"Absolutely senseless": Bosnich slams Popovic over Beach substitution

Australia’s FIFA World Cup campaign came to a dramatic end, falling short to Egypt in a penalty shootout riddled with storylines.

Much of the attention was directed towards the Socceroos’ penalty takers, with central defenders Harry Souttar and 18-year-old Lucas Herrington stepping up ahead of Australia’s attackers within the do-or-die shootout.

And in a storyline just as dramatic, Australia’s breakout superstar keeper Patrick Beach was remarkably withdrawn from the game at the death, bringing in veteran Maty Ryan in his place to face the music from the spot.

Unfortunately for Ryan, the keeper was not able to impact, with Egypt bagging four from four from the spot to advance to the Round of 16.

Australia's former number one Mark Bosnich could not believe Popovic's decision.

“I say this to a lot of coaches, because unfortunately, a lot of coaches and managers, when they get in that position, think they know everything,” Bosnich told SEN Breakfast.

“No one does. As I say, there’s a lot of managers and coaches that say, ‘if you listen to the fans too much, you’ll sit with them’. No, the fans know more than you think.

“I was absolutely astounded. Absolutely astounded!

“To make that substitution right before the penalty shootout… I thought it was just astounding and dispiriting – it was like popping a balloon.

“Let’s put it this way, if I’m around Tony Popovic… if I was on that bench next to him, I would have said to him, ‘if you don’t do this and we go to the penalty shootout and Egypt happen to win, no one is going to say a word against you. But if you do this, and things go wrong, everyone is going to question it.’

“So, from a self-preservation perspective, for me, it was not only wrong, but it was senseless. Absolutely senseless. You can feel the anger.

“Patrick Beach had just made the save of the tournament in the last minute of normal time. He was playing well throughout the whole tournament.

“What happened to Maty Ryan in the first game, I didn’t agree with either, because he’d done nothing wrong. He made the decision, fair enough, but you would have destroyed a good part of his confidence.

“To say to him at half time of extra time, ‘now you’re going to go on, and I want you to win the game for me’… it’s poor management. It’s 101 on how to destroy a player’s confidence.”

“As a goalkeeper, penalties – you’ve got to be razor sharp. You’ve got to be able to wait, you’ve got to wait for the second last foot, which is the non-kicking foot, to go down.

“If you are not sharp… we saw it in the penalty shootout, he moved so quickly against Mo Salah, Mo Salah just ended up dinking it down the middle. That comes from sharpness, which normally comes from playing.

“You’ve been told at half time, and people turn around and say to me, ‘Graham Arnold did it with Andrew Redmayne and Maty Ryan’… Andrew Redmayne knew six weeks before what was going to happen if it went to a penalty shootout.

“You told Maty Ryan, who was your captain - who you basically destroyed at the start of the tournament by not playing him – at half time of extra time, that if there’s an extra sub, you’re going to come on for a shootout.

“Then you have Heather Garriock, who is the head of football, going ‘Tony is very methodical’… it doesn’t sound too methodical to me.”

When asked if he was surprised by Tony Popovic’s decision, Beach himself admitted that it wasn’t a pre-determined call that he was aware of, but it also wasn’t one he was willing to question.

“Yes and no,” Beach told Tom Morris on SEN's Whateley.

“When you’re in the moment, you’re not even really thinking about that, so in that aspect, yeah.

“But I knew, once I saw my number shown that there was obviously a discussion behind this and there was a plan.

“I understood that straight away. I had no other thoughts, just ran off, gave Maty all the best and was then cheering the boys on from the sidelines.”

While it appeared that an obvious tactic orchestrated by Popovic was at play, Beach himself was not made aware that the change was coming, with no indication throughout the week to suggest that Ryan would be preferred if a shootout was to occur.

“I didn’t hear anything about the sub at any point leading up to the game or during the game at all,” he said.

“Obviously, I found out about it at the same time that you guys did as well. As I said, just saw the number up and reacted, went off and cheered the boys on from there.”

Despite Australia falling short on penalties, Beach confirmed that it’s something that the side trained regularly in the lead-up to the match, with Popovic previously confirming that the order of takers was pre-determined.

“It’s something that the boys practiced a fair bit,” he said.

“Especially the week leading up to the Egypt game because obviously, (the knockouts) started going to extra time and penalties.

“We definitely practiced it many times, very consistently, and the boys were doing a great job with that.

“When it came down to knockout games, that’s when we definitely started practicing a lot more.”

Beyond the shootout itself, Beach had an incredible tournament, starring for the Socceroos across his four starts on the world stage.

And despite a bright future ahead and interest from abroad bound to arrive in the coming years, Beach is remaining solely focused on his commitment to Melbourne City.

“For me at the moment, I’ll definitely be looking forward to having a few weeks off,” he said.

“I’ve still got two more years left with Melbourne City of course – I think every player dreams to be at the highest levels in their careers.

“I guess we will just wait and see over the next month or so what happens, but as I said, I’ve got two more years left at Melbourne.”

Listen to Beach's full interview with Tom Morris below: