Soccer: Showdown time for Olympic hopes

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Old rivals New Zealand and Australia clash again on Monday night in the first of the home and away matches to decide who will be Oceania's direct entry to the Athens Olympics tournament.

While New Zealand had to come from behind to beat Vanuatu 3-2 in the group B decider at North Harbour Stadium on Thursday night, Australia, in a rain-delayed clash in Sydney, got home 6-0 over Fiji in group A.

The respective under-23 teams will meet at Sydney's Parramatta Stadium on Monday night, with the return at North Harbour Stadium at 7.30pm on Friday.

Early goals to Carl Valeri and Brett Holman had Australia 2-0 ahead after just six minutes. Holman scored his second for 3-0 nine minutes into the second spell.

The scoring was completed by a Dylan Macallister hat-trick in the last 12 minutes of the match.

In the early game in Australia, Samoa and Papua New Guinea drew 4-4 after PNG had led 2-1 at halftime.

The point Papua New Guinea took from the match was their first of the tournament.

Following the matches, Australian coach Frank Farina confirmed his 20-strong squad for the playoffs.

Seven players have returned from their European clubs, including captain Ljubo Milicevic who plays for Swiss club FC Thun.

Valeri is with Inter Milan in Italy and David Tarka with Nottingham Forest.

Macallister is a regular in the Northern Spirit NSL team, as is New Zealand striker Brent Fisher.

Vanuatu coach Carlos Buzzetti was fuming long after his team's loss at North Harbour Stadium.

In an outburst aimed at referees' inspector Ken Wallace, Buzzetti accused the match officials of costing his team a draw and the top spot in the group.

Buzzetti was wild when what he felt was a legitimate goal late in the game was wrongly disallowed with linesman Hillary Ani (Papua New Guinea) flagging for offside - a decision that many questioned at the time.

New Zealand could have had a similar gripe early in the match when Ani failed to notice a hand-ball by a Vanuatu defender.

From that, the ball was played deep and Jean Maleb, the tournament's leading scorer (seven), scored the ninth-minute opener.

Buzzetti later handed a letter to the match commissioner Madu Andrew, who has since returned to Papua New Guinea, expressing his disappointment at the match officials.

Ani has been appointed as one of the linesmen for Monday's match. He will be joined by Neal Poloso (Solomon Islands), with Fiji's Leone Rakaroi as referee.

New Zealand fly to Sydney today to prepare for Monday's first leg.

Both games will be shown live on Sky Television.