 |
|
Australian under-17s go down to narrow World Championship defeat [Sat Sep 17th, 2005]
Australia has gone down to a heart-breaking 1-0 defeat at the hands of European champions Turkey in their opening Group B clash at the FIFA U17 World Championship in Peru.
The Joeys looked like they would come away with a draw after battling away against their highly-rated opponents, but with six minutes left, Nuri Sahin fired home from 20 yards to give his side victory.
While Turkey deserved all three points, with striker Tevfik Kose coming close on a number of occasions, the Joeys never gave in and were well served in particular by goalkeeper Alex Vrteski and midfield pair Kaz Patafta and debutant Scott Jamieson.
In fact it was Australia who started the better of the two teams, a bright opening seeing two headers on target and forcing Turkey into some rash tackling, which led to early yellow cards for Harun Karadas and Erkan Ferin.
But the European side started to get on top, with Tevfik thwarted three times by Vrteski. Australia’s reply came through the hard-working Robbie Kruse, who could have done better than chip the ball straight at the Turkey goalkeeper, but just before half-time, Turkey came close again with Caner Erkin’s effort clipping the crossbar.
Australia started the second half well, but Turkey again came back with Tevfik’s close-range effort blocked by Vrteski, before at the other end Kruse smacked a shot from distance that was tipped over the crossbar. The Joeys also saw an effort from Jamieson go well over, before Turkey took total control, with Tevfik heading poorly wide from seven yards when unmarked.
A minute later Vrteski did well to block Deniz Yilmaz’s effort from 12 yards, and although Deniz reacted well to the loose ball, he could only side-foot over the bar.
Turkey continued to press forward and it was no surprise when Nuri swivelled to hit a shot which Vrteski got a hand to, but was unable to prevent crossing the line, to give his side the lead.
"Despite the result we showed today that we are capable of some good play against elite opposition," coach Ange Postecoglou said afterwards. "I thought we played well overall, in the first half especially, but lacked a cutting edge up front.
"All the players are extremely disappointed at the moment of course, given that we were so close to getting something from the match, but they will be primed and ready for the next match against Mexico."
Australia: Alex Vrteski; Jamie Cumming, David D’Apuzzo (Matthew Park 69’), Wade Oostendorp, Matthew Spiranovic, Joel Allwright, Robbie Kruse (Daniel Ireland 61’), Kaz Patafta (c), Nathan Burns, Scott Jamieson, Leigh Broxham (Matthew Mullen 83’)
Australia’s next game in Group B is against Mexico, who kicked off the tournament with a 2-0 win over Uruguay, thanks to second-half goals from Carlos Vela and Cesar Villaluz.
Group B table:
Team P W D L F A +/- Pts
Mexico 1 1 0 0 2 0 2 3
Turkey 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 3
Australia 1 0 0 1 0 1 -1 0
Uruguay 1 0 0 1 0 2 -2 0
AAP
News headlines from around the world.