By Emma Kemp
The Socceroos have declared they win as a team and lose as a team as they spent the aftermath of their Asian Cup quarter-final loss to South Korea supporting Lewis Miller, after a devastating night for the defender.
Australia were leading 1-0 deep into stoppage time in Qatar on Saturday morning (AEDT) and appeared on the brink of a semi-final date with Jordan, only to relinquish the lead and then lose 2-1 in extra-time.
Hwang Hee-chan is brought down by Lewis Miller. Son Heung-min scored the winner from the resulting free-kick.Credit: Getty
Miller, who came off the bench in the 73rd minute, was lively but conceded the penalty and the free-kick that led to both of South Korea’s goals at Al Janoub Stadium.
The first came in the 96th minute, when the 23-year-old Hibernian fullback made a needlessly late tackle as Son Heung-min stormed into the box, paving the way for Hwang Hee-chan to convert the ensuing penalty and send the game to extra-time. Then, in the 104th minute, he brought down Hwang on the edge of the area and Son scored via the subsequent free-kick.
It was an awful set of circumstances for Miller, and not dissimilar to the undercooked Milos Degenek back pass in the 2019 quarter-final that directly led to the United Arab Emirates’ 1-0 win. Back then, teammates said: “It’s not even close to an individual thing”. This time, the players got around Miller in similar fashion.
“We win as a team, we lose as a team,” said fellow defender Harry Souttar. “We’ve got to learn from it. Everybody makes mistakes. I’ve made mistakes in games ... everyone makes mistakes and that’s one of them.
The Socceroos come to terms with another heart-breaking defeat.Credit: Getty
“We’re not going to sit and criticise him and point him out because we can’t let it get to that moment. Can we defend it better when he [Son] comes inside first and foremost? For me personally, probably.”
Coach Graham Arnold echoed the sentiment.
“I put my arm around him and gave him a hug and told him that these things are lessons in life, and you learn from these types of things and move forward,” Arnold said. “These boys will be on the plane in the next five or six hours to get back to their clubs, and he’s got to get back to his club. Obviously, it’s a different environment to here, and he’ll be fine.”
Craig Goodwin, who scored Australia’s 42nd-minute goal, described it as “a learning curve”. “He was unlucky to give away that penalty because it was one I thought could have gone the other way,” Goodwin said. “We were one minute away from going through. We had chances to put the game away in the second half a few times. We should have scored the second goal.”
Lewis Miller stands dejected following defeat.Credit: Getty
It would have been a wonderful night for Goodwin, who does so enjoy Al Janoub Stadium. It was here little more than a year ago that he scored against then World Cup defending champions France, his accomplished finish into the roof of Hugo Lloris’ net putting the Socceroos up 1-0 for 18 glorious minutes before reality bit and they lost 4-1.
Now, back at the same venue, the winger once again opened the scoring for the Socceroos, waiting an age for a Nathaniel Atkinson cross to drop and then ripping a volley past South Korea’s goalkeeper, Jo Hyeon-woo.
Australia, for the duration of the second half, had so resiliently defended their penalty area. They had so diligently quieted Son. Except that South Korea have a habit of scoring late. They had come from behind in their last three games at this tournament.
And of course it had to be Son. The talisman who equalised against Ange Postecoglou’s Socceroos in injury time of the 2015 Asian Cup final and forced James Troisi to win his team the trophy in extra-time at Stadium Australia. The creative conductor who, at the time of this rematch some nine years later, now plays for Postecoglou’s Tottenham and has sent Graham Arnold’s side packing at the last-eight stage for a second successive time. Who was a peripheral figure in the game until the 96th minute, when he won the penalty then scored the extra-time winner himself.
Aiden O’Neill sees red in extra-time.Credit: AP
It was a magnificent free-kick that dipped and bent away from an otherwise flawless Mat Ryan in the 104th minute, a cruel blow to a Socceroos side which had delivered the strongest performance of their campaign in Qatar and would have skipped into a semi-final against Jordan – a team they have beaten the past three times of asking.
By the time Aiden O’Neill was sent off at the end of the first half of extra-time for a crunching challenge on Hwang, Jurgen Klinsmann’s South Korea had their tails up and were showing no signs of fatigue following Tuesday’s extra-time foray against the Saudis. Australia, conversely, had enjoyed an additional two days’ rest, having defeated Indonesia in the round of 16 on Sunday.
But still they found themselves chasing a game for the first time at this tournament, and facing another post-mortem to match the heartbreak.
“We were up 1-0,” Arnold said. “We had chances [for] 2-0, 3-0. That gets down to the individual to put the ball in the back of the net. If you don’t take those chances, you get punished – and that’s exactly what happened.”
South Korea’s Hwang Hee-chan fires home the penalty.Credit: AP
The irony was that Australia lost this match admirably, having won and drawn their previous fixtures despite a lack of attacking creativity. In the first half, South Korea had 70 per cent possession yet finished the opening stanza without a single shot on goal, while the Socceroos dared their star-studded opponents to open up and then hit them on transition.
The Socceroos could – should – have doubled their lead not long before the hour when a triple chance went begging. Goodwin picked out an unmarked Boyle at the far post and the latter cracked a header straight at Jo Hyeon-woo who, in his scramble to repel it, pinged the ball straight back at the winger. Boyle took a second stab which was also blocked before Duke, at a tricky height but with an open goal beckoning, skied his shot.
In extra-time, Ryan was superb, making a critical save to deny Son as South Korea bore down on goal and continued to suffocate the Socceroos, who were so close and then so very far. Once O’Neill’s initial yellow card was upgraded to a straight red following a VAR referral, Australia finally lost their legs.
“Individually, their players play in top leagues around Europe with a very fast tempo, and they can keep that up,” Arnold said. “They play a lot of football – whether it’s Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur or Wolverhampton Wanderers – against top-level players. That’s why I think they can run the legs off teams, and then they punish at the end.”
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