But brilliance from Mark Bresciano in the 42nd minute saw a cross sail over Luke Wilkshire, who promptly levelled the game. Schwarzer’s heroics then saw Australia stay in the game, with the Fulham number one twice made close range saves. Then, in the 81st minute the Socceroos broke down the left, with Wilkshire setting David Carney free down the wing, before Carney crossed to Emerton, who promptly thumped it home.

The win marked a great comeback for Australia, which, finger crossed, will see them (with a little help from their A League counterparts) into the Asian Cup. Lucas Neill summed up the game by saying:

“I think it just summed up Australians tonight. The going got tough, we got our heads down, saw a very difficult challenge, took it on face to face and we were victorious. We really had to dig deep at times, rode a little bit of luck, but in the end really can be happy with they way we performed and won the game…Bring on South Africa.”

Anyway, disregarding the possibility of a FIFA conspiracy, Australia lie at the top of the group, despite our previous game being a ‘do or die’ clash. The group currently sees Australia and Oman sitting in equal first on four points, with the Socceroos ahead on goal di…well, because we’re better (all four teams have a massive goal difference of 0), while Kuwait and Indonesia sit behind on three and two points respectively. While a loss wouldn’t put Australia completely out of the running, it would add difficulty for the A League Socceroos in the next two rounds, so a win is still vital. The game kicks off on Saturday at 6pm local, which according to the FFA is : 1am AEDT, 12:30 ACDT, 12:00 AEST, 10pm AWST.

The squad appears thus:

Mark Bresciano, Alex Brosque, Tim Cahill, David Carney, Scott Chipperfield, Jason Culina, Bruce Djite, Brett Emerton, Adam Federici, Brett Holman, Mile Jedinak, Brad Jones, Harry Kewell, Patrick Kisnorbo, Shane Lowry, Mark Milligan, Craig Moore, Lucas Neill, Mark Schwarzer, Mile Sterjovski, Carl Valeri, Dario Vidosic, Luke Wilkshire, Rhys Williams

The call up of Alex Brosque adds insult to injury for Scott McDonald, who will feel hard done by that his weekend brace hasn’t seen him recalled. Aston Villa defender Shane Lowry, who is currently on loan at Plymouth Argyle, has also been added to the squad. Hopefully Verbeek will cap Lowry so he will be tied down to Australia.

The dropping of Macca aside, the most interesting call up has to be that of Bruce Djite, the 22 year old striker who has been struggling for minutes in Turkey.

Once again, the dropping of McDonald aside, this is a full strength Australian squad which should see off Oman. While the conditions may be tough, I full expect Australia to take the game. 2-0 Australia

Australia started well, with a half chance in the 1st minute, and this coming from a vastly changed Socceroos lineup. However Danning was still in the line up, so Australia still had an attacking threat, and their passing was looking vastly improved from the sloppy play against the Czechs. Brazil then almost scored, with a ball put through across an empty goal, but no Brazilians were close enough to put it in. They then almost scored in the 7th minute, when a Brazilian corner was poorly cleared, but the South Americans couldn’t finish it off. However, despite the many chances from Brazil, the Socceroos were matching them in attack, with many chances throughout the first period of play.

Then, in the 14th minute, a goalkeeping error from the Brazilian Rafael saw an Aaron Mooy freekick bumbled into the back of the net. The Aussies almost doubled their lead a minute later, with Danning hitting the post. However Brazil immediately countered, and were through on goal in the 20th, but they put it wide. Then, in the 33rd minute, the inevitable happened, with striker Ciro putting the ball past Redmayne. Now while it was an amazing goal, the following goal celebration was stupidly out of proportion, the way he acted you would have think he’d won the World Cup. Also, Ciro seriously needs a haircut (see above picture).

So the teams went into halftime at 1 all, and Australia still had a chance of making it through to the next round. The second half started slowly, and in the 55th Tommy Oar was substituted for Sean Rooney. A minute later Ciro just put a ball over, but then another freekick from Mooy, in a similar position almost put Australia up, with another fumble from the keeper, but he recovered. However, then in the 63rd, apparent Manchester United target Douglas Costa scored, and put Australia’s chances of progression to bed. After his goal Australia started to unravel, with some very poor passing, and then in 81st minute an amazing curling goal from Henrique finished it off.

Melbourne Victories Nathan Elasi came on an caused trouble, with numerous attacking runs, but it wasn’t enough for the Socceroos, and they with the final whistle left the tournament empty handed.

While they didn’t manage any points from the three games, it wasn’t all negative for the Young Socceroos. Craig Foster pointed out on The World Game that we managed to ‘play football’ with the other teams, which is a good sign, and it shows our youth is developing. In the future I’ll put a full wrap up of the game and an analysis of the overall performance, but I thought Danning and Bouzanis looked promising, as did McGowan and Ben Kantarovski.

Costa Rica bounced back from their 5-0 defeat to Brazil with a spirited and well deserved 3-0 win over ten-man Australia in Port Said. While reviving Tico hopes of a place in the last 16, the result all but dooms the Young Socceroos to an early exit after two successive Group E losses.

With both sides insisting pre-match that this was a must-win game, it was understandable that nerves and tension played their part in what was, in truth, a dull and uninspiring encounter. Costa Rica created the best of what few chances there were, with Diego Estrada twisting into a shooting position after 13 minutes only to lean back and blaze over.

Poor finishing had been the Central Americans’ undoing against Brazil and there were indications that the same problem might cause their downfall for a second time when Estrada again wasted some fine approach play by tugging a left-foot shot wide.

Then, out of nothing, Costa Rica finally found the way to goal. And what a goal it was. Danger had appeared minimal when Diego Madrigal took in a short free-kick with his back to goal, but in one lithe movement, the Tico No11 spun his marker and unleashed an unstoppable right-foot shot that flew in off the inside of the post from 20 yards.

Australia could have no complaints, and they had Dean Bouzanis to thank for keeping the half-time score at 1-0 after the Liverpool keeper stuck out a foot to deny the speedy Josue Martinez. At the other end, the Young Socceroos were once again proving toothless in attack, and their cause wasn’t helped when substitute Tahj Minniecon was sent off within five minutes of entering the fray following a petulant off-the-ball incident.

The situation called for that famous Aussie fighting spirit, but aside from a Mitch Nicholls’ free-kick that flashed narrowly wide and a tame James Holland header, there were precious few nervy moments for Los Ticos as they held on comfortably against the ten men.

Sadly, it took an own goal to put the outcome beyond doubt with eight minutes remaining, when the unfortunate Luke Devere attempted to head the ball back Bouzanis and instead sent the ball looping into the unguarded net. And there was even time for salt to be added to Aussie wounds when David Guzman added a well-taken third in injury time, curling the ball beyond the helpless Bouzanis from just inside the box. (taken from fifa.com)

And everyone, I’m expecting you to be awake and watching the Young Socceroos taking on Brazil (the A Selecao) at 6.15 tomorrow morning. While that may seem a quite nice time, remember it’s daylight savings, so it will feel much earlier. But still, wake up and watch the Socceroos attempt the impossible, and later on tomorrow you’ll get a match report from me.

After a scoreless first half, comprising of poor passing and overall sloppy football from both sides, the Czech Republic opened up the scoring in the 50th minute, with a header from young striker Michael Rabusic. Then, after a number of half chances for the Socceroos, a reckless tackle in the box saw Ryan McGowan given his marching orders, and Tomas Pekhart converted the ensuing penalty. While McGowan made contact with the ball, given how tightly Mexican Marco Rodriguez had been refereeing, and that McGowan already had a yellow card to his name, it was no real surprise to see him sent off.

While it looked as if the Czech’s had the game closed up at 2-0 with only injury time remaining, a moment of strangeness in the Czech box changed that. A slight push in the box on Brisbane Roar’s Luke DeVere, a push that didn’t even draw protest from DeVere, resulted in Rodriguez pointing to the spot. Then, a poor penalty from James Holland that saw the Czech keeper leap to his right and save, left the Australia team downhearted, and it appeared as if they would be going to their next game with Costa Rica without a goal on the board. It appeared to be so. But, Rodriguez point back to the spot, claiming encroachment. A dubious decision, but the Socceroos weren’t complaining, and Holland stepped back up to the spot to score. However, despite the moments of craziness, which should have surely seen more time added to the 3 minutes of extra time, Rodriguez blew his whistle, and Australia didn’t have a chance to get the equaliser. So the U-20 Socceroos will move onto their next two games needing a win against Costa Rica and probably a draw against Brazil to achieve coach Jan Versleijen’s goal of 4 points.

The game had started poorly for the Young Socceroos, with a dangerous freekick in just the second minute for the Czechs, but it went over. Then in the 5th minute striker Michael Rabusic was cautioned for simulation, which was rather amusing. Australia continued to create opportunities, only for poor passing to let them down, until individual brilliance from Kofi Danning on the break presented a chance for Jason Hoffman, who put it over the bar. Then in the 27th a Czech shot hit side netting, but Australia quickly responded with a Kofi Danning cross causing trouble for the keeper, and a rebound created more trouble, but the second shot was saved. In the 34th a long passage of passing for Australia looked dangerous, but it came to nothing. Other than a Australian corner and an Aussie freekick which was easily saved, the next ten minutes of play passed rather uneventfully, and they went into half time at 0-0. A half time sub, with Sean Rooney coming on for the rather disappointing Jason Hoffman, and then SBS commentator Vitor Sobral’s amusing slipup, Wayne….Sean Rooney, were the only highlights until the goals started flowing.

Overall a very disappointing game for Australia, as they took forever to calm down and start playing well, and while enjoying many chances, could only convert one, from the penalty spot, and even then Holland had to make two attempts. Unsurprisingly, Versleijen was very disappointed at the post match press conference, and thought that the team could play much better,

“It was disappointing not only with the result but the performance because we didn’t reach the level that we should reach. If you want to get results in a World Cup you have to play at a high level and we didn’t see that today….But that aside, I know we can do much better and everybody knows we can do much better and that’s the positive coming out of it. The important thing now is to get a result against Costa Rica to have a chance of qualifying for the next round.”

I woke up early and watched the game, and other than the things mentioned above, my main two points have to be that Kofi Danning is awesome, and that as good as the Czech keeper is, he badly needs a decent haircut. Also, Bouzanis looked rather assured in goals, and was unlucky not to save the penalty, as he dived the right way, but couldn’t quite get his hand on the ball.

So make sure you watch the Young Socceroos take on Costa Rica (who lost 5-0 to Brazil) on Wednesday night, coverage starting at 11.30 on SBS.

Young Socceroos Squad:
1. Andrew Redmayne (gk) (Central Coast Mariners)
2. Daniel Mullen (Adelaide United)
3. Luke DeVere (Brisbane Roar)
4. Ryan McGowan (Hearts FC, Scotland)
5. Matthew Jurman (Sydney FC)
6. James Holland (AZ Alkmaar, Netherlands)
7. Tahj Minniecon (Gold Coast United)
8. Aaron Mooy (Bolton Wanderers, England)
9. Jason Hoffman (Newcastle Jets)
10. Mitch Nichols (Brisbane Roar)
11. Thomas Oar (Brisbane Roar)
12. Nathan Elasi (Melbourne Victory)
13. Chris Herd (Aston Villa, England)
14. Kofi Danning (Sydney FC)
15. Sam Munro (Sydney FC)
16. Ben Kantarovski (Newcastle Jets)
17. Rhyan Grant (Sydney FC)
18. Dean Bouzanis (gk) (Liverpool FC, England)
19. Sean Rooney (Newcastle Jets)
20. Sam Gallagher (Manly United)
21. Alex Cisak (gk) (Leicester City, England)

Notable mentions on the list include Kofi Danning, Dean Bouzanis and Nathan Elasi.

They will play the Czech Republic on the 27th of September, Costa Rica on the 30th and then Brazil on the 3rd of October. It’s a tough group, but I’m confident.

Also, Pat has kindly let me cover the games, so I will be endeavouring to watch all three games and any more if they progress, and provide in-depth match reports.

With injuries to key players, Pim Verbeek fielded a team which combined experience with youth, with an eye on giving his fringe players more international experience. Mark Schwarzer again stood between the sticks, and with Lucas Neill’s absence took over the captaincy. He was protected by a back four of Shane Stefanutto, Jade North, Mark Milligan and Patrick Kisnorbo. Despite playing both Scotty McDonald and Josh Kennedy, Pim stuck with his preferred 4-5-1 formation, meaning that Macca was a part of the midfield quintet comprising of himself, Vinnie Grella, Jason Culina, Brett Holman and Mark Bresciano. As mentioned, Kennedy led the line.

In front of a boisterous crowd of twenty odd thousand, Socceroos were the first to falter as an early mistake gave the home side the lead within the opening five minutes. Perhaps not the best advertisement for the A-League, but the only two domestic based players in the side combined to put the Green and Gold on the back foot. Culina’s poor pass was placed behind Stefanutto, and the left back’s subsequent off-balanced back pass was short, giving the ball squarely to Lee Chung-Yong on the right flank. A quick break by prolific youngster Park Chu-Young gave him the angle to slot his shot across Schwarzer and draw first blood.

With the Socceroos stunned, the Korean’s second goal arrive fifteen minutes later, when an innocuous free kick to the back post resulted in a ball played across goal, which was turned in at the near post by Lee Jung-Soo.

With Australia needing inspiration, and more importantly a goal before half time, the expertise of Bresciano’s free kicks duly delivered. An in-swinging and dipping effort, which took the keeper out of the equation, was nicely met by Patrick Kisnorbo to give the Socceroos a lifeline.

An improved performance in the second half resulted in no fruition, despite long range efforts by Bresciano and Stefanutto which drew nive saves from Lee Woon-Jae. Late in the game a lose ball from midfield, this time by Grella, gave the Koreans another opportunity which they took with aplomb. An interception by Park allowed him to run down the left flank, before delivering a delightful ball for Seoul Ki-Hyeon to nod home despite Schwarzer’s best efforts.

It was a disappointing result, it’s never good to lose. However, the Socceroos can take solace in the fact that most of their key players were missing. The team work and the work rate of the Koreans was the main difference tonight, and if there are positives to take from this match it’s that this is the perfect kick up the butt we needed. A lot had been made about our rise in international football in the recent years, so a loss like this is a nice little wake up call to remind us that while we are improving, there is still a long way to go before we can even be considered as a World Cup quality side.

Scotty McDonald will be looking over his shoulder as Josh Kennedy is also recalled into the squad. Having given Jesus the night off against Ireland so that he can adapt more quickly to his new club in Japan, Pim couldn’t resist picking the big forward after his solid start in the J-League. The pressure is clearly on Macca, as his search continues for that elusive first Socceroos goal.

Dario Vidosic, Rhys Williams and Nikita Rukavytsya again make the cut, giving the squad a nice balance of young and old, and the impression one gets is that Pim is grooming them for more important roles come South Africa 2010.

Socceroos Squad
Michael Beauchamp,
Mark Bresciano,
Nick Carle,
David Carney,
Ante Covic,
Jason Culina,
Vincenzo Grella,
Brett Holman,
Danny Invincibile,
Mile Jedinak,
Josh Kennedy,
Harry Kewell,
Patrick Kisnorbo,
Scott McDonald,
Mark Milligan,
Jade North,
Michael Petkovic,
Nikita Rukavytsya,
Mark Schwarzer,
Matthew Spiranovic,
Shane Stefanutto,
Dario Vidosic,
Rhys Williams,
Luke Wilshire

In their first match since attaining their highest FIFA ranking of sixteen, the Socceroos showed all the class and aptitude to support their lofty status. The Socceroos’ famed defence again stood strong, shutting out quality players such as Robbie Keane, Darren Gibson, Kevin Doyle, and Damien Duff. However, it was the effectiveness of our offence which was so pleasantly surprising. A defensive unit comprising of Shay Given, John O’Shea and Richard Dunne was expected to be difficult to break down, but Pim’s men discharged all the boring football claims and Cahill shut the home side out with two goals in seven minutes towards the end of the first half.

With Lucas Neill still clubless and out of match practice, Schwarzer was given the armband, and he was protected by a fairly inexperienced backline of Rhys Williams, David Carney, Jade North and Patrick Kisnorbo. The midfield quintet comprised of Harry Kewell, Mark Bresciano, Luke Wilkshire, Mile Jedinak, and of course the goal scoring sergeant Cahill. Scott McDonald again led the line, but once again he has failed to break his international duck, although he came close midway through the first half, only for Given to recover well after blocking a Kisnorbo header.

Despite not scoring, Macca did wonderfully to set up Cahill, holding the ball up nicely and picking out a pin point lay off through a sea of legs for the Everton hitman to pounce. Cahill backed up minutes later after Given did well to block a powerful Williams’ shot, only for the rebound to land at Cahill’s feet, which he duly smashed home with aplomb. The Socceroos had to weather a second half storm of Irish attacks, but after several near misses and shots against the post, Carney wrapped up the game in spectaular fashion, launching one of his trademark long range bombs to leave the Irish keeper flapping at air.

It was a thoroughly satisfying display by the Green and Gold, away against a side who is currently second in their World Cup Qualifying Group behind Italy. Italian coach Giovanni Trappattoni may have rekindled the fire in Irish football in the time he’s taken over, but the Socceroos proved to be the wet blanket for him as they totally dominated today’s proceedings.

The Squad:
Jan Versleijen, Head Coach of the Young Socceroos, named his squad to compete in Copa Ciudad de Rosario in Argentina, a warm up event for the U-20 World Cup to be held later this year in Egypt. The squad consisted of 20 player, 16 from A-League or local clubs, and 4 from overseas. The squad was:

Luke Brattan (Brisbane Roar), Isaka Cernak Okanya (Brisbane Roar), Alex Cisak (Leicester City, UK), Peter Cvetanovski (Borussia Moenchengladbach, Germany), Kofi Danning (Sydney FC), Luke DeVere (Brisbane Roar), Nathan Elasi (Melbourne Victory), Antony Golec (Sydney FC), Jason Hoffman (Newcastle Jets), Matthew Jurman (Sydney FC), Osama Malik (North Queensland Fury), Tahj Minniecon (Gold Coast United), Aaron Mooy (Bolton Wanderers, UK), Sam Munro (Sydney FC), Jason Naidovski (Newcastle Jets), Mitch Nichols (Brisbane Roar), Chris Payne (Sydney FC), Andrew Redmayne (Central Coast Mariners), Nikola Stanojevic (AIS), Rocco Visconte (Hearts FC, Scotland).

Not a half bad squad really, with the likes of Osama Malik and KOFI KOFI KOFI!!!, and Tahj Minniecon. However there is the notable absence of one Dean Bouzanis, young Liverpool keeper who had been flirting with Greece recently. Hopefully this was just because he wanted to stay in Liverpool for their pre-season, and hopefully he will be in the squad for the World Cup.

So the squad jetted out to Argentina to prepare for their first game against…Uruguay U-20’s, Australia’s arch nemesis.

Game 1: Uruguay U-20’s 0-0 Australian U-20’s (4-3 on penalties)

The first game of the tournament started cautiously, before a mistake in the Uruguayan midfield opened up a one on one for Jason Hoffman, but his shot sailed over. Then in the second half a cross from Hoffman was volleyed but the Uruguayan keeper and struck by KOFI KOFI KOFI!! Danning, but alas it hit the post. The Young Socceroos remained dangerous for the rest of the game, but couldn’t convert, and at the end of 90 minutes the game went straight to penalties. The first three Aussie penalties were converted, but then misses from Nathan Elasi and Peter Cvetanovski opened up the door for Uruguay, who converted. So a 4-3 penalty loss for the opening game againist our enemy, not a great start.

Game 2: C.A. Tiro Federal 2-1 Australian U-20’s

Australia was scheduled to play the USA side next, but a late change meant they faced club side Tiro Federal instead. And things didn’t start well, with a goal in the fifth minute from the club side, after a rebound from Young Socceroos keeper Alex Cisak. However, the Young Socceroos rebounded quickly, with an equaliser coming only 13 minutes later from Chris Payne. But then…two minutes later Federal regained the lead after a Socceroos error. In the second half the Young Socceroos started strongly, but to no avail. Then a red card to Federal opened up an opportunity, but unfortunately they were unable to equalise and finished the game 2-1 down.

Game 3: Australian U-20’s 3-1 USA U-20’s

The Young Socceroos had to bounce back strongly in there last game of the tournament, and it didn’t look like doing so when a Kofi Danning error gave USA the lead (are you sure this is right? Danning doesn’t make mistakes ). However Danning then had the chance to make up for his mistake, when he took a nice shot on goal, only for it to hit the post and get cleared. The Young Socceroos continued to create, but with no end product, until the 87th minute when Chris Payne set up Jason Naidovski, who calmly slotted it home. Then 3 minutes later Australia found the lead after a cross into a crowded box found Isaka Cernak. Then towards the end of extra time some good passing from Chris Payne and Aaron Mooy saw Payne slotting it past the keeper. So a good win for the Young Socceroos over a quality USA side will be a big confidence boost for them.

Game 4 (end of tour friendly): Australia U-20’s 2-2 Argentinos Juniors

The Young Socceroos had a final end of season friendly against Argentinos Juniors, and after conceding in the 35th it looked like it would go the same way as the first two games. But a Aaron Mooy conversion after Jason Hoffman was brought down in the box put the Young Socceroos back on level pegging. Australia then had the chance to go ahead when Chris Payne was through on the keeper, but a great save denied him. Then, a minute later, a mistake from the Young Socceroos keeper while trying to clear, gifted the Argentinos Juniors a goal. However an Australian equaliser in the 76th minute meant Australia would go home with a draw.

So an acceptable tournament for the Young Socceroos on the whole, with a win, a draw and 2 losses. Young Socceroos head coach Jan Versleijen reflected on the tour saying, “The tour has been very successful from playing South American teams and we have learnt a great deal leading into the U-20 World Cup…What this tour has also showed is which players are up to the level required to compete at the World Cup and this has provided me with further information on our players as I work towards selecting the final squad,”

So.. What do you think, an acceptable result? or should they have gone better?