'Astounded' Bosnich slams 'wrong' Popovic call at crucial moment

Across Australia’s FIFA World Cup campaign, coach Tony Popovic made a number of key, and surprising, decisions with the line-up that will invariably be critiqued from all angles in the aftermath - and one in particular has drawn the ire of Socceroos greats.

The Socceroos were bounced from the tournament in the round-of-32 by Egypt during a chaotic penalty shootout.

In the aftermath, former Socceroos players Mark Bosnich and Robbie Slater have voiced their frustration with some of the key decisions made, particularly against Egypt.

Things started so promisingly against Türkiye, thanks to a pair of classy goals, but no Australian player scored again across the remaining matches.

And ultimately, that conservative mindset might have helped the Socceroos get through Paraguay unscathed, but likely cost them against the US and then against Egypt.

Popovic’s surprise calls across the tournament were a mixed bag. He took some big gambles, and while a couple paid off, Australian fans will be left scratching their head at others. Let’s have a closer look at a few of them.

Starting Beach over Ryan

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The biggest call of the entire tournament was benching captain Mat Ryan, despite strong form in the lead-up to the tournament, for the uncapped Patrick Beach.

But full marks to Popovic for making the brave call, and to Beach for delivering what was a spectacular tournament.

His eight saves against Türkiye, heroics against Paraguay and then his final desperate save against Egypt to take the game into overtime shaped the whole World Cup campaign.

The use of Irankunda and Toure

This one is a little more questionable. The only time the attacking pair started together across the whole tournament was against Türkiye, and the results spoke for themselves.

Popovic then opted to use Irankunda as a striker, instead of a winger, despite the clear success in the first game and it never quite clicked the same. His best position is clearly not at nine.

Toure, who battled a calf injury, was in-and-out of the line-up and struggled greatly against Egypt after being subbed on for Irankunda.

The defensive focus meant we never saw Irankunda, Toure and Cristian Volpato on the pitch at the same time.

It spoke to Popovic’s desire to hold control of matches as opposed to trying to win them.

Benching Irankunda for the US game and the use of him after the Türkiye game was generally questionable.

Former Socceroo Robbie Slater believes the positional change did not work at any stage of the tournament.

“Irrankunda did not work at nine,” Slater told Stan Sport’s Added Time.

“It didn’t work against Paraguay. It didn’t work again here. He was never deployed again where he was against Türkiye where he was devastating.”

Benching Beach for the penalty shootout

The moment this substitution was made, it was clear that it was going to be the clear talking point regardless of the end result.

Unfortunately for Australia, that result saw Ryan fail to save a single penalty in his only minutes for the entire World Cup.

Bringing him on cold, particularly after Beach’s outstanding performance across not only the tournament, but particularly the Egypt game, has to be stringently questioned.

It may have been the plan all along, but it was a brave call to follow through with given the circumstances.

Particularly when you consider Ryan himself was benched for Andrew Redmayne in the last great Socceroos penalty shootout.

Former Australian goalkeeper Mark Bosnich was frustrated with the decision to bench Beach.

“I was really astounded that that occurred,” Bosnich said.

“We obviously know it then comes down to the result. If the result goes well we have a different conversation, but as far as I’m concerned, that was just the wrong decision.”

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Slater admitted he was “pretty angry” about the call himself.

“(Bosnich is) 100 per cent right. I’ll take it a bit further. This will define Popovic’s coaching career. I’m not saying he’s failed as a coach, but this moment will define him,” Slater said.

“It was a big mistake. Graham Arnold did it and got away with it in some respects with Redmayne and it all turned out beautiful, but this hasn’t. We’ll never know now if Beach (could have done better), who surprised us when he was chosen, had a fantastic game, he had the save of the tournament.

“This is not on Ryan, for me. We’ll never know if Beach might have saved one given the form he was in and what he’d just done in the game.”

Bosnich believes Beach has every right to be frustrated by his benching.

“(Beach would be feeling) devastated,” he said.

“You could tell with how early (Ryan) was moving in the penalty shootout that he wasn’t quite at it.

“The save Beach made from the header before the end of 90 minutes was the save of the tournament thus far and he’s been in exceptional form. And when I saw him benched, I shook my head.

“I want to hear reasons from Popovic as to why he thought that was a good decision at the time. Beach was one of our best players.”

Choosing Herrington for do-or-die penalty

Slater was also extremely critical of the Socceroos, whether it was Popovic or teammates, allowing Lucas Herrington to take the do-or-die penalty kick given he is just 18.

“Herrington, marvellous talent, but why anyone ever thought it was a good idea for an 18-year-old kid to take a penalty in such a massive moment and a massive game and the crucial one where we needed to score,” Slater said.

“He’s going to be a fantastic player, this will stay with him, I’ve got no doubt this kid is going to have a fantastic career. I feel sorry for him. I feel angry ... don’t put an 18-year-old kid with that pressure on him.

“We had Hrustic, we had Behich, we had Toure, and I’m not blaming them, maybe it was out of everyone’s hands, but I don’t think that should have ever happened.”