The Qantas Young Socceroos ( Australia u-20s) have opened their campaign at the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship with a 1-1 draw against African nation Benin at the Parkstad Limburg Stadium in Kerkrade , Netherlands.
The Qantas Young Socceroos dominated periods of the game, and their quantity of chances far outweighed that of their opponents but the Australians were unable to find the crucial second goal.
Benin ’Äôs first half goal from Razak Omotoyossi was cancelled out by a close range strike from Perth Glory’Äôs Nick Ward in the 59th minute. The Australians came close to scoring the winning goal on several occasions, with notably substitute Spase Dilevski hitting the post with virtually his first touch after entering the field 12 minutes from full time.
’ÄùWe are disappointed we didn’Äôt win and there are some areas we need to improve in but at the same time we took a lot of positives from the game,’Äù said coach Ange Postecoglou .
’ÄùWe were forced to dig deep and come from behind, but with a bit of luck we would have converted just one of those opportunities that we created later in the game and claimed all three points.’Äù
The Australians lacked intensity in the early stages of the game but came into their own mid-way through the first half. Vince Lia, Jacob Timpano and, in particular, Kristian Sarkies with a dipping free-kick, all come close to scoring however it was Benin, against the run of play through their most potent attacking player Omotoyossi, that opened the scoring with a hard low drive on 32 minutes.
The equalizer approaching the hour mark saw Sarkies’Äô free-kick from near the corner post deflected into the goal at the near post by Ward.
The Australians continued to increase the pressure on their opponents with the midfield trio of Sarkies, Billy Celeski and Stuart Musialik all influential. Ward also became an increasing threat for the Benin defence as the match wore on.
Sarkies came close to winning the match in the dying minutes but Ward’Äôs pass was agonizingly out of reach with the goalkeeper completely exposed.
The Australians making a total of 17 attempts on goal (11 on target) against Benin ’Äôs 11 (3 on target).
The Australians had the honour of opening the 24-team tournament and were presented to FIFA President Sepp Blatter prior to the match.
The other Group A match saw the Netherlands triumph 2-1 over Japan.