AFC Asian Qualifier: Socceroos Jackson Irvine and Harry Souttar vow to bounce-back after shock Bahrain defeat

One game into the pivotal third phase of their World Cup qualifying campaign, and the Socceroos are already facing some “harsh truths” following their shock 1-0 loss to Bahrain on the Gold Coast.

Thursday defeat could not have gone any less to plan for the Socceroos as they seek to punch their ticket to the next World Cup, and while they still have nine games left in the campaign, Tuesday’s clash with Indonesia now feels like a must-win.

While Bahrain coach Dragan Talajic said post-game he would never forget his time in ‘the golden city’ after securing the country’s first-ever win over Australia, the Socceroos find themselves sifting through the wreckage of a forgettable defeat.

They had more than 70 per cent of possession against Bahrain but outside one Kusini Yengi chance, failed to create many major opportunities in front of goal, before they were undone by a late Harry Soutta own-goal.

Bahrain offered little more than Australia going forward, but got under the Socceroos’ skins with some performative gamesmanship to milk some discipline from the referee, and it resulted in Yengi being sent off for a high foot.

With Japan and Saudi Arabia getting off to winning starts in the race to secure two qualifying berths for the World Cup, midfielder Jackson Irvine said Tuesday’s game against Indonesia was “massive”.

“We need to recognise it. It’s a huge game, and put that pressure on ourselves, but recognize the magnitude of what that could look like in the context of these 10 games,” he said.

“If you’re going to lose one, I’d rather lose the first one, but now, we need to perform, and we need to recognize what that means for what these next 10 games are going to look like.”

Irvine said they had spoken “a few harsh truths” during the locker room post-mortem, but backed his teammates to come out firing against Indonesia.

“No one’s going to go hiding, no one’s going to point the finger; you never find it in this team,” he said.

“Boys don’t go into self-preservation mode like you can see at club level. Everyone here will stick together and fight through the next few days, do everything right.”

Coach Graham Arnold was quick to credit Bahrain in the post-game press conference, hailing their defensive efforts.

“You guys love carrying on about breaking down teams. You’ve got to respect the opposition, their defense, and at the end of the day, you have got to also have players for the individual, one vs one quality,” he said.

“I felt first half, especially with some of the balls in the box, and it wasn’t really bouncing for us and those things happen.

“There’s nine games to go and last campaign, I think Japan lost the first two, but it’s what we need to learn from this, and we need to get over it quickly, bounce back quickly, and show that good Aussie DNA way of backs to the wall and off we go.”

Arguably, the Socceroos played into Bahrain’s hands, launching a heavy artillery of long diagonal balls which their defence swept up with ease.

Souttar, who vowed the own-goal would not get him down, said there was a sense of frustration about their inability to test Bahrain’s ‘keeper.

“It was disappointing second half when we don’t really make the keeper work at all. We addressed it after the game, saying we could have more shots, at least test him,” he said.

“We’ve got quality players in the attacking third and I don’t want to keep saying ‘oh, it’s difficult to make chances, becaue we normally do’, but we’ve just got to find a way, as simple as that.”