Socceroos lack Chinese resources

A young Socceroos side lost 1-0 at home to China tonight at the ANZ stadium in Sydney in front of 70,000 fans.

And the performance showed, what most have always said about Australia, that we lack depth, real depth, beyond the first squad.

This is not a new situation.

Australia has never been able to put out a "second eleven" in it's football history and beat sides the quality of China.

Nor does the performance or result make these players bad player, indeed many of them would be able to perform as a bit player in a side full of Grella, Emerton, Neill and co.

Harry Kewell did well, but not enough. Again Harry was played inside, when a couple of Harry dazzles could have been enough our wide to create a clear chance.

Has it a Pim deal? Or is Harry afraid to gun it?

Jade North and Matthew Spiranovic showed promise. Jade North will play his role in the next round of qualifiers, Spiranovic may have to do a lot of travelling for the Socceroos during the length of his career on tonights performance. He can only get better.

Carl Valeri had less influence in this game early on. Australia needed Valeri to dictate the play in the opening minutes, something he was unable to do.

His mate alongside him, Mile Jedinak, has some work to do to gain a place at this level. Long, long balls heading to no-one, shots off target were features of his play.

James Troisi is loved by Pim Verbeek. And clearly has potential, but needs more club game time, in fact any game time, before he should be considered at International level.

Nikolai Topor-Stanley was exposed at full-back. He really appears to be a centre-back filling in wide, but he may well be needed at left-back in the coming World Cup campaign.

David Williams showed pace, but little composure.

Ruben Zadkovich maybe good enough for Derby County but he is no Socceroo. Erratic, full of energy, he again made a simple error, undoing much of his previous hard work. He fouled in the box asking the ref to make a decision. And he did a penalty was given and after a re-take missed.

It made no difference to the result.

Like Adam Griffiths before, would you trust either of these men at right-back?

Bruce Djite did well. He will improve and like the others showed that a bit part role is what he can have right now, even now.

James Holland, given his age, for me was the best of the new players. Neat possession and forward play. A young man with a strong future.

Michael Petkovic was more competent than in his previous International games. He could not be blamed for the goal, but in truth wasn't really tested.

Overall we learnt what?

That Pim starts games cautiously and again we got caught. Iraq at home, tonight China.

That Australia's international football stocks lack real high quality depth, that we shouldn't play seven or eight juniors at International level and expect to win.

But we also saw the future. 70,000 people flocked to the stadium.

Bruce Djite, James Holland, Jade North, James Troisi and Matthew Spiranovic showed enough. They will return to the scene in years to come.

Due to our depth, tyranny of distance and number of games, others may too. But there are no Lionel Messi's Wayne Rooney's in our midst.

But I guess we always knew that.

World Cup draw is on Friday,bring it on. The season finally ends. The A-League and Olympics start in August.

Let the season begin!