Socceroos v Norway: Bert van Marwijk learns valuable lessons in defeat as Colombia looms large
A COMPOSED Bert van Marwijk lamented the Socceroos’ leaky defence after his debut ended in a 4-1 drubbing from Norway, saying ‘we are not ready yet - but I already knew that before.’
Football
Don't miss out on the headlines from Football. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A COMPOSED Bert van Marwijk lamented the Socceroos’ leaky defence after his “educational” debut ended in a 4-1 drubbing from Norway.
FALLING FLAT: Socceroos hammered by Norway
Hull City midfielder Jackson Irvine headed Australia into the lead before a series of individual and collective lapses opened the door for a comeback with LA Galaxy striker Ola Kamara bagging a hat-trick.
Van Marwijk made six substitutions while handing out debuts to Andrew Nabbout, Dimi Petratos and Alex Susnjar but the Socceroos lost control of the contest during an error-ridden midway point.
The experienced Dutchman cut a relaxed albeit disappointed figure in the post-match press conference, and was content fielding questions despite the heavy first-up loss.
“I learnt a lot from this game. That we are not ready yet - I already knew that before,’’ van Marwijk said.
“But it’s good also when you lose – and we deserved to lose 4-1 – that you see the players under these circumstances.
“About the game, we made too many mistakes, especially defending.
“You can see that we have problems in the defence, yeah.
“I have a lot of information about this team and also about the defensive qualities. Of course we have two important players who trained this week for the first time and still couldn’t play – (Matt) Jurman and (Trent) Sainsbury.”
Captain Mile Jedinak was disappointed with his own performance and said that he didn’t lead from the front.
Jedinak lasted an hour, taken off moments after Norway scored their third when Mat Ryan’s errant pass – meant for Jedinak – was cut off and played to Ola Kamara for his second.
“I didn’t lead them enough I don’t think and I think we conceded a few soft goals from what we’ve been taught, and even what we’ve been coached this week,’’ Jedinak said.
“It’s just disappointing. We wanted to start on a positive note. We did that, in the game, but from there didn’t do what was required of us.
“It’s a shame it’s panned out the way it did. We know ourselves, I know myself, we can do better.
“We know we’ve got a bit to go (in this camp) and there will be more games to come. For us, it’s about analysing what happened here and how we’re going to rectify that going forward.”
Van Marwijk said the Socceroos needed to take the ascendancy after Irvine put them ahead on 19 minutes after a pinpoint Aaron Mooy corner.
“When you lead 1-0 and you see the opponent, normally we (had) an man extra in midfield. And you lead 1-0, then you must have the control, especially in midfield,’’ he said.
“We couldn’t do that. We lost the ball too easy and too much in that area.
“You saw part in the second half that we had control in midfield, that was wrong in the first half. The goals against us may not happen (if we had control).”
The Socceroos arrive in London on Sunday morning (EDT) ahead of Wednesday morning’s (AEDT) clash against Colombia at Craven Cottage.
Originally published as Socceroos v Norway: Bert van Marwijk learns valuable lessons in defeat as Colombia looms large