Aussies have best to come against Japan, says Emerton
Brett Emerton, who was at full stretch to contain the Netherlands in last weekend’s bruising friendly, is confident of a considerable Australian improvement for their opening World Cup game with Japan on Monday.
Emerton, employed as an attacking right wing-back under coach Guus Hiddink’s playing system, had his hands full with Arjen Robben in last Sunday’s 1-1 draw with the Dutch in Rotterdam.
But the Blackburn Rovers midfielder, an instinctive attacker, kept Robben and Robin van Persie in check in the second half as Australia held on with 10 men to claim a draw.
Australia failed to impress in their sloppy 3-1 win over Liechtenstein in Ulm in their final warm-up in Ulm in midweek, but Emerton expects a vast improvement for the crunch encounter with Zico’s Japan in Kaiserslautern.
“I think there’s a fair bit of improvement in us to come from the Liechtenstein game, I think we were probably at around 60-70 percent on Wednesday night,” he said.
“We made a few changes and played a different formation but that’s no excuse and we will be looking to put in a much better performance come the first game.
“You’re not going to play well in every game, no matter who you are, and it’s probably better to get a sloppy performance out of the way now rather than in the World Cup.”
Emerton’s first obligation under Hiddink is defence, but he is given licence to come forward when the occasion arises.
“It’s something I haven’t done for quite some time (playing in defence) but it’s something I’ve done a lot in the past, so I don’t feel uncomfortable there and know the job well, so I’m happy to play there,” Emerton said.
“When the opportunity’s there I’ll definitely try to get forward at every opportunity, but my responsibility is defence first, that’s my first job, but if I can help in attack then I’m happy to do so.”
Emerton can look back with confidence that the technically-gifted Dutch only breached the Australian defence once, through Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistlerooy.
“It was a difficult job (marking Chelsea’s Arjen Robben). He’s one of the best wingers in the world and along with Ruud van Nistlerooy and Robin van Persie, the Dutch had a great strike force,” he said.
“So it was a great test for our back four and all in all I thought we did reasonably well.”
Now all the focus is on getting a crucial result against Japan in their opening Group F encounter to kick-start their World Cup campaign in a section which also includes champions Brazil and Croatia.
“I know a little about the Japanese team, but I will learn more about them over the coming days,” he said.
“Technically, they are good, physically they are quite fast and strong. I think it’s going to be a good test for us.”
Source:Soccer News
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