Verbeek upbeat after Ghana win

May 23, 2008
AUSTRALIA coach Pim Verbeek remained "very confident" ahead of June's World Cup qualifiers after his side ground out a 1-0 win over Ghana at the Sydney Football Stadium.

Winger Mile Sterjovski produced a fine solo effort just after half-time to give Australia the lead before being sent off in the dying minutes on a mixed evening in front of almost 30,000 Sydneysiders.

The win continued Australia's dominance over the Africans, now with four wins in their six meetings, but it was an indifferent performance that was another valuable learning experience for Verbeek ahead of June's packed schedule of four qualifiers.

"The result is nice, especially for the fans and for the organisation... but it's more learning from this game than looking for the result," Verbeek said.

"I saw a lot of things that I was expecting from players, first of all fantastic commitment ... and some players did very well with positions that I will probably need them in the future.

"I also learned it is difficult to prepare for a game like this without any 11-against-11 training sessions and I also saw that it's very difficult for the players who didn't have any match experience for the last months to get the rhythm."

After a lacklustre first half of very few chances, Sterjovski needed just one minute of the second half to put the Socceroos up, dispossessing Ghana defender John Mensah and running 20 metres before unleashing a fine finish from just inside the box.

In bizarre scenes, Sterjovski's goal came moments after the Ghanaian national anthem had been heard at half-time, after an embarrassing mix-up by officials meant it was unable to be played before the match started.

Football Federation Australia was forced to "apologise profusely" to the Ghanaian Football association and Ghana fans for the mix up, which earned the boos of the crowd.

FFA blamed "a contractor who manages the event" saying it was no fault of theirs or the venue.

Ghana coach Sellas Tetteh admitted the incident caused some problems, but was thankful it was played eventually.

The quality of the match improved steadily throughout with Ghana in particular creating more chances late in the game, forcing a string of good saves out of Mark Schwarzer, who impressed despite only arriving in Australia on Thursday.

Former Liverpool star Harry Kewell, in his second game as Australia captain, performed solidly but Verbeek said he was one of those who struggled at times from a lack of match practice.

Verbeek used the latter stages of the half to give some of his inexperienced squad members some valuable game time with Matthew Spiranovic, James Holland, Mark Bridge and Nikolai Topor-Stanley all making an appearance.

The coach will select a squad of 30 outfield players and four goalkeepers ahead of Australia's next qualifier against Iraq in Brisbane on Saturday, a fixture that has a cloud over it due to the Iraqi Football Federation being dissolved by its government.

"I am very confident," Verbeek said of the upcoming qualifiers.

"We still have a very good squad, I don't know how many of the players from Europe are coming back, but of course, that's what you have to wait for.

"But it looks good and I'm very pleased."