PERTH, 30 March 2005 — Australia’s foray into Asian football met with success yesterday as they extended their unbeaten international run to 11 matches with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Indonesia at Perth’s Subiaco Oval.
Despite leaving several of their top European stars on the sidelines, it was the Australia-based players who delivered for the home side with striker Ante Milicic netting the first two and substitute David Zdrilic the third.
Australia, who are expected to trade their place in the Oceania Confederation for a berth in the Asian equivalent after the 2006 World Cup, had made eight changes to the line-up which struggled to beat Iraq 2-1 in a friendly in Sydney on Saturday. Their big name players, including Everton’s Tim Cahill and Middlesbrough’s Mark Schwarzer, were left out of the starting line up along with Parma’s Marco Bresciano.
Australia, who have lost only once in 12 previous full international encounters with Indonesia, started slowly and almost conceded a goal in the opening seconds of the fund-raising match for Indonesian victims of December’s tsunami. A through-ball from Indonesia’s Firman Utina after just 90 seconds found striker Iham Jaya Kesuma who ran clear with only the goalkeeper to beat, but his angled shot was easily blocked by the lanky Zelko Kalac diving to his left.
But from then on such attacks on the Australian goal proved extremely rare, and as the hosts began to take control so too did their wingmen Brett Emerton and Stan Lazaridis.
Lazaridis in particular began to cut a swathe through the Indonesian defense and it was his magic, which set up the opening goal as he jinked down the left to cross onto the head of the rising Milicic who guided the ball into the top corner in the 25th minute.
Australia extended their lead in the 57th minute when Crystal Palace defender Tony Popovic headed a corner down to Milicic who appeared to slot it home, although replays showed it came off the luckless Indonesian defender Hamka Hamzah. The pressure continued to mount on Indonesia, although they did show a flicker of life early in the second half when Kurniawan D Yulianto tried to latch onto a cross from the left only to fire over the bar. By midway through the half Australia were pushing forward in greater numbers and the icing on the cake came for the home team in the 85th minute when Zdrilic was given an extraordinary amount of time to control the ball in the six-yard box and fire past goalkeeper Hendro Kartiko.
Australian captain Craig Moore paid tribute to the Indonesians, who showed plenty of determination despite the recent tragedies which have befallen their country.
