If the UAE are defeated, another playoff, also a one-off in Doha with Chile, awaits a week later. Taggart has had to bide his time, despite a record of six goals in 15 games for Australia reintroduced to competitive football in recent weeks carefully by his club Cerezo Osaka in the J-League, Taggart is itching to get on a plane, get into camp and get into the Socceroos’ front line. Amid an apparent national striker shortage, Uruguayan Bruno Fornaroli was naturalised to make his debut in March, and there have been strident calls for Jason Cummings – the Scottish larrikin striker newly arrived at the Mariners with an Aussie passport – to be given a go. While all that was going on, he had to watch from a distance as Australia’s World Cup qualifying campaign – that at one point boasted 11 straight wins – ran aground just at the point he hurt his knee last October. It’s thanks, he believes, to months of weekly pilates, daily yoga, a modified running gait and hours of rehab from knee surgery in the company of Socceroos conditioning guru Andrew Clark.įirst start of the season and a goal for Cerezoâs Socceroo Adam Taggart in the Osaka derby! #JLeague /tAO3cc92Bt- Sacha Pisani May 21, 2022
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It’s telling that Taggart now feels like he did five years ago or more, free of the aches and discomfort that can be the lot of a striker prepared to put his body into hazardous situations in pursuit of goals. You can feel the frustration in Taggart at what he’s missed in the past seven months through injury, and the damage to Australia’s World Cup aspirations in his absence.īut at 28, the man who seems certain to lead the line for Graham Arnold’s side against the UAE in Doha on June 8 (AEST) also has the maturity to understand the benefits of some time out – largely around the improved state of a body that seems to have let him down at key moments in his career. If the Socceroo is as deft with his first touch for his country’s imminent World Cup play-offs as he is with a pointed question, Australia may have half a chance of getting to Qatar. There may yet be a career in diplomacy for Adam Taggart when the football is finished.
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