Australia has got it's Confederation Cup campaign off to the best possible start, with a 2-0 victory over Mexico, in the opening round of games in Korea tonight.
In a virtual repeat performance of the 1997 clash against the same opponent at the same stage of the tournament, the Australians got off to a flying start, Clayton Zane unlucky not to open the scoring in the third minute, his powerful header saved brilliantly by the Mexican keeper.
Mark Schwarzer was called into action at the other end in the 17th minute, forced into a diving save to deflect a shot, but from there, the Australians regained the upper hand, and were rewarded just three minutes later with a goal to defender Shaun Murphy.
Good work down the right by the Australians resulted in Steve Corica whipping a cross to the back post, with Murphy in behind Zane to head home for 1-0.
After withstanding a Mexican onslaught to half-time, the LG Socceroos came out on the attack again in the second half, and were unlucky not to go ahead in the 53rd minute when David Zdrilic headed wide from a Kevin Muscat cross.
It took just another minute of play before Australia did increase it's lead however, captain Paul Okon working down the right and crossing the ball in, to see midfielder Josip Skoko slam home Australia's second from 20 metres out, for the final 2-0 scoreline.
FRANK FARINA - Post Match Interview:
Q : You would have to be very happy with that result!
A : "I thought the boys played really well. We were stressing the point
that we needed some sort of result in the first game, to be honest we
would have been happy to come away with a point, but the manner in which
we played was sensational, and thoroughly deserved us 3 points."
Q : Is it now a case of one down, two to go?
A : "Definitely. We can't get carried away though. We need a point I
think out of the next two games, and playing the World Champions, and
the Hosts is not going to be an easy task, but we've had the best
possible start, and hopefully we can go on from there."
Q : Who did you consider best on park for the LG Socceroos?
A : "If I had to single anyone out it would be very very difficult.
The experienced players really stood up, and young Clayton Zane, coming
into arguably his most major international where he's started - he's
played a few in the past but I don't think any as important as this one
- he performed superbly. Josip Skoko, Paul Okon, the back four - honestly,
you really couldn't single anyone out - it was a solid team performance
and I'm very pleased for all the lads."
Q : Next up is France - will it basically be the same tactics .. and team?
A : "We'll weigh it up after we have a look at France's game against Korea.
They're the World Champions and European Champions, and they're not that
for nothing, but we're going to go out there and try to play to our game,
rather than concentrate on everything that they're doing. They are
undoubtedly the best team, and the form team in the world at the moment.
We'll have a look, and see how we'll approach the game, but it's going
to be very important, and I think exciting, for the boys. We might make
a few changes to the line-up, depending on how the lads pull up, we'll
see if there are any injuries, but at this stage, we'll try to get them
recovered with the recovery session tomorrow, the other boys should be
well and truly rested up, the likes of Craig Moore and Brett Emerton and
Marco Bresciano, we've got a lot of depth there, and I think if we have
to make any changes, I can't see too much of a problem with them coming in."