Tahiti 0 - Australia 2

Australia had qualified and nothing was left to be done really, and for what it was worth this team put on a far more cohesive performance than the previous game against the Solomons.

The main reason I even bother to write anything at all is because Mark Bosnich almost gifted Tahiti a goal. Australia had already scored thanks to a cracking drive on the volley from just outside the area thanks to Ned and on a rare foray forward the Tahitians had two guys chasing the ball when Mark came out and kicked the ball away from one only to give it to the one other Tahitian on that side of halfway. I cannot recall who it was but he gratefully took the ball and attempted to chip the stranded Bosnich. Sadly for him, but luckily for Austalia, he was quite wide out and the ball just drifted across the face of goal and past the far post.

Paul Trimboli finally planted a header into the back of the net almost at full time after Aurelio Vidmar and Mori (I think, it may have been Foster or Aloisi...) interchanged passes from a corner to make it look a little more respectable.

The main problem wasn't so much a lack of motivation but since the previous game included poor posession play Australia overcompensated by holding the ball even at the expense of shooting for goal. Infact many times there was ample opportunity for the players to take a shot at goal yet they opted to pass it to the free man. It was frustrating to watch and given that is was probably the coldest night of the 4 games I attended pretty miserable as well.


written by Thomas Esamie