Australia players celebrate their victory over Denmark. Photo / AP
Michael Burgess runs through five takeaways from today’s World Cup action.
Socceroos miracle
In time, it will go down as the Socceroos miracle.
They were the width of a goal post from not being in Doha — now they are in the second round of the World Cup.
Australia suffered in qualifying, only winning four of 10 matches in the final round, losing to Japan (home and away) and Vietnam. They scraped into third place in their group — one point ahead of Oman — before edging past the United Arab Emirates 2-1 to progress to the intercontinental playoff with Peru.
Hopes were not high.
There were only a handful of media in Doha for that match — including a single print journalist. “Back home there is not a lot of confidence,” he told me. “They didn’t want to fork out for this trip.”
On a warm night, in front of thousands of Peruivan fans, the Socceroos were the better side, though Peru hit the post in extra time.
Australia looked doomed when they missed the first penalty in the shootout — but everything turned when Peru’s Luis Advincila struck the post, before substitute goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne sealed their passage when he saved Alex Valera’s effort.
Once in Qatar, Australia managed another amazing turnaround.
The opening 4-1 loss to France was not just demoralising but damaging to their goal difference, as the lowest ranked team in Group D looked headed for an early exit.
But somehow, they managed consecutive 1-0 victories over Tunisia and Denmark, the first time Australia has won two World Cup games in a row and kept successive clean sheets.
Graham Arnold vindicated
According to most Aussie scribes — and the vast Twitter majority — Socceroos coach Arnold was a dead man walking, just six months ago, after a lacklustre qualifying campaign.
There was even speculation he could be replaced before the intercontinental playoff, such was the disenchantment across the Tasman.
But Arnold ignored the noise and built an incredible belief within the squad, culminating in Thursday’s remarkable 1-0 win over world No 10 Denmark, where Australia (39) were restricted to 28 per cent possession and had few clear chances.
“I could see it in their eyes they were ready tonight,” said Arnold after the match.
The coach came up with one of the great lines when asked about how they would mark the momentous victory.
“No celebration,” said Arnold. “As I said to the boys — that’s why we won [today], after a great win over Tunisia. No celebrations, no emotion,no sleep, no social media.”
Polish poker
If you are ever lining up for some high stakes at the casino, Polish coach Czeslaw Michniewicz would be a good ally at your table.
Michniewicz displayed remarkable nerve in Wednesday’s clash with Argentina, committing to his strategy even when he was holding few aces.
Poland opted for a defensive approach, knowing a draw — or even a close loss — would be enough, unless Mexico went nuts in the other game against Saudi Arabia, given Poland’s goal difference was four goals superior.
But that plan began to unravel, as Mexico, after not finding the net across their first two games, scored twice within six minutes against Saudi Arabia early in the second half.
When Argentina got their second in the 67th minute, Poland’s goal difference advantage was gone.
The European side were still ahead of Mexico — having incurred less yellow cards (the sixth possible tiebreaker) but were vulnerable, knowing another goal by either of the Latin teams would spell doom.
If that wasn’t enough, Michniewicz also had the weight of history, as the last time Poland reached the knockout stages was in 1986, when Ronald Reagan was in the White House and Mikhail Gorbachev was his Soviet counterpart.
So what to do? Pushing for a goal could offer insurance — in case Mexico scored another — but also leave them more open to another Argentinean strike.
But if they sat back and soaked up pressure, time would be against them if the Mexico found the net again.
It was the ultimate dilemma but Michniewicz held his nerve, backed his players to keep Argentina out (the South Americans went close) and crossed his fingers that Saudi Arabia’s desperation would pay dividends in the other match.
Refereeing history
French whistler Stephanie Frappart will make history on Thursday, becoming the first female to referee a match at the Fifa World Cup.
Frappart, who was in charge of the 2019 Women’s World Cup final, will oversee Germany’s clash with Costa Rica (8am).
Making the occasion more special, Frappart will be joined by female assistants Neuza Black (Brazil) and Karen Diaz (Mexico)
Danish innovation
Every World Cup brings fancy new technology, analysis and tactics but Denmark went back to basics to try and turn Wednesday’s game against Australia.
As they made two changes around the 70th minute mark, the substitutes entered the field with handwritten notes on small pieces of paper, which were then passed to several key players on the pitch.