Iran missed a penalty. Sunday 16 April 2006 Australia have kicked off the four-nation tournament in Vietnam with a 0-0 draw against Iran. It was the team's first match of the 2008 campaign, with the highlight of the match being Central Coast Mariners keeper Danny Vukovic’s 30th minute penalty save. With the 2008 Olympic Games qualifying period set to commence next February, the tournament is being viewed as an ideal preparation step for the squad. Four players from Sydney FC are in the squad, with three each from Melbourne Victory and Perth Glory. Head coach Graham Arnord and assistant coach Johan Neeskens lead the Australian players. Spring Cup’ upcoming schedules: Iran – Uzbekistan (April 18, 3:45pm) Vietnam – Australia (April 18, 6:00pm) Australia – Uzbekistan (April 20, 3:45pm) Vietnam – Iran (April 20, 6:00pm)
New results: Vietnam 0 - 0 AUS U23 U-23 Australia: GK Vukovic (1); DF Miligan (2), Leijer (3), Timpano (4); MF Musialik (11), Vince Lia (7), Zadkovich (8), Stanley (6); FW Giraldi (9), Nicholas Ward (10), Sarkies(13). Iran U23 2 - 0 Uzebekistan U 23 Safar scored both goals for Iran
^ thanks. Australias squad has only players based in Australia, not overseas thus a pretty weak squad compared what the one we could feild using our U23 European based players. In fact the starting 11 last match used players only from: Melbourne, Sydeny (& 1 state league player), Central Coast, Newcastle & Perth A-League clubs.
Iran lift Spring Cup PFDC - HANOI, A slightly depleted Iranian U23 squad lifted the Spring Cup trophy in Vietnam following a 1-1 draw against the hosts on the last matchday on Thursday. Saipa Tehran winger Shojaei brought Iran ahead after 25 minutes from the penalty spot, but the homeside levelled the score one minute before the break through Hong Ming. Fellow contenders Australia defeated Uzbekistan's U21 by 1-0 thanks to a goal from defender Nikolai Topor-Stanley and like Iran collected five points after three matches, however, "Team Omid" finished ahead of the Socceroos' U23 due to a better goal difference. Iran's Olympic Team Coach Simoes couldn't count on the services of some Iranian Pro League and foreign based U23 players during the competition, but still the team after a goalless draw against Australia, a 2-0 victory over Uzbekistan (both goals by Ehsan Khorsandi) and the latest draw against Vietnam remained unbeaten and will earn 40.000 US$ price money. Second placed Australia will receive 20.000 US$, third placed Vietnam 10.000 US$.
Congrats to Iran. Nice little tournament. I like the round-robin format - even though there weren't many teams entered it ensured everyone got a few matches.
I am actually disappointed in our results. We got 2 draws in 3 games against much weaker opponents. I think all other three teams lack the experience and talent and all infrastructure, high level management at domestic league level. Auzzis don't have as much interest in soccer collectively, and considering that U-23 is a better representation of a countries' local raw talent as opposed to NT which is made of players trained abroad, I think we should have done much better, specially in scoring more goals.