Farina delighted with tough work-out

14 April 2012

Australia coach Frank Farina insisted his side's hard-fought 1-0 victory against New Zealand was "just what the doctor ordered" before they head to Germany for the Confederations Cup.

Substitute Simon Colosimo hit the game's only goal in the 85th minute at Craven Cottage with an 18-yard strike to hand the Socceroos their 38th win in 62 matches against their trans-Tasman rivals.

However, Australia will require a vast improvement when they face hosts Germany in next Wednesday's Confederations Cup opener before further searching tests against group opponents Argentina and Tunisia.

The Socceroos were pushed all the way by a spirited Kiwi side missing a clutch of first-team regulars - including captain and Blackburn defender Ryan Nelsen - and playing under coach Ricki Herbert for the first time.

Farina said: "I thought it was just what the doctor ordered because New Zealand made it very difficult for us.

"It's the sort of game you need to get the cobwebs out and it was a good hit-out. If anyone who has ever seen Australia-New Zealand matches, then it's never going to be a friendly and that was evident in the first tackle.

"It was good to have the physical aspect of the game there and was one of the reasons why we played New Zealand because in some friendlies nobody wants to touch each other."

Farina acknowledged that his side will have to raise their game considerably against Germany on Wednesday after stumbling past the All Whites.

"We've seen the Germans play four or five times and they're a good side," he said.

"We're going to have be on our game to get something there, but it's always nice to play against the top sides.

"You look at Germany and Argentina and we have the opportunity to play against them in a very competitive tournament.

"We all know that it's been Australia's problem that we don't get to play in enough of these types of games, so this has been the best type of preparation we could have for such a tournament."

Australia were badly lacking firepower and will be hoping that Middlesbrough striker Mark Viduka can shake off his troublesome hamstring in time to participate in the Confederations Cup.

The former Leeds forward has played just 10 minutes since the turn of the year and failed to even make the bench against the All Whites.

However, Farina said: "In six years I've been working with the national team, I've never seen Mark Viduka so focused and determined to be a part of it. He's having arguments every day with the physio because we won't let him do more than he's told.

"It's precaution more than anything. He's training well and working really hard and I'm sure he will play some part in the tournament, if not against Germany."

Remarkably, the encounter was New Zealand's first match for over a year, but there was little evidence of a huge gulf in class between the two sides despite Herbert fielding a team of relative unknowns.

Herbert said: "Six of our starting eleven were not here, but we turned that around in a positive way and introduced some young players.

"We have been in the international wilderness for over a year and that's not good for a country which has aspirations. Tonight was refreshing, but we need more fixtures."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in