The LG Under-23 Men's Soccer Team has lost the first of it's two European matches this morning, going down 1-0 to Slovakia in Bratislava, as preparations continue for the 2000 Olympics.
In a fairly physical encounter, the Australians conceded the goal a minute before half time, Marek Mintal scoring the matchwinner for the Slovaks after a scramble in the box.
Earlier, Australia had Stephen Laybutt taken off with an ankle injury, the big defender straining ligaments and expected to miss next week's second and final match of the tour, against Holland.
From the Coach - Raul Blanco
"The Slovakian team came out and played a very physical game, and that
is something that we can and will encounter at the Olympics, so it was a
tremendous experience to play an opponent like that now.
"That's what we're here for, to make sure we play and encounter different styles of football, in order to keep learning, and this game taught the team the lesson of adapting to the way your opponents play the game, which we adapted to late in the first half and for the second half, where we matched them in every department.
No one expected an easy game today, and we now look forward to a Dutch team which is better than Slovakia, so we have another big challenge coming up, but our preparation will be better, the whole squad will be together for 5 days of preparation, and will be better for it.
"We've played against South American, African and Asian opponents, and now we're playing the Europeans and will benefit in the long run, because Europe always presents a wonderful challenge, and our aim is to accumulate experience against different types of opposition, and be intelligent enough to deal with anyone we come up against in September."
From the Captain - Brett Emerton
"Unfortunately we were a little unsettled for the first half hour of the
match or so, because they took the game to us instead of us taking the
game to them. Once we settled down, we started to play a lot better,
and that was evident in the second half.
"We had some good chances during the course of the game, one which fell to Michael Curcija after he got on the end of a cross in the first half, and another which could have resulted in a goal from a Clayton Zane header, but in the end we couldn't find the back of the net.
"I thought Slovakia was a very good team, a fairly physical team, and I think if we had the chance to play them again, then we would get a better result because we've learned a lot from this game.
"They played a different style of football to what we may be more used to playing against, and that's something we're going to have to deal with, but that's why we're over here, to take on and learn about different sorts of opponents and styles before September."