Birthday boy Vukovic lifts Australian spirits

BERT van Marwijk saluted Daniel Vukovic as the debutant restored a little of Australia’s shattered sporting pride by saving Miguel Borja’s penalty in Tuesday’s 0-0 draw against Colombia.

Australian morale is at rockbottom in the wake of the balltampering controversy that has engulfed the nation’s cricket team in the scandal that erupted during the third Test in Cape Town.

Amid the fallout from that shameful incident, Australia’s footballers had the opportunity to give their public something to be proud of.

Van Marwijk’s side did just that with a gutsy display in their World Cup warm-up friendly against the higherranked Colombians in west London.

After a 4-1 loss in Norway in Van Marwijk’s first game in charge, this was a more encouraging effort ahead of the World Cup in Russia, where Australia will play Denmark, Peru and France in the group stage.

And it came with a welcome feel-good story as Vukovic, who plays in relative anonymity for Belgian side Genk, made a memorable contribution on his 33rd birthday.

There were just four minutes left when Vukovic, on as a halftime substitute, conceded a penalty, but he redeemed himself by saving Borja’s strike to ensure Australia avoided a sec- ond successive defeat.

“He actually saved a few penalties in training so I spoke to him after the match and told him he conceded it on purpose!” Van Marwijk said.

“I’m happy he saved it. We played very well in the first half. In the second it became more difficult, but we had good character to get the 0-0.”

Holding Colombia, who have qualified for the World Cup and won in France last week, was a sign of progress for van Marwijk.

“They are one of the best in the world, but we had a good plan,” he said.

“Against Norway we wanted to play the same, but we only had one training session. Now you can see the players are understanding how we want to play.

“We are getting to know each other. We go to Russia to survive the first round. That is our first goal.”