*Stats and the midfield.
O'Neill - I've added Intercepts and Turnovers in stats. The difference between O'Neill and the less experienced Balard, Teague and Yazbek, is he is making more Intercepts, Blocks and forcing Turnovers from strategic positioning and good reading of play. O'N has had more experience.
Haven't tallied O'N's individual 1v1 stats in the half of game 1 in Canberra yet, but he had a 1v1 tally of winning 7 and losing 1 in Auckland Ashes game 2. This is outstanding!
He also made 3 intercepts and caused 1 Turnover.
He made 2 excellent first touches under time and space pressure.
O'Neill was fortunate he didn't play in the first 45 mins against the Kiwis in Ashes game 1 in Canberra when they Squeezed most intensively, giving Aus little time and space on the ball. It was a real battle for the inexperienced Yazbek and Teague.
As I've said before, O'N has very good body position when he 2 touch passes and moves -on both side of the body. He receives left foot, passes right - or - receives right foot passes left, with equal proficiency.
Players passing to him don't have to worry about playing to a favourite foot. Balard is more right foot dominant, and Teague is more left foot dominant. O'Neill is probably playing the Mooy role, but is more agile off the ball.
In the 1v1 duels O'Neill won, he won 3 Tackles, 2 body on body duels and 2 heading duel contests. The 1 unique 1v1 he lost was when he was dribbled around.
Balard
Seemed to work well with O'N screening the defence in the Popa game plan.
1v1s - had 7 duels.
H e won 4 - all Tackles. Reads when to make tackles and executes them well.
He lost 2 unique 1v1 duels, being outmuscled on 1 and dribbled around in another.
Another 1v1 duel had no victor.
He also made 1 assist for a long range pass to Iran in space, who beat 2 defenders to score a brilliant goal!
Balard also made 3 excellent first touches under pressure and Blocked 2 balls.
In terms of technique on the ball, in pass and move sequences Balard works well in tight spaces, plus has vision where he can execute long passes to players showing for the ball in more advanced positions in space.
Teague's best game to date was against China. Balard still has not clocked up 90 mins yet, but is a year older than Yazbek and Teague, and is ostensibly playing plenty of minutes in the Eredivisie.
Popa must have thought Yazbek and Teague were better on the training track, but I think Balard is shading them on the pitch in Socceroo performances to date.
I also have minute detail in thinking Balard's non preferred left foot, is better than Teague's non-preferred right foot on the ball. Teague may be better in 1v1 heading duels though.
Weirdly, Balard didn't contest any heading duels against the Kiwis in Auckland. Keeper 66 and Grazor may have also identified a slight weakness in Teague, that he sometimes loses his marker. Whether this is an individual trait, or Popa wants them marking zonally, I'm not sure?
The composure for Balard's 1st Roo goal in Canberra, executing a perfect pivot turn and shot, was outstanding too.
*Popa game plans
Also, in Popa 3-4-3, 5-2-3, 5-4-1 formation, the 2 central midfielders tend to play very close to the defensive line at all times in Ball Possession Opposition. It advantages the central free CB, usually Deg, to have a bit of unpressured ball in Possession, sacrificing the DMs being a person short in midfield with no AM or number ten.
This small distance between the midfield and defensive lines, makes it very difficult for opponents to penetrate the Socceroos defence.
However, I'm frustrated, because if teams Full Press us and Squeeze intensively, too much of the game is played in the Aus defensive half.
The advantage of this is there is often space conceded by the opposition, between the midfield line and their defensive line, if we turn the ball over and launch accelerated attacks. The Kiwi defensive shape was out of position more than Aus's was.
Against Bahrain and many of the teams in the previous WCQ round, teams Partial Pressed/Deep Defensive Blocked, constantly to maintain defensive shape, but we struggled to penetrate their compact defensive shape whilst having a lot of ball.
A lot of our athletic players who are good off the ball, aren't as good a technicians as the likes of Arzani, Hrustic, Iran, Tilio, Nisbet, Segecic, et al, at passing and moving in tight paces in attacking interplay or dribbling through these tight, compact defences. We didn't have enough of these players in Arnie's teams to break down these defences who left little space to exploit.
Another useful technical midfield general type, would be Jordi Valadon. JV and Rhys Bozinovski, dominated central midfield for the Young Socceroos in Asian games. Add Okon Jr and these guys are just the technicians a team wants on the ball, if Aus is dominant playing against deep defensive blocks.
