Australian Impenetrable Defense Tightened ``Samba``

The Australian `Socceroos` won the third place at the 2001 Confederation Cup, defeating the Brazilian team.

The Australian team won over the Brazilian team by 1-0 with the impregnable defense at the Ulsan Munsu Stadium. Australia has created a storm by defeating both France and Brazil ranked the first and the second places in the world. The Australian team received the prize of $1.25 million (about 1.5 billion won), securing the third place in this tournament.

On the other hand, the Brazilian team tarnished its reputation of the world`s best team with the very poor record (1 win, 2 draws and 2 losses). The winning goal of Australia was made in the 38th minute of the second half. Lazaridis took an acute angled free-kick from the touchline outside the penalty area, Shaun Murphy made a goal to seal the game with on-target header from the left side of the goal gate. With this goal, the Brazilian `Samba` soccer had to taste the bitterness of the loss.

The game was proceeded with the one-sided offenses of Brazil. Brazil has put pressures on the Australian defenders from the beginning of the game, placing two-top, Washington and Alves in the forefront. But Brazil missed a couple of opportunities to score a goal. The shots of Brazil were off target or were blocked by Mark Schwarzer.

From the second half, Brazil tried to strengthen the offense by replacing Batista, but the defensive line of Australia was impregnable.

However, Australia placed only Clayton Zane in the forefront, and the rest formed the pressing defensive line from the midfield. The Australian team defeated the Brazilian team with an economic soccer to connect only a chance to a goal in the second half.

Joo Sung-Won swon@donga.com