The Qantas Young Socceroos (Australia U-20s) have continued their preparations for next month’Äôs FIFA World Youth Championship with a 1-0 victory over host nation South Korea at the Four Nations Tournament being played in Busan.
The winning goal came five minutes from the end with Canberra-based defender Nikolai Topor-Stanley scoring with a close-range header following a corner from Chris Tadrosse. Topor-Stanley was only called into the squad on the eve of departure for South Korea having previously been on the stand-by list.
The Australians created the majority of chances in front of a 20,000-strong crowd in the Gudeok Stadium to be deserving winners over the current Asian champions.
Coach Ange Postecoglou delighted with the performance of his team following the 2-0 loss to Colombia on Saturday.
’ÄùI was very pleased with the performance of the players and in particular the way they handled themselves against a team playing at home,’Äù said Postecoglou.
’ÄùThe Koreans had the support of a large home crowd and are familiar with the environment but the players showed great maturity in the way they handled themselves.
’ÄùWe had much the better of chances in the first half, and we continued to press forward at times in the second half, with the Koreans throwing everything they had at us in the latter stages of the game.’Äù
Defender Aaron Downes came close to scoring after just 10 minutes when his header direct from a corner went narrowly wide. There were further near misses from Kristian Sarkies, Vince Lia and Downes again, before Sydney FC goalkeeper Justin Pasfield was forced to make a solid save late in the half.
Pasfield was called into action with more regularity in the second half but the Qantas Young Socceroos continued to create openings at the other end of the field. Jay Lucas fired over the crossbar while Billy Celeski saw his shot tipped around the post. The all-important goal coming from the resultant corner with the ball played in by Melbourne Victory flanker Tadrosse for Topor-Stanley to strike.
The Qantas Young Socceroos will now face Morocco in the final game knowing that a win could leave them as victors in the tournament.
In the other game played today Morocco and Colombia played out a 1-1 draw leaving Colombia with four points, South Korea and Australia on three points and Morocco on one point.