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Final flourish Australia stuns Brazil in third-place playoff
Updated: Saturday June 09, 2001 9:53 AM
ULSAN, South Korea (AP) -- Australia concluded its giant-killing Confederations Cup campaign by adding a 1-0 win over Brazil in the third-place playoff Saturday to its earlier upset of world champion France. Defender Shaun Murphy scored the match winner when he met Stan Lazaridis' pinpoint, curling free kick with a diving header that slipped past Brazilian goalkeeper Dida in the 84th minute. "It's a dream to beat Brazil," said Murphy. "To score the goal ... it was just incredible." The Socceroos, No. 68 in the FIFA world rankings, had a 1-0 win over No. 1 France in the preliminaries and returned after successive losses to South Korea and Japan to stun No. 2 Brazil, a four-time world cup titlist. Brazilian striker Magno Alvas had a chance to equalize in stoppage time but missed a shot with the goals open. The 25-year-old Fluminense forward had missed with three previous shots on goal. Australian coach Frank Farina praised Brazil for playing open, attacking soccer, but added that the Socceroos' makeshift defensive line deserved the accolades. "Both teams had a number of chances," Farina said. "I'm just happy that we took one of ours and won the game. "It's a big thing for us to win against Brazil, just like it was to win against France. For the game in Australia results like this are very important in terms of our future and hopefully for the World Cup. "We don't often get to compete against the quality teams that we've played here -- for us the Confederations Cup has been a huge success." Under fire Brazil coach Emerson Leao said he was fed up with his team's failure to convert scoring chances into goals. "We had opportunities to score five goals today and we missed all of them -- it was always the same in the campaign," Leao said. "I'm tired of that ... we should have won the game but we wasted our chances." It was a major reversal of the 6-0 thrashing Brazil gave the Socceroos in the 1997 Confederations Cup final. Brazil was without stars like Ronaldo, who scored three goals in the '97 decider, but Australia was also without regular captain Paul Okon, vice-captain Kevin Muscat and star forwards Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka. Brazil came to life 30 minutes into the second half after stumbling through the first period. At that stage, it seemed only a matter of time before the Aussie defense would crack against wave after wave of attack. But Murphy, the 30-year-old Sheffield United fullback, converted defense into attack with his athletic header that matched his goal in Australia's 2-0 win over defending Confederations Cup titlist Mexico. "I wasn't expecting it," Murphy said. "I just shadowed the other players at the far post and was surprised that I wasn't marked." Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer was instrumental in keeping the Brazilians scoreless. He made two saves within five minutes of the halftime break against Alves and blocked a header by Washington in the 63rd minute. Schwarzer produced the match saver in the 72nd minute to stop a Julio Baptista back-heal volley and then Murphy got in front of Baptista's drive from point-blank range to keep the scores even. Alves and Australian striker Clayton Zane traded shots on goal without any success in the opening 45 minutes. Zane connected with a cross from Lazaridis in the 12th minute but his header was tipped over the crossbar by Dida. Washington sent a perfect pass across goals from the right side for Alves, but the striker missed a routine shot that should have given Brazil a 1-0 lead on 22 minutes. The Brazilian squad will return home amid growing public frustration with the team and its coach. Local newspapers had called for Leao's axing before the loss to Australia, when the Brazilians were 1-1-2. The Brazilians were forced into a semifinal against France after placing second in Group B with a 2-0 win over Olympic champion Cameroon and two scoreless draws against Canada and Brazil. A 2-1 loss to France plunged the South Americans into the third-place playoff and also ensured the French should retain top spot in the FIFA world rankings. Brazil occupied No. 1 in the rankings for seven years until France went ahead last month. Australia's defensive line was decimated with Okon and his deputy Muscat both returning Down Under for personal commitments after the 1-0 semifinal loss to Japan and Craig Moore on suspension. The Australians placed second in Group A, losing 1-0 to South Korea after grabbing back-to-back wins over Mexico and France. Lineups: Brazil: Dida; Ze Maria, Claudio Cacapa, Edmilson, Leo; Fabio, Vampeta (captain), Carlos Miguel (66th Julio Baptista); Ramon, Washington, Magno Alves. Australia: Mark Schwarzer; Tony Vidmar (captain), Shaun Murphy, Tony Popovic, Stan Lazaridis; Steve Horvat, Steve Corica (61st Miles Sterjovksi), Josip Skoko (71st Marco Bresciano); Scott Chipperfield, Clayton Zane, David Zdrilic. Referee: Hellmut Krug, Germany.
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