Souttar, Duke debate over Socceroos' New Zealand opener
Debate has raged in the Socceroos' camp over who scored the opening goal against New Zealand on Wednesday morning.
Alessandro Circati headed the ball back across goal for Mitchell Duke who slammed it into the net, but not before it took a glancing touch off Harry Souttar's chest.
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There is no doubt defender Souttar is claiming his eighth goal in the green and gold.
“Yes. Absolutely. 100%. If you look at the replay it clearly came off my chest and went in. I felt a little bit sorry for Dukey because I actually tried to get out of the way of it but he’s hit and it’s gone so I’m taking it all day long,” he said.
“He [Duke] was onto me straight after the goal. I think you can see in his face how disappointed he was, but I’m not giving him that.”
Tweet: https://twitter.com/Socceroos/status/1714517916568432703
Duke unsurprisingly had a different perspective, stating it was his goal.
“To be fair, I think I earned it. I know ‘H’ is not happy about it. He’s tried to get out of the way - hard to say if he’s even got a nick on it. I think it’s maybe touched his shirt, but for me, if it does get put down as mine, it’d be nice to hit double digits for the national team,” he said.
The Socceroos frontman said while there were some positives in the team’s Soccer Ashes triumph, there was still room for improvement.
Duke also said that he was impressed with the performances of the players who came in against New Zealand, having not played against England a few days earlier.
Coach Graham Arnold made five changes to the team against the All Whites, with Alessandro Circati making his debut and Lewis Miller starting for the first time for Australia.
Jordan Bos operated in an advanced role on the left, and Aziz Behich was behind him, while Massimo Luongo returned to the team after not playing since 2019.
“We had a lot of good chances. Even with the one I’m claiming, I should’ve had a couple others with my head. Mass put another good ball through that I tried to flick through and didn’t get a good connection on it, ” Duke said.
“I know that’s what Arnie wants. He wants more ruthlessness, especially after the game against England where we didn’t have that. We showed that a bit today so we need to keep working on that.
“All the boys that got changed in today against New Zealand, they put in a great shift. Very impressed with all those who got their minutes and played today. They’re showing their strengths and attributes, and I think they all performed really well.”
Souttar echoed Duke’s comments but emphasised the Socceroos are evolving as a team.
He said a win against New Zealand to claim the Soccer Ashes was a great thing to have heading into the World Cup qualifiers in November.
“I think we’ve had this tag about being an off-the-ball team and a pressing team, working hard, but I think you’ve seen tonight and over the last couple of games that we’ve got real quality as well. We showed that a lot tonight - more than we did the other night and capitalised on our chances. We still could have had more with some great football through the lines but I’m sure that will come and it will be there for November for the qualifiers,” Souttar said.
“It stands us in good stead for the games coming up. It’s never easy, no matter what nation you play against. Away from home, at home, you’ve always got to get the job done and we’ve done that tonight and we look forward to November.”
Australia host Bangladesh in Melbourne in their opening World Cup qualifier next month.