Jordy Bos has spared Australia’s blushes in one of the Socceroos’ final World Cup hit-outs, striking late to help claim a 1-0 friendly win over Cameroon.<\/p>\n
Bos’s 85th-minute winner papered over what was one of the most underwhelming performances of the Tony Popovic era.<\/p>\n
In front of a crowd of 23,798 at Stadium Australia on Friday, the Socceroos struggled to create or challenge their opponents in the final third.<\/p>\n
The introduction of Nestory Irankunda – deployed as a striker rather than a winger – in the second half seemed to offer Australia a point of difference.<\/p>\n
“The first half there were a lot of new boys and we looked a little bit anxious,” Popovic said.<\/p>\n
“I thought we created some good openings but didn’t finish the chances.<\/p>\n
“It was a little bit stretched more than what we would have liked.<\/p>\n
“I think in the second half we were more compact and aggressive and the players felt a lot more comfortable out on the pitch.”<\/p>\n
Jordan Bos of Australia celebates after scoring a goal<\/p>\n
Darrian Traynor\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Substitute Ajdin Hrustic missed a penalty soon after being thrown on as Connor Metcalfe’s replacement, before Bos capitalised on a Cameroonian mix-up at the back to grab a late winner.<\/p>\n
“He (Metcalfe) was coming off regardless, but I think he just got a knock around his knee,” Popovic said.<\/p>\n
Cameroon failed to qualify for the World Cup but they did a commendable job of boring the Socceroos into submission as the home side failed to register a single shot on target in the first half.<\/p>\n
Popovic handed striker Deni Juric and 18-year-old centre back Lucas Herrington their first caps.<\/p>\n
Herrington looked reliable, but Juric barely had an opportunity to prove his worth to lead the line in June, with the Wisla Plock forward feeding off scraps.<\/p>\n
Australia were disciplined but lacked any real creative spark, despite the best intentions of Riley McGree and wing-backs Jacob Italiano and Bos.<\/p>\n
Juric and Martin Boyle were taken off at halftime and replaced by Irankunda and Awer Mabil.<\/p>\n
Immediately there was more zip to Australia’s attack, with Irankunda leading the line for the Socceroos and asking questions of the Cameroon defence.<\/p>\n
Hrustic was also thrown into the fray soon after the hour mark and had a chance to make himself a hero when he stepped up to take a penalty.<\/p>\n
An over-hit Italiano cross found its way to Aiden O’Neill inside the Cameroon box and the midfielder was clumsily brought down by Oliver Kamden in the 66th minute.<\/p>\n
Referee Robert Jones pointed to the spot after a VAR check, but Hrustic could only fire straight at Cameroon goalkeeper Devis Epassy.<\/p>\n
Epassy then denied Irankunda, and the Watford prodigy lashed another opportunity wide of the post as Australia pressed for a late goal.<\/p>\n
Drawn games in the FIFA friendly series are decided via penalty shootout, but Australia avoided the lottery thanks to a blunder from Samuel Kotto.<\/p>\n
The Cameroonian defender could not clear a through-ball properly and Bos was on the spot to lash the match-winning goal past Epassy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jordy Bos has spared Australia’s blushes in one of the Socceroos’ final World Cup hit-outs, striking late to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-567817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}