Macedonia vs. Australia: Winners and Losers from International Friendly
The current international week in the world of football continued to match up some interesting nations against sides they would rarely play against, with Monday night's fixture an example of such as FYR Macedonia hosted Australia in Skopje.
Unfortunately, the 90 minutes was as turgid and desperately poor a 0-0 draw as one could hope to see on a Monday evening, with neither side showing any real ambition or quality in the final third.
Here are all our winners and losers from the game.
Winners: Mathew Leckie and Nathan Burns
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It's a bit of a stretch to pick out any individual players who came out of the game with credit, but we'll opt for the two attacking talents on either side of the Australia front line.
The pace and direct running of both players gave Australia an outlet down the flanks, easily getting around the back line of Macedonia at times and giving their own team a chance to get players into the box to attack crosses.
Unfortunately, either the delivery was inevitably poor, or the runners from deep were not driven enough to latch on to the end of the balls into the box, but those two were about as good as it got in terms of individual players.
Loser: Both Sides and the Total Lack of Quality on Show
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Australia fielded a much-changed side from their draw with World Cup winners Germany, but they were playing very mediocre opposition in Macedonia and would have expected to get a far more positive result, especially on the back of a big confidence boost in winning the Asian Cup.
Macedonia came into the match on a poor streak, only beating Luxembourg in the last minute out of any of their recent games and losing to Belarus last time out, so there was little expectation on them producing much noteworthy football.
The end result from both, however, was a succession of loose passes, poor concentration or determination to get the basics right and a general malaise that lasted the entire 90 minutes. It was dire stuff at times, and the lack of a home crowd did nothing to up the ante.
Winner: Bosko Gjurovski
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Macedonia head coach Bosko Gjurovski has been in place since late 2013, so he has had plenty of time to bed in a system and players to get results, though it hasn't really happened yet.
They lie fifth in their Euro 2016 qualifying group after conceding 12 times in five matches, losing four of them—and even Luxembourg, whom they beat, scored twice in the match. Therefore, it was a positive note for Gjurovski and his team that they were able to prevent Australia from creating many clear chances, keeping shape and working hard off the ball to close out spaces.
The 0-0 draw was a first clean sheet for FYROM since June last year, when they drew 0-0 with China.
Loser: The Sparse Crowd and Appalling Atmosphere
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The match took place in the Macedonian capital of Skopje in the 33,000-capacity Philip II Arena, but if the stadium was 10 percent full, it would be a surprise judging by both the pictures during the game and the sound coming from the sidelines.
A succession of horns or trumpets tried to add a bit of flair to the surroundings, but the low-key nature of the game and the lack of scoring chances meant that the scattered crowd had little to get excited about.
Given how the 90 minutes panned out, maybe the slide should have been about the fans who stayed away being the winners.
Loser: Australia's Run Against European Opposition
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There's no doubting that Australia should have taken a win against a team ranked outside the top 100 in the world, which would have been an ideal opportunity to end a long-standing drought: a win for the Socceroos against European opposition.
While the 2-2 draw against Germany last week was certainly credible, Australia haven't tasted a victory against any outfit from the UEFA zone since mid-2011, when they beat Wales 2-1.
Since then, it has been eight defeats in a row, including two at the 2014 World Cup, followed by these two draws this week. So that's progress, but it's not as good as could have been expected.
