Recent form favours Socceroos

Press, 12 October 1988, Page 68

Recent form favours Socceroos

PA Dunedin New Zealand’s All Whites come out of hibernation today to face an Australian Socceroo side which is running hot after recent major successes.

When the New Zealand coach, Kevin Fallon’s, players run out on to the Caledonian Ground at 2.45 p.m., it will be their first match for two months, and to have any chance against the battle-hard-ened Australians the All Whites will have to find instant form. Soccer across the Tasman is at an all-time high after achieving excellent results against top South American and European soccer nations. Beating Argentina, 4-1, in front of nearly 20,000 spectators in Sydney during the Bicentennial Gold Cup earned the Socceroos a place in the final of the SUSIOO,OOO competition. Brazil won the final 2-0 in front of an even bigger crowd of more than 28,000, but after the match, the Brazilian coach, Carlos Alberto Silva, praised Australia’s play. Even greater plaudits were earned after Australia beat Yugoslavia 1-0, despite the skipper, Charlie Yankos, missing a second half penalty. For the Yugoslav-born Australian coach, Frank Arok, it was doubly sweet, and he rated his side’s first win over a major European nation as “the greatest moment in Australian soccer history.” Now with the World Cup preliminaries looming, Mr Arok has been offered a new four-year contract by the Australian Soccer Federation and expects to sign soon, pending his involvement in further reorganisations of the game’s framework.

The contract will allow Mr Arok to continue his refinement of the Socceroos’ international play,

which he still says lacks the consistency of top class results that Australia needs before it can be rated as a top soccer nation. “In the Olympic tournament I watched Zambia beat Italy 4-nil, and they looked the best team in the world.” Mr Arok said. “Unfortunately, I later saw West Germany beat the Zambians 4-0 and they were only a shadow of the team that had looked so good earlier.” So consistency is Mr Arok’s aim, backed up by a sophisticated pattern of play which he claims explores more alternatives than the staid British system. Australian depth of talent will be called upon, since top players such as Frank Farina, David Mitchell and Vlado Bozinoski are in Europe, and John Kosmina and Robbie Dunn have retired. Another former Socceroo returning to international play is Gary McDowall, dubbed by many as “the enforcer” after his stomping on the Israeli goalkeeper’s head in the nil-all brawl in Christchurch, where two players were sent off and six booked. McDowall has not been selected since by Mr Arok for international duty, but has now “served his time,” according to the Australian coach, The All Whites’ task today is to change that smell of mothballs to one of success, by rising to the occasion after a long layoff from international competition. Ruefully, the coach, Kevin Fallon, said: “The longer I have them the better they get, and they

look much sharper today than they did in our other session yesterday.” For a change, the New Zealanders might have pace to match the Socceroos, and Mr Fallon hopes this will create more options, especially in attack. “My hardest job will be to pick the team,” Mr Fallon said. In keeping with his usual pattern he will announce it only just before kick-off. There are certainly many variations available to discuss, but the main area of concern seems to be the left fullback slot, which has not been comfortably filled since Kenny Cresswell retired. However, Mr Fallon said: “We have the players to do the job. Both Malcolm Dunford and Danny Halligan are naturally left-sided players.” Another question mark could be whether the regular goalkeeper, Clint Gosling, gets the nod ahead of Alan Stroud. While Gosling has had a lay-off recently, Stroud has been a regular in Christchurch United’s league championship-win-ning side. The New Zealand squad is: Clint Gosling, Alan Stroud, Malcolm Dunford (captain), Ricki Herbert, Gary Lund, Richard Mulligan, Michael McGarry, Robert Ironside, Tony Ferris, Chris Riley, Declan Edge, Danny Halligan, Darren McClennan, Billy Wright, John Hanson, and Fred De Jong. Australia: Jeff Olver, Mike Gibson, Alan Davidson, Graham Jennings, Charlie Yankos, Gary Van Egmond, Garry McDowall, Paul Wade, Michael Petersen, Graham Arnold, Oscar Crino, Scott Ollerenshaw, Alex Tobin, Andrew Kocaka, Warren Spink, Angie Postecoglou.'