ASA: The Australian Under-23 team has drawn 0-0 in their friendly international match against Greece played overnight at the Panthessaliko Stadium, Volos. The match kicked-off the national Under-23 team’s build-up towards this year’s tournament for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games following the team’s qualification in January.
The team won the Oceania qualifying tournament after defeating New Zealand 3-1 on aggregate in the tournament final playoff.
Graham Arnold, deputising for Frank Farina who is in London for the Socceroos match last night against South Africa, was pleased with the performance of the team, “We obviously faced some taxing travel issues in playing this match with two of our starting line up not arriving in time to even train with the team as they checked into our hotel last night after playing club matches on Sunday.
“I was exceptional proud of our performance and believe the result was well deserved. It augurs well for our upcoming Olympic campaign and Australian football’s international future.”
Under-23 International Match
Greece 0
Australia 0
Australian line-up: Brad Jones, Patrick Kisnorbo, Shane Cansdell-Sherriff, Jonathan McKain, Adrian Madaschi, Carl Valeri, Spase Dilevski (Anthony Pelikan 88′), Brett Holman (Nick Carle 55′) Dylan Macallister (Scott McDonald 72′), Luke Wilkshire (Gareth Edds 76′), Alex Brosque (Ryan Griffiths 65′)
Subs Not Used: Matthew McKay, Eugene Galekovic (gk)
Cautions: nil