Olyroos take down Croatia

By: Daniel | May 17th, 2008

troisi v croatia Last night the Olyroos gave a performance to remember, taking out Croatia 3-0 in the first game of the Under 23’s Intercontinental Cup tournament in Malaysia.

First half, Perth Glory’s Nikita Rukavytsya headed the Roos in front then it was Wellington’s Troy Hearfield and out-of-contract James Troisi to round off the win.

Unfortunatly both Rukavytsya and Hearfield came off with inguries but this allowed James Troisi to come on and ripple the net within minutes to show Kevin Keegan that he shouldnt have been sent away.

Few things to note about this game, Queensland Roar’s Michael Zullo finally got his Olyroo debut, he couldve had a lot more caps under his belt had it not been for injuries, but its good to see him out there as hes a fantastic winger. It’s also interesting that Fulham’s Adrian Leijer didnt get a run out. Id imagine it might be because he hasnt played first team football yet, or he might have an injury. He’s usually the captain so i dont know whats going on there.

All in all the Oly’s played a fantastic match, controlled the tempo against a very good Croatia side.

For those who dont really care about this tournament too much, it just got a whole lot more exciting as Togo’s coach revealed that Arsenal star Emmanuel Adebayor will be coming and will face Australia in the third and final group game. The Togo team will need him to fire as they got torn apart by Chile 5-1 in their group match. It will be interesting to see how the Olyroo defence copes up against a prolific Premier League striker, as its hard to tell how really good a defender is if it only comes up against A-league strikers and strikers under 23.

match report

Australia 3 (Nikita Rukavytsya 19’, Troy Hearfield 52’, James Troisi 74’)
Croatia 0

Australian line-up: Tando Velpahi (gk); Ruben Zadkovich, Nigel Boogaard, Aaron Downes, Nikolai Topor-Stanley, Spase Dilevski, James Holland (Adam D’Apuzzo 75’), Mark Bridge, Michael Zullo, Nikita Rukavytsya (Matt Simon 32’), Troy Hearfield (James Troisi 70’)

Cautions: Ruben Zadkovich (90’)

Substitutes Not Used: 12.Dean Bouzanis (gk), 19.Jason Hoffman, 3.Adrian Leijer, 13.Trent McClenahan.