Match Report - India vs Australia, AFC Asian Cup 2011
For some strange reason, my cable operator decided to telecast the game from the second half only. Hence analysis of the same will have to suffice.
India took the field with a 4-4-2, Sunil Chhetri and Mohammed Rafi upfront. Houghton had clearly instructed his forwards to stay upfield with no tracking back duties. Ambitious, but probably ill-advised. The midfield worked hard at closing down space in the middle of the field – the wingers trucked in, probably a tad too much; thus leaving enormous space down the sides – which was exploited time and time again by the opposition. The rightback Sukumar Singh in particular had a tough half, his cause not particularly aided by right midfielder Stephen Dias being practically a spectator to wave after wave of Australian attacks down their left. However, credit must go to the defence who were well organized and efficient at closing down space on the edge of the box, and surprisingly good in the air – the height and strength advantage of the Australians counted for little as time after time, crosses into the box were cleared expertly by the impressive centre-back pairing. The Indians held a good backline on most occasions, the offside trap worked well – the high line saw Australians flagged offside 10 times during the match. Special mention goes to Subrata Paul who was agile, energetic and seems to possess great instincts. A lesser goalkeeper than him would have seen India concede more.
As you would expect in such a David vs Goliath encounter, the much higher ranked team dominated possession and chances. The lone second half goal came from a set piece. A freekick just outside the box was nodded home by Tim Cahill – adding to his already long list of headed goals. Zonal marking on set pieces is never a good idea, an India paid the price for this naïve tactic. Defenders were caught ball watching instead of keeping their eye on a marker and Cahill reaped the benefits with a free header.
On the few occasions that India had the ball though, their technical (in)ability let them down. Players were happy just to hoof it upfield in hope for Chhetri to latch on to it. Not much thought was given to trying to pass the ball. Stephen Dias in particular struck me as being rather poor. ON a couple of occasions he was given time and space to run with the ball, yet he chose to cross from deep positions. The crosses themselves were quite shoddy and cleared without any problems whatsoever. The tireless Chhetri was almost rewarded for his efforts late on when another such long ball caught out the Australian defence and he found himself one on one with goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, but the retreating centre back did just enough to put Chhetri off from taking the shot – the ball just wouldn’t sit up for him to have a strike – and it eventually landed in the keeper’s arms.
On paper it was a crowd pleasing, adventurous formation that waited for any counter attacking opportunity to try and nick a goal. Yet Houghton would have been better served in asking one of his forwards to plug into midfield when out of possession. A sturdy defence, hard working midfield and the nimble Paul tried their best, but were on the day unable to keep out the professional if unsystematic Australian team. Some credit must go to India though – beaten well, but not embarrassed.
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