Australia went from being the hunters in Kaiserslautern to the hunted at the National Arena Prince Phillip II by a hyped-up FYR Macedonia team in a clash, which ultimately left a feeling almost as empty as the terraces.
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Socceroos stalemate in Skopje with FYR Macedonia
Expectations were sky high after the all-action 2-2 draw with the world champion last week, but six changes to an already depleted squad, a rough and ready surface and a lack of intuition in the final third saw both sides cancel each other out.
A philosophical Postecoglou took it on the chin, resisting the temptation to chastise his players, instead likening the game to some of the FIFA 2018 World Cup qualifiers his side will face, with its first scheduled match away from home against an opponent yet to be determined on 14 June.
"It was a challenging night for us, the conditions made it difficult... obviously with the pitch not being conducive to use moving the ball around,” he said.
“I thought we started well but we got a bit frustrated because we didn't create a lot of chances and we started forcing things.
"We just got a bit frustrated but again another bit of a learning curve there. We needed to get some more international experience into these guys and especially for some of them, tonight will be good.
“That's what friendly games are for, you have to sacrifice sometimes the fluidity of the game just to make sure the players continue to progress.”
Postecoglou saw the challenges the game threw up as a signpost of what lies next, adding: “There's a lot we can take out of tonight because all the games we play are not going to be played on perfect surfaces and oppositions are going to be desperate like they were tonight.
"We just tried to force it a little bit too much. When you're playing away from home, it doesn't matter who it is, and you control a game like we do there's no need to force it.
"And we just turned it over a bit too often by being a bit anxious ... but that's part of the learning.
“I can't be too critical of the players, at the end of the day that's some of the conditions we may face so from that perspective they get a good understanding that sometimes it's not just the opposition that you need to overcome but it's everything else.”
Postecoglou handed Aaron Mooy his first full start and the Melbourne City midfielder did more than enough to justify that decision.
"I thought Aaron was good, Tarek Elrich (making his debut at the age of 28) also handled himself really well. The two goalkeepers (Adam Federici and Mitch Langerak) didn’t have much to do but Bailey Wright came on and looked comfortable so, that's massive positives for us."
Despite a pervading sense of anti-climax after pushing Germany to the brink of defeat, Postecoglou didn’t let that dampen what has been achieved across the two games, insisting: "We got exactly what we wanted out of it.
"You want to win every time and be buzzing every time but the two games had different challenges for us.
"The first one we showed when we're really committed and the team's settled we can take it to anyone... and this game showed that when we need to grind it out we're capable of doing that as well.
"Hopefully in future, in this kind of game, we can deal with that kind of frustration a little better.
On just how far he can take this evolving side, he said: "I've got no idea where we're going to be and where were going to end up, I don’t want to because I'll start limiting our potential.
“We’re certainly well advanced to where we were last year. We battled for survival against Belgium and again the Saudis (in London last year) and we weren't really fluent.
"Now you can see - two games in Europe away from home at proper venues - and for different reasons I thought we got good outcomes."
