Match Preview: Australia v New Zealand | International Friendly
The Subway Socceroos face New Zealand for the ‘Soccer Ashes’ on Wednesday morning at Brentford Community Stadium.
Just over a year ago, Australia and New Zealand faced off in a thrilling double-header, with the Aussies besting their opponents on both occasions.
Australia won 1-0 in Brisbane before getting up 2-0 in Auckland - results that provide confidence ahead of Wednesday.
The All Whites have played four times since then: a draw and a win against China in March, followed by a 4-1 defeat to Sweden and then a 1-1 draw with the Democratic Republic of Congo this window.
Chris Wood is the headline act upfront for New Zealand. The Premier League striker has scored 34 goals for his country, including one against Congo last week.
Former A-Leagues star attackers Sarpreet Singh and Ben Waine are also part of the All Whites team, both starting against Congo.
In defence, Liberato Cacace also offers European pedigree, playing at left-back for Empoli in Italy’s top flight.
Australia come into this one off another promising performance, going down 1-0 to England.
It was a case of what could have been for Australia, seeing a series of chances go begging at Wembley Stadium with woodwork and great goalkeeping keeping the side scoreless.
Ryan Strain made a good first impression on his starting debut for the Socceroos up against Manchester City attacker Jack Grealish, while Lewis Miller got his first minutes in the green and gold.
Youngster Mohamed Toure also got his first taste of Socceroos action, the promising forward coming on in the 90th minute.
Harry Souttar and Cameron Burgess put in another assured showing next to each other in the heart of defence, while Kye Rowles continued to impress at left-back.
However, the defeat extended Australia’s winless run to four matches, with their last victory coming back in March of this year.
Despite being competitive in their recent contests, results have been lacking for the Aussies, and with World Cup qualification and Asian Cup Qatar 2024, they’ll want to put that right here.
Wins have been hard to come by for both these sides heading into this one, setting up a high-stakes Ashes matchup on Wednesday.
Tweet: https://twitter.com/Socceroos/status/1713796922140467525
Head-to-head vs New Zealand
Played: 64
Wins: 40
Draws: 11
Losses: 13
Current FIFA Rankings
Australia - 27
New Zealand - 104
What they said
Graham Arnold
Expectations against New Zealand
There's always a rivalry between us and New Zealand in every sport. And there's only one attitude that I expect one mindset, and that's to go out there and win this game and put in a great performance again, that the nation will be proud of. So nothing changes tomorrow night on my side, we'll be playing our best football, we'll be in their faces for 90 minutes and chasing them and putting pressure on them. And playing our style, it's the most important thing.
Hinting at some changes but not wholesale
You'll see some changes for this game, not wholesale changes again, it's my last chance to have a look at some of the players that I've brought in over time. But the thing is now I'm getting headaches now on selecting a team where probably for three or four years, I didn't have that because again when I took over after Russia, it was an old squad, and I had to regenerate the squad at that time, but plus win matches and qualify for World Cups. You know, this is I think probably only my 10th friendly out of 42 games nearly and you know that I've been able to test players and give them opportunities and tomorrow night is the last one and then it's about the performance tomorrow night and winning the game and some certain amount of players to show me what they've got moving ahead for the World Cup qualifiers that start in November and also the Asian Cup in January.
Full squad to choose from
Everyone's pulled up great, all 26 players and they've all pulled up really well after the game and as I said I haven't really reflected that much on it yet. Probably when I get home and settle down a bit and then I might look back at Wembley in a different way, and the performance in a different way. But my full focus and mindset is on the game tomorrow.
Assessment of England performance
I thought the boys did exceptionally well, the effort was great and the work rate was fantastic, the mentality that we've been driving now for a long time. Whoever we play against, we're in their faces and try and take away their strengths. And when you play against those type of top nations it's the technical aspect that's probably better than us. And we, you know, we work so hard to take that away from them, but at the end of the day, I wasn't happy with the result. My expectations of the boys is obviously to win games, we had the chances to win that game. And so like any other game if you don't win it, but you've had the chances and you're disappointed and that's how I felt.
Keanu Baccus
Preparing for New Zealand
Obviously a big squad and great players that we have here so a lot of competition. We'll go into training and go in as normal and we've been recovering from the England game the last few days but we're back in today and we'll get started again ready for for the New Zealand game.
Ambition of playing at a higher level
I always had ambitions to play in the Premier League one day, I think most kids do. Or you know one of the top five leagues in the world and that's still definitely a dream and goal of mine. But you also can't live in the future you've got to live in the moment. So taking each game as it comes on both national team and club land you know, whenever I get my chance to do my absolute best and it's what I pride myself on you know, so just got to keep doing that and I think the rest will take care of itself.
Insights
- In their last three matches, the Socceroos have played three of the top 12 ranked teams in the world - Argentina (1st), England (4th) and Mexico (12th) - an average ranking of 5.67
- New Zealand have won just one of their last six matches, with the All Whites’ last win coming on the 26th of March against China; Australia, meanwhile, are looking for their first win in four matches
- Martin Boyle has been a creative force in the Scottish Premiership this campaign, conjuring 4 big chances and 17 chances, as well as making the third most successful dribbles per 90 (3.5)
- All Whites striker Max Mata has averaged 2.72 shots per 90 and 1.24 shots on target per match, ranking 17th and 14th in League One respectively
- Kye Rowles has made the second most blocks in the Scottish Premiership (10), an average of 1.3 per match
- Chris Wood is playing his 10th season in total and his seventh successive campaign in the English Premier League, and across that time has netted 56 goals for his clubs of Leicester City, Burnley, Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest
Insights provided by Jack George
How To Watch
The match against England will be broadcast live and free on Australia's 'Home of Football,' Network 10 with coverage beginning from 5:30am AEDT.
The international friendly will also be streamed live via both 10 Play and Paramount+.
International fans, will be able to watch the match via the Football Australia YouTube channel.
As always be sure to check your local listings closer to the game.
Australia v New Zealand - International Friendly
Tuesday, 17 October
Gtech Community Stadium, Brentford, London UK
Kick-off: 7.45pm local / 5.45am AEDT (Wednesday, 18 October)
Tickets: Purchase Here
