{"id":567740,"date":"2026-03-27T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/567740\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T12:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T12:00:14","slug":"socceroos-final-home-test-before-world-cup-kick-off-time-live-scores-all-the-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/567740\/","title":{"rendered":"Socceroos\u2019 final home test before World Cup; kick-off time; live scores; all the goals"},"content":{"rendered":"

A late strike from Jordy Bos has saved the Socceroos\u2019 blushes, snapping a three-game winless run with a 1-0 victory over Cameroon in Friday\u2019s FIFA Series clash in Sydney \u2013 their second-last match before the national team forms camp in the United States for the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s performance was broadly uninspiring, and clear-cut chances were few and far between, until a mistake from Cameroon defender Samuel Kotto opened the door for Bos to break the deadlock in the 85th minute.<\/p>\n

Paul Okon-Engstler\u2019s crisp pass into the box should have been snuffed out by Kotto, but his errant touch enabled Bos to sneak past him, go one-on-one with the goalkeeper and sweep the ball into the back of the net unchallenged.<\/p>\n

\"BosBos celebrates his goal.Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Socceroos were the better side and deserved the win against a Cameroonian outfit missing most of their established stars, including Manchester United\u2019s Bryan Mbuemo, Trabzonspor goalkeeper Andre Onana and Brighton midfielder Carlos Baleba.<\/p>\n

But the visitors were let off the hook by Ajdin Hrustic\u2019s missed penalty earlier in the second half \u2013 and those two moments aside, there wasn\u2019t a lot of flow in the final third for Tony Popovic\u2019s men, who have some work to do on their overall creativity if they are to realise their ambitious World Cup dreams.<\/p>\n

The crowd of just 23,798 at Accor Stadium reflected a general lack of mainstream enthusiasm for the Socceroos \u2013 or, perhaps, that last weekend\u2019s AFC Women\u2019s Asian Cup final at this venue had forced football fans into making hard decisions about their discretionary spending. Sydney\u2019s wet and cold weather also would have kept a few punters away, but even those who decided to watch from the couch would have felt short-changed by Australia\u2019s first-half performance.<\/p>\n

Aside from an assured debut by 18-year-old Lucas Herrington, who looked extremely comfortable in Popovic\u2019s trademark three-man central defence, and another all-action display by Jacob Italiano at right wing-back, there wasn\u2019t much from the opening 45 minutes worth recounting.<\/p>\n

\"IrankundaIrankunda in action.Getty Images<\/p>\n

Defensively, they were solid, like always. But the Socceroos generated only one shot of their own, and none on target; for all the probing they did in possession, the penetration was lacking, if there at all. Their most incisive moment came inside the first minute, when Italiano\u2019s ball into the box almost found Martin Boyle. That was pretty much as good as it got.<\/p>\n

Clearly, Popovic didn\u2019t like what he saw, either. At half-time, he took off the other first-time Socceroo, Deni Juric, and Boyle for the creativity and dynamism Awer Mabil and Nestory Irankunda. The latter was deployed up top, instead of his usual position on the wing, which was an experiment worth conducting given the lack of proven depth beyond injured first-choice striker Mohamed Toure.<\/p>\n

And while the second half was better, Irankunda was, for the most part, just as isolated as Juric was, though he did look threatening against tired legs as the match wore on.<\/p>\n

An encouraging cross to the back post from Italiano nearly found the Watford star in the 67th minute \u2013 and if Irankunda was about a foot taller, it might have ended in joy.<\/p>\n

But as Aiden O\u2019Neill tried to collect the missed ball, he was himself collected by Oliver Kamdem, and after a VAR review, a penalty was rightly awarded \u2013 only for Hrustic\u2019s spot kick to be halted by the outstretched left paw of Cameroon\u2019s goalkeeper and captain Devis Epassy.<\/p>\n

\"Cameroon\u2019sCameroon\u2019s Ryan Fosso at full-time.Getty Images<\/p>\n

Hrustic had only been on the field for a few minutes, coming on as part of a triple substitution with Okon-Engstler and Cameron Burgess for Riley McGree, Jason Geria, and a hobbling Connor Metcalfe, who appeared to have picked up a heavy knock, if not an actual injury.<\/p>\n

Irankunda finally got properly involved in the 80th minute, using his explosive pace to latch onto Mabil\u2019s pass, get in front of his defender and fire off a shot that, again, Kamdem managed to stop comfortably. Less than a minute later, the same combination struck again; this time, an unmarked Irankunda was beckoned to shoot by the entire stadium, but couldn\u2019t get his effort on target.<\/p>\n

Bos\u2019 goal spared everyone from a needless circus at the end; the FIFA Series, apparently, must have a winner, so any drawn matches go straight into a penalty shootout.<\/p>\n

The Socceroos go again on Tuesday night at Melbourne\u2019s AAMI Park against Curacao, and there is certainly room for improvement.<\/p>\n

History shows that when the Socceroos get to the World Cup, they always manage to flick the switch and find a new level, despite whatever else their lead-in formline suggests. There\u2019s no reason to think that won\u2019t happen again. But in the meantime, it would be nice to see a bit more oomph in their general play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A late strike from Jordy Bos has saved the Socceroos\u2019 blushes, snapping a three-game winless run with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-567740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}