Netherlands 1 – 2 Australia

Well, I almost didn’t believe it, but here we are. We beat the Dutch for the first time in our history.

Australia lined up for this game in what looks like a 4-3-2-1 formation, something like this:

- – - – - – Schwarzer – - – - – - – -
Wilkshire – Neill – Coyne – Carney
- – -Emerton – Valeri – Culina – -
- – - – Holman – Kewell – - – - – -
- – - – - – Kennedy – - – - – - – - -

Which isn’t exactly what I was hoping for, but isn’t the worst option in the book either. Holman started, but I don’t mind; this was only a warmup friendly. And besides, from the sounds of it, he didn’t play too badly.

The Socceroos went down 1-0 in as little as six minutes when a touchline cross from Ryan Babel came short, fooling the defenders, and Huntelaar arrived at it first and finished neatly. For the rest of the first half, play alternated each way with the pick of the chances probably being a shot by Holman tipped over by Stekelenburg following a headed flick-on by Kewell.

Finally though, in the closing minutes of the first half, Stekelenburg took a goal kick short to Heitinga (at right-back) who then made a terrible backpass in return. Stekelenburg charged at it and slid in an effort either to reach it or to prevent Kennedy from doing so; at any rate, Kennedy was bundled down just inside the box, and the Dutch keeper was the last man and was given a red card. Australia were given a penalty, and Kewell slotted it coolly down the middle for 1-1.

Obviously Pim hadn’t forgotten we have to play Uzbekistan in just a couple of days, because after the break Kewell and Emerton were replaced by Bresciano and Sterjovski. Australia had a few chances over the next few minutes but it wasn’t until after the next set of substitutions, when Coyne left the pitch for Beauchamp and Holman stepped out for Djite, that the real excitement occurred. A ball over the top found Djite, who held up the ball well before putting in a dubious cross, which was poorly cleared. The ball was then sent on to Wilkshire, whose excellent cross picked out Kennedy. An excellent flick header into the bottom corner, and we led 2-1.

Interestingly, Pim then took Kennedy off for Richard Garcia while Jacob Burns came on for Culina. Australia were forced to hold on for the last ten minutes, but they did so well, to give us an excellent 2-1 victory in a match I’d been expecting to be a fairly uninteresting draw.

It’s exactly the form we want to see, and it will be interesting to see what squad Pim picks for Uzbekistan; leaving Kennedy on until the 77th minute doesn’t really sound like he’s resting him, so maybe we’re in for something different. Or maybe not; we’ll see. It sounds like Djite was impressive; I wonder if a bold move could see him up front for once.

I can dream, anyway. A video follows. Any thoughts on this match or the next one?