AUSTRALIA draw with The NETHERLANDS.

Australia has drawn with The Netherlands 1 all in a game that was a bit of a mix of good and bad.

The 1 all draw was mainly due to the magnificiant work of Mark Schwarzer in front of the goals, who was peppered by Ned attacks, otherwise it could have been 3 nill. The two goal scorers were van Nistelrooy at the 9th minute for The Netherlands and Tim Cahill for Australia at the 59th minute of the game after a missed penalty by Viduka when he was dragged down in the box. In a classic heart attack moment the Duke hit the post (as in Sydney), but luckily Cahill who had just been subbed on slotted it home.

The first half was a dominant display by The Neds where they controlled much of the play. The Australians were often on the chase. At half time this was turned round by some strong words from Guus Hiddink.

In the seccond half Australia upped the anti and took it right up to The Ned players attacking more aggresively and limiting the Ned's space ( 2 Ned players were taken off the ground injured). Australia were down to 10 men in the last 30 mins due to a crude tackle by Luke Wilkshire who was Red carded possibly overdoing it in an effort to impress teh coach.
The Aussie players owe Schwarzer a beer after his work, he has shown he has still got it with a bloody good display and a statement to Hiddink that he is the number one Aussie keeper for the upcomming World Cup.

At the end of the day it was a good result for the Aussies who now have a friendly against Liechtenstein on Wednesday (Thursday AET) in Ulm, Germany before opening their World Cup finals campaign against the Japs on June 12 in Kaiserslautern.