Was the East Asian Cup worth it?

Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player.

Holger Osieck made some questionable selection choices for the Socceroos at the East Asian Cup. Source: Takuya Yoshino / AP

THE emergence of Mitchell Duke and Tomi Juric as Brazil 2014 bolters has perhaps made the pain of the Socceroos' ordinary East Asian Cup finals campaign worth it.

Throw in the continued development of young general Ryan McGowan and the near certainty that he will also go to Brazil, plus the great form of ever-reliable goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic, and the Australians have at least something to show from the South Korean wreckage.

But questions must be asked about the overall purpose of the Socceroos' campaign in Seoul and Hwaseong.

Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player.

National coach Holger Osieck suggested last week that he wanted to find a balance between giving all the fringe players in his experimental squad an adequate opportunity to show their wares and attempting to win the tournament.

It could be argued that he achieved neither.

After the Socceroos were totally outclassed in their first-up 0-0 draw with South Korea, it was obvious to almost everybody that the Australians were not going to lift the Cup.

Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player.

So why did Osieck name exactly the same starting side for the next game against Japan?

By doing that, Osieck put himself under pressure heading into Australia's last match against China in his bid to give every member of his 23-man squad a decent chance show him what they could do.

As a result, he failed to deliver on his intent to give each player game time.

We can perhaps excuse third goalkeeper Nathan Coe not spending any time between the sticks, particularly as he temporarily left camp to play for Melbourne Victory against Liverpool last Wednesday.

Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player.

But it was almost criminal for Osieck not to give Central Coast Mariners defender Trent Sainsbury a run.

Surely Sainsbury, who had a great 2012-13 A-League season, deserved at the very least 45 minutes at the tournament, particularly in a defensive line that was torn apart during Australia'* three matches.

Did Osieck not see enough of centre-back Robbie Cornthwaite in the opening half against China on Sunday to know how poorly he was playing?

Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player.

The second half of Australia's 4-3 loss to the Chinese was the perfect opportunity to use Sainsbury. Instead the Mariners star was left to warm up for most of the second stanza.

Perhaps his only consolation was that Osieck did not bring him on for a token couple of minutes at the end. That would have been even harder to stomach.

Instead, Osieck opted for veteran attacker Archie Thompson in the dying stages.

Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player.

Maybe the coach felt he was forced to because of a foot injury suffered by forward Tomi Juric.

But what the introduction of Thompson – in the end fruitless considering China won - showed was that Osieck wanted to salvage something from the game, and tournament, in terms of results.

However, with Australia already out of contention before the game against China, it should not have mattered which minor place the Socceroos filled in the four-nation tournament.