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Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek declared himself very pleased with Australia’s performance in their 2-2 draw with South Africa at London’s Loftus Road.
After taking a 2-1 lead into the interval, through goals from Mile Sterjovski and Josh Kennedy, Verbeek made a number of changes in the second-half which disrupted their game.
Captain Lucas Neill, Scott Chipperfield and Scott McDonald were replaced by Mark Milligan, Dean Carney and Brett Holman at half time and Richard Garcia, making his debut, and Carl Valeri came on for Sterjovski and Vince Grella in the last half-hour.
“I am very pleased with this game, I think we played, especially in the first half, very well when we had the ball,” Verbeek said.
“You see in the second half, the rhythm was a little bit broken we were not as good as in the first half but that’s normal if you change two or three players and then two more.
“Overall, I can only be very pleased with the performance, the mentality and attitude of the players and I can only look forward to the training camp in September in the Netherlands.”
Although Australia looked the classier outfit in the first half, South Africa also had their fair share of chances and after 20 minutes they opened the scoring.
Bafana Bafanas record scorer McCarthy, in a rare moment of activity, skilfully backheeled the ball, catching Chris Coyne and Scott Chipperfield flat-footed, allowing Siyabonga Nkosi to run on and finish smartly past Mark Schwarzer.
The goal spurred Australia into life and they were level within four minutes when Vince Grella chipped a ball over the defence and Sterjovski lobbed the ball over the onrushing keeper.
The South African goalkeeper Itumelang Khune looked shaky all night and eight minutes before the interval he contributed to Australia taking the lead.
After Wilkshire was fouled near the right corner flag, Mark Bresciano floated in a free kick that Kennedy met before Khune to head home.
After the halftime changes, South Africa enjoyed the greater territorial possession and 12 minutes after the break they got back on level terms.
Bryce Moon got to the by-line on the right hand side and pulled back for Teko Modise who blasted a superb strike into the top corner of Schwarzer’s near post.
Australia’s best chance to grab a winner came from late substitute Bruce Djite, who replaced Kennedy, 12 minutes from time when Holman pulled the ball back to him eight yards from goal, but he could not get a strong enough contact on his shot and the South African defence cleared.
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