China scores first win…but too late
June 22, 2008
China has traveled to Australia in their final game of the FIFA World Cup qualifying and gone away with the points.
Australia fielded a vastly different team from the earlier qualifying matches as Pim Verbeek game his young players a chance to shine at the top level. Australian and China had determined their fate last weekend with China being eliminated and Australia qualifying for the next stage in Asian qualifying.
Today a crowd of just over 70 000 filled the ANZ Stadium in Sydney hoping to see their players complete this stage with a win. China were playing for pride.
In the end it was just one goal that got the job done for the visiting team. In the 12th minute Sun Xiang scored with a long range shot. Perhaps you could say the Australian defence was a touch lazy as Sun had time to get the ball in perfect position to launch his shot. He really should have been closed down earlier.
The match had good end to end action and Australia went close on a few occasions however could not find the back of the net. China should have doubled their lead in the second half as they missed a penalty shot.
Hopefully Pim Verbeek has seen enough of the different players that he used in this match to be able to get some value from the loss to China. Harry Kewell was the only regular player that took his place in the starting lineup.
There were plenty of new names for a game of this level, such as Ruben Zadkovich, James Holland and Matthew Spiranovic.
For China this was a win that came too late. In their last match they took the early lead but could not hold on as they did today.
Australia now has the next stage of qualifying to look forward to. The draw for the next stage takes place at AFC House in Kuala Lumper next Friday evening. Australia and Korea Republic have already been drawn in different groups as they are the top two teams in Asia.
Pim Verbeek having coached Korea to a semifinal spot at the 2007 Asian Cup is glad his Australian team will not face them in the next stage.
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The Socceroos were horrendus. Terrible passes, disjointed attack, poor skills and general inability to shape up against a side that had been lifeless in the group stage. Only Valeri and Kewell can hold their heads high from the match with the rest of the players making up a who’s who of the A-league. Unfortunately if this is the best we have were goners if we line up against with this team in the next stage.
Good article, well done to China, they were far better on the night and played with purpose and a directness of play that Australia would normally play with their European stars included.