Goalscorer Duke pleased with ‘important’ minutes in Bahrain test

Mitchell Duke gained some vital minutes ahead of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup Qatar, playing just over an hour for the Subway Socceroos against Bahrain on Sunday.

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The striker had a successful outing, netting Australia’s second goal in their 2-0 win over fellow Asian Cup competitors Bahrain.

Duke had not played since late last year with his club side Machida Zelvia, finishing up their season as J. League 2 champions in November.

The 32-year-old’s goal continued a rich vein of form in the green and gold, scoring three goals in his last three matches.

He said the game time he received on Sunday provided some much-needed sharpness ahead of the Cup that gets underway soon.

“For me, it was important to get some match minutes,” Duke said. 

“My season finished a long time ago, and my last minutes were in the World Cup qualifiers."

“It was nice to get 60 minutes under my belt, and I felt pretty good.”

The Aussies endured a tough grind against Bahrain, being forced to break down a resilient defensive structure from their opponents. 

Graham Arnold’s men went into halftime 1-0 up courtesy of an own goal before Duke dived in and secured the result just before he was taken off.

Tweet: https://twitter.com/Socceroos/status/1743656850963497250

It was a well-worked move from the team, which saw Duke nod in Craig Goodwin’s delivery across the box from the left.

He said he was delighted to get on the scoresheet and keep his good form going for Australia.

“It came from a nice cross; Geth [Jones] and did great to manoeuvre the ball and then played it back to Aiden O'Neill; great first-time cross, and Goody [Craig Goodwin] perfectly put it on a platter for me. I just had to put it in an open net,” Duke said.

Strikers get really excited about gold like that, very easy, and I just had to get it in the net, and I was very happy to.

Duke said it was an all-round test for Australia and while it was a positive scoreline, there is still more to come from the team.

“I think we had a bit of a test of everything in that game and we got to learn how to deal with each experience. During the game when they sit in back in the block, not to get frustrated, and open them up and shift the ball side to side and know how to break teams down,” he said. 

“We're going to expect that in the Asian Cup with some Asian teams that we'll be playing against. And they're probably just going to try and get us on the counter.

“We can be better at that for sure. Finding pockets and maybe being a bit more ruthless as well, like when we're in crossing areas, maybe to hit the ball in more and put it into dangerous areas.

Tweet: https://twitter.com/Socceroos/status/1743659222087372900

“I think that's what today was perfect for. A great learning experience was getting minutes in the legs, getting the rustiness out and moving forward.”

Australia and Duke will now turn their attentions to their opening AFC Asian Cup clash with India on Saturday.

Duke said the team will be focussing on recovery to make sure they get the possible preparation for the tournament.

“All the boys that played a good amount of minutes today do recovery, do everything right,” he said.

“We've got travel as well in a couple of days to make sure we do everything right and keep our bodies in the best shape possible for tournament football, short turnarounds and making sure we're in the best nick possible in every game.”