Socceroos in 9-0 romp
By Sam Lienert
May 31, 2004
Australia 9 Tahiti 0
SECOND-HALF substitute Mile Sterjovski scored the first three goals of his international career, including one while lying on his back, as Australia waltzed to a record win over Tahiti in their OFC Nations Cup match at Adelaide's Hindmarsh Stadium tonight.
Tim Cahill also scored the first two goals of his Socceroos career as Australia surpassed its 5-0 win over Tahiti in Sydney in 1997 as its biggest ever victory over the soccer minnow, to take Australia to the outright top of the table in the tournament.
Australia made five changes to the starting XI that beat New Zealand 1-0 in its first game on Saturday night, with Cahill one of those to come into the side, for just his second match for Australia.
He was the first scorer of the night, in the 14th minute, his first goal for Australia coming from a simple header at the left post, after a good cross from the right side from Stan Lazaridis.
With Tahiti content to let the game be played in Australia's attacking half, and make only occasional half-hearted moves forward, it was only a question of how long it took the home side to build a commanding lead.
Josip Skoko scored the goal of the night in the 43rd minute, when he dummied around an opponent, then belted home a curling low left-footer from the top of the penalty box.
An own goal to Tahiti's Vincent Simon in first half injury time made it 3-0 at half-time and ensured the Socceroos were on the way to handing the visitors a drubbing.
Cahill scored his second from another simple header two minutes into the second half, before Sterjovski scored the first three goals of his career in the space of 23 minutes.
Sterjovski's second goal was a crisp, well-executed volley from a Tony Vidmar cross, but his first and third goals were both somewhat comical.
The first, in the 51st minute, came after he completely miskicked his first attempt from inside the penalty box, but had enough time and space to have another shot, a symbol of how little pressure the Socceroos were under by this stage, and he was successful with the second attempt.
His third goal also took him two attempts, after Tahiti keeper Stanley Tien Wah made a good reflex save from Sterjovski's close range header.
But he received the ball again as he was lying on his back near the goal-line and poked it into the net for his hat-trick, to make the score 7-0.
David Zdrilic joined the goal-scoring party with a simple goal in the 85th minute to make it 8-0, while Scott Chipperfield chipped in with one of his own in the 90th minute.
Despite saying ahead of the game that there was little to be gained from lopsided results, Australian coach Frank Farina said he took some positives out of tonight's match.
"I would look at how the players kept up the intensity and the pressure," Farina said.
"You can drop off in games like that, but they worked through to the end, no-one was stopping, that's the pleasing thing, if you learn anything you learn that the players can do it."
He said there would be more team changes for Wednesday's match against Fiji, with the plan to use the entire squad over the course of Australia's five matches in the tournament.
But goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, who was named in the squad but has not played because of a hip injury, has withdrawn from the squad.
Earlier today, NZ beat Solomon Islands 3-0, although the scoreline did not truly reflect the match, with Solomon Islands dominating for long periods of play but unable to score, with NZ clinching the game with two goals in the last nine minutes.
In the later game, Fiji beat Vanuatu 1-0, with Veresa Toma scoring the goal in the 74th minute after a misplaced clearance kick from the Vanuatu goalkeeper went straight to him.
Fiji plays Australia on Wednesday.
