Socceroos boss Ange Postecoglou has leapt to the defence of goalkeeper Adam Federici after the gloveman’s positioning in Tuesday night’s friendly against Greece was called into question.
The visiting Ethniki rapt up match two of the Dodoni Series with a 2-1 win thanks to Petros Mantalos’ opener as well as Ioannis Maniatis’ long-range stunner, with both goals coming before half time. The latter effort stole the headlines and surprised almost everyone, no one more so than Federici.
The Bournemouth shot-stopper took on the added role of sweeper, often pushing well outside his natural habitat in goal to provide an extra number across the back as well as clear the lines.
However, Maniatis’ strike eventually caught him out, launched from his own half of the pitch. Well up the field, Federici could only watch helplessly as the ball sailed over his head and across the line, with Greece going 2-0 up; in the end, a match-winning strike.
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It did not take long for Federici’s positioning to be called into question, yet the manager insisted the 31-year-old was simply doing what was asked of him, taking the wrap for the blunder himself.
“It wasn’t a horrible mistake … Fedders (Federici) was doing what he was supposed to be doing, that’s not his responsibility, that’s my responsibility because that’s how we want our goalkeeper to play,” Postecoglou said.
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“Every now and then that will happen to us, I’m prepared to accept that and in the longer term I think it sets us up for the team we want to be. I certainly don’t hold Adam responsible for that goal, it’s the way we want to play.
“It (sweeping) is not a new thing. Maty Ryan’s been doing it since we’ve had him in goal and it’s the way we want our goalkeeper to play.
“In the 30 odd games I’ve been in charge of, it’s the first time it’s happened. If it takes another 30 for it to happen again, I’ll cop that as long as we’re able to play our football.”
The mishap only seemed to compound a poor night for Australia, who suffered their first home defeat since a 1-0 group stage loss against South Korea at the 2015 Asian Cup last January. Across the board, a number of Socceroos were well down on lofty standards.
Postecoglou maintained some perspective though, saying the frustrating outing will teach the Socceroos valuable lessons ahead of the next round of World Cup qualifying with no need to shake up the game plan.
“It’s one game, so I’m not going to sit here and pull our game plan apart, it’s something that’s working really well for us.
“They (Greece) didn’t really allow us to get any rhythm in the game and they handled the whole scenario a lot better than we did, but we haven’t been in that situation to often … the players would have learned a bit from that.
“That (defensive-minded opposition in Asia) is why I wanted them as an opponent. They set up really well defensively, they’re disciplined, they set out to frustrate you and they did that tonight. We didn’t handle that aspect of the game well at all.
“We talk about the tactical side of it and the way we set up, we still need to maintain composure out there if things aren’t going our way, which will happen sometimes, that’s just football.”
The Socceroos will now break before the second phase of World Cup qualifying, which begins in September.
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