Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Tony Popovic insists he would change nothing about his widely-criticised penalty shootout strategy that led to Australia’s World Cup exit.
In his first comments since returning home after the Socceroos were dumped out in a shootout loss to Egypt, Popovic clarified claims by Maty Ryan that the goalkeeper wasn’t informed prior to kick-off that he would be thrown on if the match went to penalties.
Ryan had been axed as first-choice goalkeeper on the eve of the World Cup and said he was only told he was a chance to replace Patrick Beach, who had usurped him as Australia’s No.1, as extra time kicked off.
“There are many reasons Maty came in, and Maty did know about it,” Popovic said on Tuesday.
“It’s like any decision that’s made on the field, players are prepared to come on … Maty has experience. He saved penalties in qualifiers and for Levante.
“Patrick Beach had not saved one penalty in any shootout, but that’s not to say Patrick couldn’t have done a good job.
“But in that moment it was very clear to me Maty should come in and like I said the next day, I’d have done the same thing.”
Ryan was sacrificed in the play-off shootout to qualify for the 2022 World Cup for Andrew Redmayne, who had spent weeks studying Peru’s penalty takers with former goalkeeping coach John Crawley.
On his own takers against Egypt, Popovic claims to have no regrets when it came to selecting three players – Jackson Irvine, Lucas Herrington and Harry Souttar – who had all played 120 minutes.
Herrington and Souttar both missed their attempts, while Ajdin Hrustic, who had scored from the spot in Eintracht Frankfurt’s 2022 Europa League final win, was not used.
“If we had another shootout in six months it may be different,” Popovic said.
“But in those moments you need firstly players who want to step up and that are physically or mentally able to step up.
“Instinctively you have to see how the players are and I think Harry was an easy choice for us, seeing his temperament and he was our captain, seeing what he did in training. He was very confident.
“All the players were confident – you can say penalties can be a bit of a lottery – but you need the player to be confident and you’ve got the goalkeeper, the pressure of the World Cup and unfortunately it didn’t work out for us.”
Popovic was heavily criticised in the aftermath of the loss to Egypt but will remain in the post for next year’s Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia.
The 53-year-old coach signed a short-term deal and revealed he rejected advances from Football Australia to put pen to paper on a four-year contract that would have taken him through to the 2030 World Cup.
“Although I was offered a four-year deal, I decided to go to the Asian Cup,” said the Socceroos coach, whose side will face Brazil in friendlies in Brisbane and Townsville later this month.
“That’s something I think is good, and it also gives the FA an opportunity; if they want to go in a different direction, they can… it won’t change what I’ll do.
“There will be a lot of young players at the Asian Cup and that will be done without losing any expectation.
“I believe we should be challenging for the Asian Cup, and we should be definitely in the semis fighting for a final spot.”
