tight pocket of space opened the game up and allowed him to play in the likes of Aaron Mooy or Aziz Behich to carry on the Australian attack.
Marvellous Mile
Mile Jedinak is the rock on which this Socceroos team is built, and Postecoglou lauded his performance and importance to this team after the match.
Deployed as the lone holding midfielder, you can see by the average positions below he was stationed just in front of the back three, and at times would even drop back in to make it a back four when Australia had possession to protect Australia from the threat of a fast counter attack.
This allowed Australia’s other central midfielders in Mark Milligan (#5) and Aaron Mooy (#13) to play in far more advanced positions.
This meant with the full-backs surging, Australia at times had six players in the forward half looking to press Honduras and take the game to the Central Americans.
Brilliant Behich
The left full-back position has been a problem position for Australia for a while now, but after the last two matches Aziz Behich has stamped himself as Australia’s leading man for the job.
The Turkish-based defender linked up well with Aaron Mooy, who played on the left-side of an advanced midfield position, and given he spent most of his time in Australia’s forward half, only tracking back on the rare occasions that Honduras got forward, he was more a left-winger than a left full-back, which is exactly how Ange Postecoglou wants his team to play.
His heat map above shows he didn’t stray from the left hand touchline, and while he didn’t get in behind the Honduran defence as much as he did in the first leg, he was still able to create dangerous opportunities for Australia and win free-kicks in crucial positions.
Photo: Lagardère Sports
Source: the-afc.com
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