Socceroos stun 10-man Netherlands
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Nigel de Jong goes in hard against Socceroos goal scorer Josh Kennedy. (Getty Images: Thomas Starke)
Josh Kennedy headed home the winner for Australia in a surprising 2-1 win over the Netherlands in its international friendly in Eindhoven this morning.
Ryan Babel, who started instead of the injured Arjen Robben, set up Klaas Jan Huntelaar after five minutes to open the scoring for the Dutch but just before the interval Australia replied.
Goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg committed a foul on Kennedy and was sent off with Harry Kewell converting the resulting penalty.
Despite the setback, the Dutch kept control of the match but lacked the offensive power to make the difference against a well-organised Australian defence.
The visitors had good chances in the first half when Jason Culina headed wide and Stekelenburg saved a shot from an unmarked Brett Holman.
With 15 minutes remaining, Kennedy scored the winner from a cross by Luke Wilkshire.
Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek says the match was good preparation for Wednesday's World Cup qualifier against Uzbekistan.
"Because after five minutes it was 1-0 for Netherlands and then you think, okay 85 minutes to go, that can be a tough evening," he said.
"But I think we recovered very well and created some very good chances and we deserved to score the 1-1.
And okay, second half it's 11 and 10, it's always a tricky game. But I'm very proud of the boys, a good result, very good, organised and nobody injured so cannot be better."
- Reuters
