Young Socceroos head coach Paul Okon has described his side as having been naïve in its heavy 5-1 loss to a well-organised Vietnamese outfit.
On Tuesday the Young Socceroos were soundly defeated by Vietnam in their third and final group match of the AFC Under-19 Championship qualifiers in Malaysia.
The Australians had accounted for Hong Kong 7-0 and Chinese Taipei 3-0 in their first two matches.
Vietnam raced to a quick 3-0 first half lead before Petros Skapetis pulled a goal back. The Vietnamese then added another two goals in the second half.
Okon admitted the large defeat was disappointing.
“Of course the result is disappointing but the players played in the proactive, dominating style of play we encourage,” he said.
“When we lost the ball in transition we got punished and together with some naïve individual defensive mistakes a well-organised Vietnamese team took full advantage of this.
“In incredible heat and humidity the players never gave up and we hit the crossbar and the post and had several other good opportunities but it was one of those days.”
Vietnam has now qualified for the 2014 AFC Under-19 Championships, which will be held in Myanmar.
The Young Socceroos, who picked up six points from three matches, have to wait for the results of the other eight groups to see if they will qualify as one of the six second-best placed teams.
The winners of the nine groups along with the top six second-ranked teams and the hosts go through.
Of the 16 teams at next year’s Under-19 Championships, the top four teams will qualify for the 2015 Under-20 World Cup.
Okon described Vietnam as a very organised side and said they employed a counter-attacking side against the Young Socceroos.
“The Vietnamese were very organised and had some very good individual players, especially their No 10,” he said.
The 23-man Young Socceroos squad selected for the Malaysian tournament contained just three players from this year’s U-20 World Cup team, as a new side was being constructed ahead of the 2015 tournament.
They were Glory’s Daniel De Silva, Sydney FC’s Hagi Gligor and Victory’s Scott Galloway.
Two players, Adelaide United attacker Awer Mabil and Perth left back Riley Woodcock, were unavailable for the qualifiers.
The Young Socceroos head to Jiangsu for the next two weeks for matches against North Korea, Mynamar, China and South Korea.
Follow John Davidson on Twitter @johnnyddavidson
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