Australia have now played three games on the road to the 2026 Fifa World Cup. They have emerged triumphant in all three games and after their 2-0 win over Lebanon, they already have one foot in the third round of Asian World Cup qualifying. But the victory over the Cedars in Sydney’s west has extracted a significant price on Graham Arnold’s side.
Riley McGree and Jordy Bos limped from the CommBank Stadium surface before the half-time whistle on Thursday, throwing into doubt their availability for Tuesday’s return fixture against Lebanon in Canberra and also their status for club sides Middlesbrough and KVC Westerlo. Two of the side’s key gamechangers and creative outlets, their absence prevented any attempts to uplift what was a largely nondescript Socceroos win.
“I’d say both are out,” Arnold said. “Both [were] late arrivals. I think they arrived at 1am Wednesday morning. It was tough to take for them.”
Keanu Baccus’ fifth-minute opener, while spectacular, appeared more accidental than divine, arriving when he forced a turnover and sent in a cross-cum-shot that drifted away from his teammates but, kissed by fortune, sailed over the head of keeper Mostafa Matar for his first senior international goal. Kye Rowles’ 54th-minute sealer, meanwhile, came from the second phase of an Ajdin Hrustić corner wherein the ball ricocheted off Walid Shour, Cameron Burgess and Shour again before landing at the feet of the makeshift left-back to send in off the post.
For much of the game, it was a familiar story of Socceroo sides faced the task of taking the game on as its ball-dominant protagonist. Across the opening 45 minutes, they had 69% of the ball but struggled to create quality chances. Their best chance, fittingly enough, came from another inadvertent moment of creativity: a crunching tackle from Harry Souttar turning into an almost perfect through ball for Adam Taggart only for the striker, indicative of his 67 minutes on the park, unable to control the resulting opportunity.
The best open-play chance of the second half fell to the visitors in the 82nd minute when Burgess’ attempt to recover his failed attempt to wrangle a pass from Souttar opened a cavern of space for Daniel Kuri and Mohamad Haidar to advance into before the former, having stolen the ball off the towering centre-back, crashed an effort off Maty Ryan’s post. The host’s best foray forward had been delivered by Jackson Irvine when he ran on to a ball slid into the box by Kusini Yengi before having his attempt blocked away by a desperate Cedar block, leading to the corner that produced Rowles’ first Socceroo goal.
“It was a good performance, but we can do better and we must do better,” said Arnold. “The only time [Lebanon got looks on goal] towards the back end of the game was just sloppiness from us. And we’ve got to do better than that.”
Indeed, the song remained largely the same for the Socceroos. At this stage, it’s not surprising. It’s angst that will continue to spur contention and debate. New, however, were the injury concerns. Indeed, on the subject of songs, while Football Australia has taken to playing Metallica’s Enter Sandman after the national anthemsperhaps For Whom The Bell Tolls would have been more appropriate given what was to come on Thursday.
Coming into the game having found some form at the Riverside Stadium, McGree was forced from in just the 16th minute with a foot injury. There was no word on the severity of the ailment at full-time, just that it had occurred, apparently without contact, to the same foot that had ruled him out for two months earlier in the season.
Having played a club game on Monday, Bos didn’t start but replaced the 25-year-old McGree only to last 26 minutes himself before limping off in the 42nd, having struggled to run off what looked to be a jarring his knee in clash with defender Nassar Nassar.
Both had been tasked with running the left-hand side of the pitch by Arnold before their premature withdrawals, with focus inevitably being cast upon the playing surface – just a day after Arnold had resumed his position at the bully pulpit to decry that lack of elite facilities afforded to his players when they returned to Australia. There was no comment on whether it contributed to the troubles, but Arnold said it wasn’t ideal: “it wasn’t an easy surface to play for the boys.”
