Written by Greg Stock and Andrei Libin. Thanks to John Punshon & Mark Boric. For more details see credits.
| Australia played a one off match against visiting Swedish club side IFK Gøtenburg. | ||||
| Played: Sunday January 10 1988 | Venue: Parramatta Stadium, Sydney, Australia | |||
| Australia Jeff Olver (Mike Gibson 74'), Wally Savor (Alex Tobin 54'), Charlie Yankos, Robbie Dunn, Graham Jennings, Alan Davidson (Mike Petersen 54'), Paul Wade (Ernie Tapai 73'), Oscar Crino, Frank Farina, Graham Arnold, Scott Ollerenshaw (Joe Mullen 54') |
0 | - | 1 | IFK Gøtenburg (Sweden) Thorstvedt, Svensson, Mordt, Zetterlund (Johansson 85'), L.Foreberg (Holmgren 71'), Andersson, Petersson, Carlsson, L.Nilsson (D.Foregerg 89'), R.Nilsson, Inglesson Goal: Andersson 18' |
| Referee: Gary Power (Australia) Attendance: 10,240 Coach: Frank Arok (Australia) | ||||
| A two match series against visiting Yugoslavian club side Dinamo Zagreb gave the Socceroos some more valuable match practice ahead of the Olympic Games qualifiers in late February and March. | ||||
| Played: Wednesday February 3 1988 | Venue: Olympic Park, Melbourne, Australia | |||
| Australia Jeff Olver, Wally Savor, Charlie Yankos, Alex Tobin, Graham Jennings, Gary McDowall, Paul Wade (Mike Petersen), Oscar Crino, Frank Farina, Graham Arnold, Joe Mullen (Aurelio Vidmar) Goal : Arnold |
1 | - | 1 | Dinamo Zagreb (Yugoslavia) (Lineup unavailable) |
| Coach: Frank Arok (Australia) | ||||
| PlayedFriday February 5 1988 | Venue: Parramatta Stadium, Sydney, Australia | |||
| Australia Jeff Olver, Alan Davidson, Charlie Yankos, Gary McDowall, Graham Jennings, Mike Petersen (Tommy McCulloch), Oscar Crino (Aurelio Vidmar), Paul Wade, Frank Farina (Scott Ollarenshaw), Graham Arnold (Ernie Tapai), John Kosmina Goals: Kosmina x2, Farina |
3 | - | 1 | Dinamo Zagreb (Yugoslavia) (Lineup unavailable) |
| Coaches: Frank Arok (Australia) | ||||
| Australia had qualified for the Olympic games and their first group match was against the far more fancied Yugoslavs. This match appears in the 'B' archive since the European sides had restrictions on team selections in that they could not pick players who had been involved in World Cup games. Drawn in Group D, Australias opponents would be Yugoslavia, Brazil and Nigeria. This match was an Olympic Games Finals match. | ||||
| Played: September 18 1988 | Venue: Kwangju, South Korea | |||
| Yugoslavia Dragoje Lekovic (Stevan Stojanovic 30), Vujadin Stanojkovic, Refik Sabanadzovic, Ivica Barbaric, Predrag Spasic, Dragan Stojkovic, Srecko Katanec, Dragoljub Brnovic, Vladislav Djukic, Semir Tuce, Dusko Milinkovic (Mirko Mihic 69) |
0 | - | 1 | Australia Jeff Olver, Charlie Yankos, Robbie Dunn, Alan Davidson, Graham Jennings, Paul Wade, Oscar Crino, Mike Petersen, Frank Farina, Graham Arnold (Robbie Slater 79), David Mitchell (Vlado Bozinoski 87) Goal : Farina 48 |
| Referee: Juan Carlos Lousteau (Argentina) Crowd: 12,000 Coach: Frank Arok (Australia), Ivan 'Ivica' Osim (Yugoslavia) | ||||
| Australias first Olympic match was against European opposition and so was its last. Frank Arok had modelled the Socceroos on the Soviet style of play but they showed that they still did it best and Australia bowed out of the Olympic Games Finals after this 3-0 loss.This was an Olympic Games Finals match. | ||||
| Played : September 25 1988 | Venue : Pusan, South Korea | |||
| Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Dmitriy Kharin, Viktor Losev, Gela Ketashvili, Sergei Gorlukovich, Aleksei Cherednik (Sergei Fokin 72), Arminas Narbekovas, Yevgeniy Kuznetsov, Aleksei Mikhaylichenko, Igor Dobrovolskiy, Vladimir Tatarchuk (Igor Sklyarov 68), Vladimir Lyuty Goals : Dobrovolskiy 50pk, 54pk, Mikhaylichenko 62 |
3 | - | 0 | Australia Jeff Olver, Alan Davidson, Charlie Yankos, Robbie Dunn, Graham Jennings, Paul Wade, Gary van Egmond, Oscar Crino, Frank Farina (Vlado Bozinoski), Graham Arnold, David Mitchell (sent off 68) |
| Referee : Juan Cardellino (Uruguay) Crowd : 7000 Coach : Frank Arok (Australia), Anatoliy Byshovets (USSR) | ||||