Australia 1 - France 1

This match was telecast on a one hour delay on prime time Sunday night on a free-to-air commercial TV station. I can't remember this happening before.

Remarkably this friendly match has not suffered late withdrawals due to "injury" at the behest of european club sides reluctant to see their employees undertake a tiring journey to Australia. I can't remember this happening before either.

Certainly there was no shortage of controversy regarding the club vs country issue with Arsene Wenger of Arsenal gathering support from 14 clubs to petition FIFA to intervene. FIFA then suggested France and Australia limit their selections to one player per club. Both the FFF and Soccer Australia declined to participate in such a scheme, Australia in particular needs some match practice ahead of their match against the as yet unknown South American side. 4 years ago Australia also had just one warm up match before playing Iran....let's hope history repeats itself only in the result of the lead up match.

Both sides were, arguably, fielding their best sides. On Australia's part much was made of the fact Harry Kewell was named to partner Viduka up front instead of an attacking midfield role as he plays for Leeds.

In wet conditions Zidane took France's first corner 3 minutes in, the second moments after, and Australia still had not had any possession. The exercise in "keep ball" certainly wouldn't bother the Australians if France failed to profit from it, but it certainly unsettled the crowd. When Australia did get the ball, eventually, you could see they were overeager to do something with it and in the rush gave up possession too easily. Early nerves it's usually called. I shudder to think how Australia would have played in their qualifier without this match.

Australia did manage to settle a little and earnt a free kick near the corner of the penalty box which Lazaridis drove as hard as he could towards goal. Someone has a bruise now....no idea who.

France's first shot of note came after 10 minutes and stung the hands of Schwarzer before being cleared away. Soon after a header required a save, but was ruled offside in any case. France looked intent on erasing any memories of their defeat at the hands of Australia earlier this year. The reason it keeps getting mentioned is because it was a truly remarkable result albeit against a truly unremarkable French side. Certainly one which pales next to the team in white on this occasion. That aside the French ended up winning the Confederations Cup with that team and Australia managed only third.

The rain persisted and made conditions difficult for players and keepers alike. It did detract from the quality of the game with players struggling to keep a firm footing and Mark Schwarzer having clearances slice off his foot and electing to punch balls rather than risk catching them. I'm tempted to make some sort of comment regarding the Sydney match against Canada. Barthez, of course, had no problems in that regard....yet.

After 28 minutes Australia managed to get a corner thanks to some persistence by Kewell. Zidane cleared the ball in a most bizarre way. Almost reminiscent of Higuita's scorpion kick against England Zidane cleared the incoming ball with his heel raised behind his back and propelled it in front of him. Even if he didn't mean to do it it was impressive. I was hoping the French would be full of flair all night but ultimately have nothing to show for it. Essentially be like France before they won the World Cup.

Just after Josip Skoko frightened the living shit out of Arsene Wenger with a tackle on Vieira Australia broke free from the restart of play and Kewell put Emerton through with an offside trap beating pass. Emerton then saw his shot tipped over the bar by Barthez who was flying through the air to reach the shot.

Just minutes before halftime an innocuous throwin reached Harry Kewell (who was in an offside position if it hadn't been for a throwin) who won a corner. The corner by Lazaridis was flicked on by Vidmar on the near post and Craig Moore headed it in for an unlikely goal.

This marked a tumultuous few minutes where Australia produced another break resulting in a chance for Kewell who volleyed over the bar and a minor scuffle involving several players from both sides before a French corner was taken. The French eventually won another but the referee called for a trip to the change rooms before the second corner could be taken.

Whatever Roger Lemerre said at halftime worked as they came out firing and withing 4 minutes equalised. Pires was the main instigator, a run down the left was continued with a wall pass to beat the offside trap and the ball centred inside the 6-yard-box for Trezeguet to score. For the first time in 3 matches there was more than one goal in a match between these two countries. Both were hoping for at least a third.

Ten minutes into the second half a tackle by Muscat on Dugarry resulted in another scuffle which even involved some of the bench players. Later it was reported that Dugarry had indeed torn his knee ligaments. Muscat got a yellow card for his troubles but you got a sense that there was more at play than the indignation of a poor tackle on a teammate in the reactions of Dugarrys teammates. Farina immediately substituted Muscat with Aloisi, Wiltord came on for Dugarry. The reason for the substitutions stemmed from the same event but for very different reasons. Long time fans of Muscat will understand...

Several changes were made by the French after this period and while the fresh legs gave the French more enthusiasm there was an equal part of loss of cohesion. The match became at once more open and paradoxically one got the feeling more goals were unlikely.

Little of any real consequence ensued, the odd half-chance, a close offside, a timely tackle all contributing the chaff which you expect to see. By this time the rain had also played havoc with the surface of the ground with little splashes everytime the ball bounced and passes being slowed with mini rooster tails behind the ball as it traversed the pitch.

The match more or less closed with a shot from Vieira sailing about a metre over the bar and John Aloisi being pushed over inside the penalty box without any favours coming from the local referee.

Everyone agreed much was learned from the match, it remains to be seen what that was.


written by Thomas Esamie