Key events
60 min “The game will take care of itself,” says Martin Turnbull, “but a bit of a bugbear of mine – Arnold with his hand over the heart during the anthem. Might be getting long in the tooth but despise creeping Americanisms. Teams going on o-fence and d-fence, which is also happening in the footy. Anyway, let’s get five.”
I can’t speak for Graham Arnold but I do wonder how often gestures like that are a sad (I use that word in the truest sense, while looking in the mirror) attempt to embrace a modern world that the person doesn’t truly understand. I’m not looking forward to growing old and doddery in a post-empathy world.
59 min: Lebanon substitution What, another one? Yep, Gabriel Bitar for Ali Tniech.
58 min: Substitution for Lebanon Karim Darwich replaces the excellent Hassan Maatouk, who at 36 can’t always do the full 90 minutes.
55 min: Socceroos substitution Patrick Yazbek, a 21-year-old of Lebanese descent, replaces Ajdin Hrustic.
54 min The more replays you see, the more you realise Tniech should have been sent off for that tackle on Hrustic. It was born of frustration rather than malevolence but it was still dangerous. And it has done a lot of damage: Hrustic is being helped off by two physios, moving very gingerly.
53 min That was a poor challenge, with Tniech’s studs plunging into Hrustic’s calf, and he is still down. Patrick Yazbek is preparing to come on for his Socceroos debut.
51 min Tniech is booked for taking out Hrustic in frustration after losing the ball.
51 min: Matar hits the bar! Crikey, it’s all happening. Nader Matar runs onto a loose ball 25 yards out and hits an instant, almost angry shot that beats Ryan and clatters off the bar.
Australia broke four on three, with Hrustic on the ball. He scooped it across to Goodwin,18 yards out to the left of centre. He chested the ball and hit the sweetest strike back across Matar into the far corner. Goodwin’s left foot is one big sweet spot tonight.
GOAL! Lebanon 0-3 Australia (Goodwin 48)
Craig Goodwin is having a helluva night out – he has just scored a beauty to make it 3-0.
Goodwin’s big, inswinging free-kick from the right was met inevitably by Souttar. His downward header was well saved by Matar, diving to his right, but the ball hit Jradi and rebounded miserably into the net.
GOAL! Lebanon 0-2 Australia (Jradi og 47)
The Socceroos scored in the second minute of the first half; they’ve done it again at the start of the second.
46 min Lajud is booked within 30 seconds of coming on. He pulled back Mitch Duke, who was breaking dangerously down the right.
46 min Lebanon get the second half under way.
Half-time substitution Lebanon are bringing on Daniel Lajud, so impressive as substitute on Thursday, for Hassan Chaitou.
Half-time reading
This is terrific* piece from Jonathan Liew, who once again won Columnist of the Year at last night’s big Sports Journalists’ Association bash in London.
* And slightly dispiriting, because we’ve cocked this human experiment thing up, haven’t we
Half time: Lebanon 0-1 Australia
Australia lead in Canberra. The first half was essentially an ode to the left foot of Craig Goodwin. His unplayable cross set up Kusini Yengi’s early goal, Yengi’s first for the Socceroos, and an equally delicious ball was headed against the post by Harry Souttar just before half-time.
Lebanon had some promising moments, usually when their captain Hassan Maatouk was on the ball, but Maty Ryan didn’t have a save to make. Australia are in control and heading for the third round of qualification.
45+2 min Hrustic is wiped out by the lunging Sharafeddine in the D but the referee gives nothing. That was a clear foul and probably a yellow card.
45 min Four minutes of added time.
43 min: Souttar hits the post! Oof, how has he missed that? Goodwin took a short corner on the left, got it back and teased a gorgeous deep cross with the outside of the left foot. It curved onto the head of Souttar, whose downward header from six yards hit the post. For a goal machine like Souttar, that was a great chance.
42 min Corner to Australia on the right. Goodwin’s delivery is a bit flat and forced away at the near post. Australia regain possession and Hrustic has a shot blocked on the edge of the area.
38 min Lebanon win a corner on the right. Maatouk takes it short, gets it back, slips Yengi neatly and hits a cross that is blocked by Duke.
37 min Souttar catches Bugiel with his arm while winning a header, drawing a bit of blood in the process. It’s just a graze, a 0.4 on the Butcher scale.
36 min Maatouk tries to run Rowles, who stands up well and concedes a throw-in. I’d love to see Maatouk in a better team and/or when he was five years younger; he looks a very accomplished player.
33 min The camera cuts to Maty Ryan, just to remind us that he’s on the pitch. He hasn’t had a save to make yet.
Mind you Australia have only had a couple of shots on target, Yengi’s goal and Metcalfe’s effort that was saved by Matar.
31 min: Chance for Hrustic! Yengi finds Goodwin in space on the left, with plenty of options in the middle. He arrows a cutback to Hrustic, unmarked 15 yards out, but Hrustic blooters a first-time shot into orbit. He looks suspiciously at the pitch so maybe it took a bobble. It was another lovely ball from Goodwin though, this time because of the head-up awareness as much as the delivery.
28 min A bit of a quiet spell. Australia are reasonably comfortable, though Maatouk remains a threat on the Lebanon right. For Australia, Goodwin has been particularly bright; Metcalfe has also played well, the missed chance aside.
25 min Goodwin uses that Harvard-educated left foot to shape a nice pass down the left to Duke, whose slightly heavy touch takes the ball out of play.
25 min Hrustic pings a terrific crossfield pass towards Goodwin. Matar charges out of his area and gets to the ball a split-second before Goodwin, who is penalised – perhaps harshly – for his challenge.
24 min Souttar plays a crisp pass between the lines to Hrustic. He moves menacingly towards the penalty area but his eventual pass is well cut out.
20 min: Chance for Metcalfe! Burgess’s chipped ball forward hits the head of Tniech and loops in behind a static defence. Metcalfe runs on to it, 18 yards out, but shoots a little tamely with his left foot. Matar dives to his right to push it behind.
19 min Metcalfe goes on a mazy run at the other end, but his shot from the edge of the area has the sting taken out of it by a defender.
18 min This is a decent spell for Lebanon. Matar has a long-range shot blocked, then hits another into orbit a few seconds later.
17 min Khamis is on his feet and okay to continue.
16 min Metcalfe sweet-spots a drive from 25 yards which hits Khamis in the thigh and knocks him off his feet. At first I thought it had hit him in, well, the sweet spot but it was definitely the thigh. He still looks in a fair bit of discomfort, though, so he might have a dead leg.
14 min The first opening for Lebanon. Matar makes an excellent run into the area, onto a clever reverse pass from Maatouk, but then hits the side netting from a prohibitively tight angle. A speculative cutback would have been the better option.
Maatouk, the Lebanon captain, looks a really good player. He’s 36, though, so you can probably forget about buying him on Football Manager.
13 min Here’s that opening goal from Kusini Yengi.
12 min Yengi is back on and moving freely. The goal aside, it’s been a fairly sedate start to the game.
11 min Yengi looks fine. The contact drew blood so he’s having his knee bandaged.
10 min Yengi is down and looks in a bit of pain. He was caught by a follow-through after trying to press one of the defenders. Hopefully it’s just an impact injury and he can run it off.
6 min The early goal means that Australia can pass the ball around and wait for an opening. I’m a neutral, so my opinion isn’t especially relevant, but I’d love to see them be a bit more aggressive and try to put teams away in the first quarter. Sometimes they seem a bit too happy to let the chips fall where they may.
3 min That cross from Goodwin was about as good as it gets. Yengi should probably have scored with his first effort, but who cares.
That’s the perfect start for Australia – not just the goal but the identity of the scorer. Goodwin made a good run down the left and curled a quite unplayable first-time cross into the six-yard box. Yengi’s first shot hit the post but it rebounded off his left shin and into the net.
GOAL! Lebanon 0-1 Australia (Yengi 2)
Kusini Yengi gets his first international goal!
Kick-off
1 min Peep peep! Australia, in their dark blue change strip, kick off from right to left as we watch.
Apologies for the poverty of entries. I’ve just been trying to make sure the Lebanon team was correct as there were a couple of anomalies on the ever-reliable internet. I think it’s correct now, so these are the teams that will take the field in about five minutes’ time.
Australia (possible 4-4-2) Ryan; Jones, Souttar, Burgess, Rowles; Hrustic, Irvine, Metcalfe, Goodwin; Duke, Yengi.
Lebanon (possible 5-4-1) M Matar; Nassar, Khamis, Sharafeddine, Shour, Chaitou; Maatouk, Tneich, N Matar, Jradi; Bugiel.
Lebanon team news
Hussein Sharafeddine makes his debut in defence, one of two changes from the match in Sydney. Nader Matar also comes into the team, with Hasan Srour and Maher Sabra dropping out.
Lebanon (possible 5-4-1) M Matar; Nassar, Khamis, Sharafeddine, Shour, Chaitou; Maatouk, Tneich, N Matar, Jradi; Bugiel.
Substitutes: Khalil, Sabeh, Dhaini, Moghrabi, Haidar, Srour, Khoury, Bitar, Al Haj, Lajud, Farah, Darwiche.
Tonight’s match in Canberra is a sellout according to Football Australia. We won’t know the exact figure until the second half but the ground record for a football match is 24,800 which was for a double-header during the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
Socceroos team news
As expected, Graham Arnold has made a number of changes, some enforced. Craig Goodwin, Mitch Duke, Gethin Jones and Ajdin Hrustic replace Riley McGree (and Jordy Bos), Adam Taggart, Nathaniel Atkinson and Keanu Baccus.
Patrick Yazbek, who is of Lebanese descent, is on the bench.
That meeting in Sydney was, as Jack Snape wrote, a world away from the horrific situation in the Middle East.
In the third row, Yessar Daou had come to the match with his family and girlfriend, and taken in a meal at a Parramatta Lebanese restaurant on his way to the ground. “We’re always celebrating big when it’s a wedding or anything like that, but we rarely do when it comes to sport,” he said. “The result actually doesn’t matter.”
This was an evening to acknowledge the world game in one of the country’s multicultural hubs. Almost a quarter of a million Australians have Lebanese heritage, and many live in Sydney’s west.
Australia beat Lebanon 2-0 on Thursday, though it came at a cost: Riley McGree and Jordy Bos were both injured and will tonight’s game.
Preamble
Rob Smyth
The World Cup is a marathon, not a sprint – and that’s the qualification part. When Australia tried to reach the 1966 World Cup, they played just two games. This time they will have to play at least 16 and potentially 23 matches before they can book a trip to Canada, Mexico and the United States in 2026.
This is game four of that journey, and a strange kind of away fixture. Not many national teams get to play an away match in their capital city, but that will happen to the Socceroos tonight. The return match against Lebanon has been switched to the GIO Stadium in Canberra because of the instability in the Middle East.
A win will be enough for Australia to qualify for the third round with two games to spare, though a draw would also suffice unless Bangladesh beat Palestine this evening. The second round was always likely to be a formality, and so it has proved: three wins, ten goals scored, none conceded. But the Socceroos had to work hard to beat Palestine (1-0) and Lebanon (2-0 in Sydney last Thursday).
Barring a complete fiasco, the last three games in Group I are more about PR than points, a chance to generate some goodwill after an ultimately disappointing Asian Cup. Injuries and rotation mean there should be some newish faces tonight. We’ll have the team news shortly.
Kick off 7.45pm AEDT
