OlyWhites v. Australia, 30/1/04

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OlyWhites Make OlyRoos Work For Athens Berth

by Jeremy Ruane

The OlyRoos, Australia’s Under-23 soccer team, will be Oceania’s representatives at the 2004 Athens Olympics in August after scoring a 3-1 aggregate victory over New Zealand’s OlyWhites in the Confederation’s two-legged play-off, but the vanquished side certainly make their conquerors work hard for their tickets at North Harbour Stadium on January 30.

Trailing 2-0 from the first leg, the OlyWhites had a sizable task on their hands before a ball had been kicked in the second leg of the play-off, but they showed enough in the 1-1 draw to indicate that had a more positive approach been taken in Sydney four days earlier, things might have turned out a little differently.

The early exchanges, however, suggested that the OlyRoos were keen to carry on from where they left off at Parramatta Stadium. Nick Carle, whose performance as a substitute in that match saw him earn a starting berth in this encounter, was first to pull the trigger, firing over the crossbar in the fourth minute before, seconds later, combining with Brett Holman to slip Luke Wilkshire into the penalty area.

Australia’s stand-in captain quickly came to grief - by foul means or fair was unclear - with the OlyWhites quickly sweeping downfield, led by Tony Lochhead. His clipped pass found Neil Jones lurking between hesitant defenders, but the lanky striker’s touch lacked precision and quality.

The OlyWhites’ target man, whose obsession with making his physical presence felt in the first leg had been to the detriment of his prime reason for being on the park - scoring goals, looked to right that wrong in the seventh minute, but his twenty-yard grasscutter was smothered by OlyRoos goalkeeper, Eugene Galekovic.

Play settled down after this initial flurry, with inaccurate passing often the bane of both teams as they looked to construct promising moves. Come the twenty-minute mark, though, the OlyRoos looked to be in for the kill, Carle having slipped Brett Holman into a gap with a slide-rule pass.

But Andy Boyens’ timely tackle thwarted the striker in his shooting stride, and the defender was soon to make his mark again with another interception. Carle again was the agitator, his probing run creating an opening which saw him whip in a low cross to the far post, Alex Brosque the target.

But Boyens stepped in to mop up the danger - the tall defender was rock-solid throughout this OlyWhites display, and proved it again just shy of the half-hour mark, blocking a Holman shot after Wilkshire’s reverse pass had opened up the home team’s defence on the right.

On the half-hour, the best chance of the match thus far came to pass. Five minutes after Galekovic had saved at the feet of the charging Jones - Boyens and Lochhead had combined to prise open Australia’s defence, Carle and Brosque did exactly that at the other end of the park, the former providing a gem of a return pass for the latter to capitalise upon. But Brosque’s shot lacked accuracy, the midfielder’s effort flashing past the far post with Glen Moss beaten.

The resulting goal-kick saw the OlyWhites respond with their best chance of the game to date, and a polished move it was. Shane Smeltz, the lone change to the OlyWhites’ line-up from that which took the field in Sydney, made in-roads on the left flank before clipping in a delightful cross to Tim Brown.

The midfielder played a neat one-two with Jones before slipping Brent Fisher into the penalty area, but from twelve yards, the striker lifted the ball a foot over the crossbar, with the advancing Galekovic beaten all ends up by his volleyed effort.

Jones snatched at a volley five minutes later, as did Smeltz in the shadows of half-time, after Galekovic had flapped at a cross from Rupesh Puna. His opposite number, Jade North, had gone close in between times, guiding a Brosque free-kick wide of the post to ensure the first half ended scoreless, although it wasn’t for the want of trying by both teams.

With just forty-five minutes left to score the goals that could get them to Athens, the OlyWhites gave themselves the perfect start to the second spell, opening the scoring six minutes into it.

The move which led to the goal oozed quality. The probing runs of Leo Bertos down the right in the first spell had caused a few problems for the OlyRoos, and when Steven Old sent him rampaging down that flank once more in the 51st minute, his marker, Shane Cansdell-Sherriff, was still in the starting blocks, the midfielder having come short then sharply doubled back to leave his opponent wondering which way he’d gone.

Bertos’ sleight of foot left a gaping hole into which he charged, latching onto Old’s through ball in an instant. David Tarka was never going to get across in time to cover his AWOL team-mate, meaning Bertos had time aplenty to deliver quality. He duly did so, picking out Smeltz, who gleefully steered home the goal which got the 2400 paying crowd to their feet, the scent of Australian blood firmly in their nostrils.

Within minutes, Bertos - without question New

Zealand’s star turn on the night - found Galekovic behind his goalbound drive, but the ‘keeper was beaten all ends up on the hour, as the OlyWhites went for the jugular.

Bertos was again involved, this time releasing Fisher into the space behind Cansdell-Sherriff. The striker timed his run superbly to evade the offside trap, and whipped in a cross which found Jones arriving on cue, six yards out and with the goal at his mercy.

It had been drizzling in Auckland throughout the day, and the North Harbour Stadium surface had taken its share of the droplets. But not enough had fallen to soften the ground enough, for Jones’ downward header bounced off the turf and, incredibly, over the crossbar - an unbelievable miss, and a let-off of massive proportions for Australia.

Had the ball gone on, it would have made the scores level on aggregate, and set up a grandstand finish in the latest tussle between the undoubted super-powers of Oceania soccer.

That it didn’t seemed to take a touch of the fire out of New Zealand’s flurries, enough for Australia to pinch a tackle here, intercept a pass there … such as in the 63rd minute, when an interception on half-way by Wilkshire saw the OlyRoos captain play a sharp one-two with substitute Dylan MacAllister before raiding down the right and into the penalty area. His low cross was cleared by the combined efforts of Old and Boyens, but the danger signs were evident.

Fortune favoured Australia in the 65th minute, as a David Mulligan corner struck an OlyRoos defender and bounced into the hands of the grateful Galekovic. The tables were turned at the other end of the park seconds later, as Moss, incredibly, directed a clearance against the closing figure of MacAllister. The rebound favoured the OlyWhites goalkeeper on this occasion.

Old and Jones then combined to create an opening for substitute Allan Pearce - his looping header arced narrowly wide, before Brown and Wilkshire nearly came to blows as the Australians resorted to time-wasting tactics in an effort to frustrate their fired-up opponents, and rouse Fijian referee Leone Rakaroi into positive action - his was an evening of decision-making which ranged from the wonderful to the weird, and all points in between!!

The goal which scuppered the OlyWhites’ hopes of a ringside seat at world sport’s quadrennial gathering materialised in the 72nd minute. It was a well-taken strike, too, Ahmad Elrich’s crossfield ball finding substitute Ryan Griffiths storming inside his marker, Puna.

The newcomer took the ball in his stride and deftly slipped it home through the legs of the advancing Moss, much to the delight of his OlyRoos team-mates, and the despair of opponents who, in an instant, had gone from needing to score one goal to at least force extra-time, to having to score three goals in eighteen minutes to win the match.

With the wind taken from their sails, the OlyWhites initially struggled to recover their rhythm. They eventually did so, but while it was too late to change the outcome of the two-legged play-off, the match - and a moral victory - was there to be won, and they went for it with gusto.

Brown’s rasping twenty-five yarder brought the best out of Galekovic, but the ‘keeper was unable to hold the shot. James Pritchett - a late substitute - closed on the ball, but North won the race to stave off the threat of a second OlyWhites goal three minutes from time.

A wild volley from Pearce failed to occupy the scoreboard operator’s attention seconds later, but he may have been called into action had MacAllister’s headed effort - following a delightful move featuring Carle, Wilkshire and the overlapping run of Jon McKain - not grazed the crossbar in stoppage time.

A late Australian winner would have been something of a travesty, given the OlyWhites’ efforts, which were far superior and more attractive to watch compared to the defence-oriented display just four days earlier. Had they shown the same level of self-belief in getting a result in Sydney as they did in Auckland …

That attribute is something which no Australian worth their salt is ever found short of! And once again, it has done that country’s soccer stars proud, this time in the form of their Under-23 combination.

The OlyRoos will carry that belief with them to Athens and beyond, while the OlyWhites, and the soccer public of New Zealand, will once again look on with a mix of envy, frustration and admiration at their trans-tasman rivals, and yet again wonder what might have been.

OlyWhites: Moss; Puna, Boyens, Old, Lochhead; Bertos (Pritchett, 85), Brown (booked, 69), Mulligan; Smeltz (Pearce, 67), Jones (Smith, 72), Fisher

OlyRoos: Galekovic (booked, 79); North, McKain, Tarka, Cansdell-Sherriff; Elrich (Dilevski, 80), Valeri, Wilkshire (booked, 69), Brosque (Griffiths, 59); Carle, Holman (MacAllister, 52)

Referee: Leone Rakaroi (Fiji)

OlyWhites