‘Fortress Australia’ breached as Socceroos miss out on direct qualification to Qatar

A World Cup campaign that began with so much promise is ending in a whimper after the Socceroos missed out on automatic qualification to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, suffering a 2-0 loss to Japan to pit them on the path of the intercontinental play-offs.

At a stadium that has delivered the national team its greatest nights of the past two decades, “Fortress Australia” became the site of the fitting, miserable finale that has been this group stage of the Socceroos.

Socceroo Trent Sainsbury remonstrates with referee Nawaf Abdullah Shukrallah during Australia’s loss to Japan in Sydney.Credit: Getty Images

There was no sell-out crowd at Homebush on Thursday night to spur on a Socceroos side depleted of 10 players through injury and COVID. The 41,000 that were there were anything but raucous. And, on a wet, miserable night, Australia’s incredible home qualifying record came to a crumbling end, suffering their first home defeat in 14 years.

“We played against a very good team in Japan. Obviously disappointing that we didn’t get the result that we all wanted but I can’t fault the players’ effort, the effort was fantastic tonight,” Arnold said.

That the Socceroos were robbed of a first-half goal by a trigger-happy referee made it all the more frustrating. However, that decision is now just a moot point at discussions in pubs and cafes. The hard truth was the Socceroos only avoided copping a hiding due to Japan’s EPL star Takumi Minamino enduring a bad day in front of goal.

The Liverpool star hit the post twice, spurned several other clear-cut chances before his replacement, Kaoru Mitoma, scored two goals in the last two minutes to consign the Socceroos to a third-place finish in the group.

A second-string Socceroos’ squad thought they had snared the opener when Miko Yamane headed into his own net from a corner before referee Nawaf Shukralla to call a foul. Replays found no such foul. The VAR stayed silent. The crowd yelled their discontent as the Socceroos’ bench were equally cantankerous. After the match, Arnold was cooler in his criticism of the decision.

“It was probably 50-50, probably could have gone our way but at the end of the day we haven’t seemed to get many of those type of decisions in this campaign,” he said.

From then, it was the Minamino show. The forward came close to scoring with a clever shot inside the box before hitting the post with two headers, one of which bounced on the line and out to safety.

Australia’s Mitch Duke should have broken the deadlock minutes before the break but wasted a free header. The Socceroos emerged brightest after the restart and Ajdin Hrustic came close to breaking the deadlock with two long range attempts; a free-kick from 25 metres and then a curling shot from outside the box. It proved to be Australia’s last chance of the game.

Japan’s Kaoru Mitoma moves past Australia’s James Jeggo to score a goal.Credit: AP

Minamino missed another chance inside the box, side-footing straight at Ryan. Even with Ryan out of the way, Minamino couldn’t find the back of the net. His shot towards an empty net in the 80th minute was blocked by Trent Sainsbury en-route to goal.

In the end, it was Minamino’s replacement who sealed Australia’s fate. Substitute Mitoma turned Yamane’s cross into the far corner with a calm, deft finish, oozing the composure the travelling fans couldn’t replicate with their celebrations. Mitoma killed off any chance of a late Socceroos’ fight back, skipping past three defenders to fire a powerful shot that slipped through Ryan’s grasp into the bottom corner.

Those goals consigned the Socceroos to third in their group despite having a game in hand, pitting them against either UAE, Lebanon, Syria in the play-off before a potential match against South America’s fifth-placed team.

JAPAN 2 (Mitoma 2) defeated AUSTRALIA 0 at Accor Stadium.

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