MELBOURNE -- Really, the Socceroos couldn't not pay a visit to Melbourne's Federation Square during their recent two-game series against Ecuador, the team's first official return to Australia since they stunned so many by advancing to the round of 16 at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Four months on from the site becoming a smoky, flare-bathed cathedra dedicated to the nation's late-night and early-morning vigils while watching their team in action, coach Graham Arnold and Melburnians Bailey Wright, Aziz Behich, and Jackson Irvine paid their respects on Monday afternoon.
Hackneyed as it may have been, the sight of them looking out across the concrete cavern in Melbourne's heart carried an undeniable level of romance, especially considering the challenges the Australian game has faced since those scenes. Irvine, in particular, had been left nearly speechless when shown the scenes emanating out of his hometown following the Socceroos' win over Tunisia during the World Cup, and he couldn't help but smile and remark upon the scorch marks that were still visible upon his visit on Monday.
"One of the highlights of the whole experience for us was seeing the scenes at home and here in particular for us Melbourne boys," he told reporters.
This, in theory, was what the Socceroos' now-completed two-game series against Ecuador was supposed to be about: a time for celebration and reflection, an opportunity for the Australian footballing public to come out and pay tribute to the achievements of a side that had defied all sense of rhyme and reason in Qatar. A "welcome home" series that was all about the vibes -- that was the theory, but theory and practice are two different things. And from almost the moment the squad was announced, the focus of the series increasingly centred not on the team's past but its future.
It was inevitable, really, that as the likes of Jordy Bos, Aiden O'Neill, Alex Robertson, and Joe Gauci were named in a senior nation-team squad for the first time -- and 17-year-old Nestory Irankunda tapped as a train-on player -- thoughts would whimsically shift towards what might await the team in the years ahead. Especially when combined with the young core of talents such as Connor Metcalfe, Riley McGree, Garang Kuol, Kye Rowles, Cameron Devlin, Keanu Baccus, Denis Genreau, Nathaniel Atkinson, Harry Souttar and more that had been incorporated during the previous cycle.
That's just the nature of low-risk international friendlies being played at this point in the World Cup cycle: a fresh slate presented for all to project their own hopes and dreams onto without the stress of actually having stakes attached to games. Further, while a reality check was decidedly delivered in the second fixture of the two-game series when Ecuador secured a physical 2-1 win, the 3-1 triumph in Sydney days prior only served to add to the excitement.
William Pacho scores on debut!
— Paramount+ Australia (@ParamountPlusAU) March 28, 2023
Ecuador take the lead as @official_rafc centre back gets a goal in his @LaTri debut! 🔥
🇦🇺 #AUSvECU 🇪🇨 is live now on Paramount+ 📺 pic.twitter.com/NdSk4jmTTy
For as shaky as they would appear in the re-match, the Socceroos looked good in that first game. They looked promising and executed their game plan well against a side that had qualified automatically from the crucible that is CONMEBOL qualifying and, as Arnold cheerfully observed, secured a big enough win to unofficially take out the series on aggregate.
Kuol got his first-ever goal in a Socceroos shirt. Souttar again reiterated why he's a future captain of the side. Baccus and O'Neill, with a combined two caps between them, battled admirably against one of the most in-demand players in the world in Moises Caicedo. Manchester City's Robertson came on, showed some flashes, got in some argy-bargy and declared that Australia should be looking to win the World Cup. Putting the defeat for one side briefly, both Bos and Guaci were strong on debut in Melbourne, with the latter lodging a strong application to be considered as Mat Ryan's primary backup in the years ahead.
That so many young players are coming through is undoubtedly a good thing. More talent is always better than less and it gives Australian fans to get excited about the years ahead. However, allowing reality and a bit of cynicism to creep back in and ruin the vibe, this growing surplus also presents challenges to Arnold and his staff, one that speaks to the broader conundrums that they will face as they attempt to build upon the knockout stage foundation that has been established.
To start with, a paradox of plenty accompanying more and more talent staking a claim in the squad does present a challenge to finding the right XI on gameday. Looking at the most recent squad, for instance, Metcalfe, McGree, and Irvine all possess similar skill sets -- excelling at late arrivals into the box, possessing a desire to make runs in behind, and a willingness to whip the ball in.
How does one fit all of them into one side in a manner that both allows them to excel and empowers the collective to function as close to optimally as possible? Within the framework that Arnold likes to operate? The obvious answer is that you can't, which then presents further conundrums surrounding who plays, where they do, and who the other midfielders are around them.
Matters of utilisation have consistently hung over this team throughout Arnold's tenure, even if they were largely overshadowed in broader analysis during the last qualification period by dubious declarations that "the cattle" wasn't there to perform. A must-win qualifier against Japan in a sodden Sydney lost while Metcalfe was misplaced as a deep-lying six and Ajdin Hrustic isolated and frustrated on an island further up the field providing perhaps the clearest example; the Socceroos were decimated by absences in that game, but the deployment of the talent that remained didn't give them much of a chance anyway.
But now, with the accepted wisdom that the cupboard has the potential to veritably overflow, focus should, in theory, only increase on how this bounty of talent is deployed in the coming months - both to execute Arnold's preferred game style but, perhaps more importantly, adapt to the varying opponents and in-game challenges that they are confronted with.
Tuesday night's defeat against the Ecuadorians, for example, saw the Socceroos overrun in the second half as their energy and pressing wore away and the South Americans -- who lifted their standard from the Sydney defeat -- proved more than capable of matching and then surpassing their physicality while simultaneously dictating the game's tempo in position. Arnold said as much in his post-game press conference, describing the "physicality of the game and the speed" as a key lesson for his young group and that "one of the best things was how strong they were and how well they held the ball up when they needed to, and we couldn't manhandle them."
What kind of deployment and approach will allow Australia's men to respond in these situations, to get their foot on the ball and start to create chances of their own when the vim has been taken out of the game and fatigue is denying them their counter-pressing opportunity is a challenge for the months ahead. There are some scenarios that you can't believe or "Aussie DNA" your way out of.
Another challenge, one that likely won't be faced until AFC World Cup qualification starts in November if Football Australia can secure the calibre of opposition it wants to in coming friendlies, will be how the team adjusts to an opposition that is content to sit back in an armoured tortoise of a low block and dare the Socceroos to unlock them.
In the previous cycle, this frequently descended into hit-and-hope cross-spamming and desperately searching for moments where opponents strayed out of their shape for a brief moment and could be hit with a counter-press and transition, with the resulting change in game state after a goal, in theory, easing the pressure and setting the stage for a more open game.
It's not as exciting as declaring that "new golden generation go brr" -- but they are the questions that will determine just how far this group can go.
The next opportunity to observe will come in the next international in June, which Football Australia is hoping to once again stage in Australia. Given the workload that has been hoisted upon many of his key senior contributors at a club and international level across the last year, Arnold will likely call up an experimental squad for that window, one that will probably only add to the bevy of young talent that's future is being met with great excitement.
But it will also allow the Socceroos a first window where "in theory" it's all about the future: to show that a style and approach that can ensure the excitement and undeniable goodwill that exists around this team will continue when the novelty of debuts and memories of Qatar wear away.