Olyroos Draw with Serbia
Australia opened its Olympic campaign last night with a 1-1 draw against Serbia from the Shanghai Stadium, China.
West Australians’ Nikolai Topor-Stanley and Nikita Vukavytsya both took the field as the Olyroos claimed a point in its group of death.
In a slow tempo match, it was Serbia who made more of the play in the first half, with one shot cannoning into the Australian crossbar with goalkeeper Adam Federici soundly beaten. Serbia also posed a significant threat from set pieces with the European’s strong in aerial contests throughout.
Both sides attempted to increase the pressure in the second half, and it was Australia who against the run of play took the lead after good work from David Carney on the left, teed up rising star Ruben Zadkovich for a simple finish at the back post with 70 minutes played.
Australia narrowly missed out on a second goal after substitute and former Perth Glory midfielder Billy Celeski had a deflected effort rebound off the inside of the upright with Serbian hearts in mouths.
Hopes of first up win were dashed however, after Serbian defender Slobodan Rajkovich powered home a text book header set up by an inch perfect set piece.
Olyroos Coach Graham Arnold was left to rue Australia’s missed opportunity with a Sunday showdown with Argentina looming.
“We are frustrated, we could have done better,” Arnold said in the post match press conference.
“It was a tough game, but I’m quite proud of my players’ performance. I’m a bit disappointed because we had the chance to make it 2-0.”
Arnold also considered nerves to be responsible for Australia’s patchy display.
“You’re at the Olympics, your first game, they haven’t experienced a big tournament like this before, so the nerves could have been in there a little bit.
In the other match in Australia’s group, Argentina were lead to victory by the superb Lionel Messi, after the Barcelona attacker scored one and set up the other in a 2-1 win over Ivory Coast.
Messi scored the opener, despite Ivory Coast appeals for offside, with 43 minutes played. Ivory Coast threatened a boil over in the second half when Sekou Cisse equalized for the young elephants. Messi however, would not be denied and stamped his class on the encounter by supply the final pass for teammate Lautaro Acosta to tap in with four minutes remaining.
In other matches, hosts China were held to a 1-1 draw with New Zealand. Cameroon and Korea drew 1-1, Netherlands and Nigeria played a 0-0 stalemate, Brazil earned a 1-0 win over nine man Belgium, Italy overpowered Honduras 3-0 and the USA defeated Japan 1-0.