Australia v USA: Yanks to be our final test before the real stuff begins.

March 16th, 2010 | by: Luka | Comments (5)

In a strange turn of events, this could actually be the prelude to a more important game in June. If Australia finishes in first place in their group (bear with me on this) and USA finishes second, they will meet in the second round of the World Cup. Or, slightly more probable but overall still highly unlikely, Australia could finish as runners up and meet a USA team fresh from trumping England to finish first in their group. But let’s not get too carried away and concentrate on the matter at hand…

What: The Socceroos’ final warm up game before the World Cup
When: June 5
Who: Socceroos & The U.S. of A.
Why: “Their style of play will allow us to test our players against similar opposition to what we will face at the World Cup.” – Pim Verbeek.

“A match against a quality opponent on South African soil at that point in our preparations will help our readiness for the game against England.” – Bob Bradley.

Without delving into an unnecessary degree of detail and analysis, I’ll say this: How exactly is the USA ’similar opposition to what we will face at the World Cup?’ They are not Germany. They sure as hell don’t have the same technical ability and strength of Serbia (and neither do we in all honesty) while there is zero comparison to be made between them and Ghana. In fact, the USA are very similar to us, the Qantas Socceroos (no I don’t get paid to call them that). They are organised, defensively-inclined and begin matches with the aim of destroying their opponents on the counter attack. Much like us. Bradledy (at least I thought…see further down) favours a tactical shape similar to Pim Verbeek’s – the USA lined up with mostly a 4-2-3-1 in the Confederations Cup until showing their attacking qualities with a 4-4-2 in their 3-0 defeat of Egypt in their final group game.

In fact, let’s take a closer look at the USA’s Confederations Cup campaign, which will be a great gauge for how they will shape up in South Africa. Most of my information is taken from the wonderful Wikipedia and my less than wonderful memory. The USA lined up with a 4-2-3-1 against Italy in their first group game. Two screening midfielders, with three attacking midfielders supporting the big lone marksman Jozy Altidore. In Australia’s case, we usually have Vinnie Grella & Jason Culina doing the screening, with three midfielders supporting either Josh Kennedy or, as it is being touted, Harry Kewell up front. However, the entire strategy varies depending on whether Kennedy or Kewell is up front. With Kennedy, we’d play more long balls as did the US throughout the Confeds Cup, a logical strategy given the strength, pace yet ‘good touch for a big man’ of Altidore.

USA lost 3-1 to Italy and then 3-0 to Brazil with the exact same set up. However, all went out the window when the USA beat Egypt 3-0 in their final group game and then (after somehow advancing with only 3 points) shocked the world with a 2-0 win over Spain. So what happened? Well, the USA switched to a traditional 4-4-2 with two dedicated strikers (Altidore and Davies) which is, per se, a more attacking formation. I’d go so far as to say (experts on the USMNT feel free to correct me on this) that Bradley now favours the 4-4-2 with two dedicated strikers given this is how they lined up away to Netherlands recently. When you think about it, we achieved similar results in the 2006 World Cup playing a more attacking style under Hiddink. This is what made Australia such a likable team – that we took the game to our opponents rather than sitting back with 10 men behind the ball hoping to get something off the counter (*cough* Pim Verbeek *cough*). If anything, we will learn more about how we play rather than how our opponents will play against us from this friendly.

We have played the USA twice before, in 1992 and 1998. Neither game was anything to write home about really, with 1998 in particular being one of the most depressing years in Australian football (it was the year following the Iran debacle).