Australia's U-19 Women's team, the Westfield Young Matildas, have played out a 0-0 draw in the first of two friendly matches against the Korean Republic over night.
The warm and humid playing conditions were ideal preparation for the Westfield Young Matildas who are preparing to compete in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-19 Women's Championships 2009.
Australia started the match the stronger side but the Korea Republic became more threatening around the 25th minute.
Shortly after came the first attempt on goal when Courtney Beutel won the ball, carried it down the field with a nice low cross in front to Tameka Butt who just put it over the cross bar.
Korea Republic's attempt on goal in the 66th minute was saved in tremendous fashion by Casey Dumont. The low shot by the Korean attacker was on target and a certain goal but Dumont dived right and touched the ball onto the right post which was then cleared by the Australian defence.
The 68th minute saw an injury to Beutel which had the match delayed for around 25 minutes. Beutel took a knock to the head which left her with concussion. Staff were concerned about a possible neck injury and she was taken to hospital for diagnosis and a precautionary scan. Beutel was later cleared by doctors and discharged.
Late in the match Australia's Marianna Tabain had a great long range shot on goal which easily beat the Korean keeper but found the crossbar. The full time whistle blew after approximately 115 minutes (including injury time) with both sides goalless.
"This was a pleasing result for us. We put on a solid performance against a very well organised and highly technical Korean side," said Head Coach Alen Stajcic.
"We created a few good opportunities to score and defended well for the most part, especially with some players in new roles, such as Emily van Egmond and Marianna Tabain in particular.
"I feel we did well overall. Korea Republic are a good team and good opposition for us."
"It has been great preparation for next week's Championships and we look forward to another hit-out on Monday," Stajcic said.