POOR RUN OF FORM

Australia experienced a poor run of form in the recently concluded East Asian Cup. The team finished with just one point from a possible nine, and there has been a lot of criticism of the manager Holger Osieck.

However, he has said that he can take several positives from this tournament. Australia were defeated 4-3 by China in their final match of the tournament. They began the tournament with a 0-0 draw against South Korea. They were expected to improve as the tournament progressed, but their form only nosedived since the opening match.

China could have easily won the match by a significant margin had it not been for the goals from Adam Taggart and Mitchell Duke late in the match. Despite this poor showing, Holger Osieck is confident that the team can recover quickly. Osieck resorted to using a number of inexperienced players for the tournament. It is thought that this was one of the reasons for their poor performance, but the manager has said that this international experience will prove invaluable to the less experienced members of the squad.

Osieck also has said that he is extremely impressed with China, who were fully deserving of their victory. Fu Bo has been a caretaker manager for the Chinese national team following the sacking of José Antonio Camacho recently.

"Well, we came to this tournament with a developmental team so if you see the line-up today, one player, [Matt] McKay, has more caps than the rest of the team together. We lacked experience as a group but [to come here and gain experience] was the plan. [We played against] Asian teams that are in full swing, in the middle of their season. Many [of our] players never played at this level with the national team," said the Australian national team manager.