Asked whether he was pleased with his side’s performance Arnold joked: “Of course, we scored both goals didn’t we?” referring to Adam D’Apuzzo’s own goal which gave Mexico an early lead. The coach went on to praise the maturity of his young charges.

“We had ten players in the squad that are only 19 years-of-age, a lot of the European-based players are missing and some guys are on debut. And we pushed [Mexico] all the way. And they are a good side, pumped up and ready to play their qualifiers in a couple of weeks.”

Arnold reserved individual praise for ‘keeper Tando Velaphi. The 20-year-old replaced Central Coast’s Danny Vukovic who is back in Australia awaiting an appeal to a ban resulting from his indiscretions at last weekend’s A-League Grand Final. The young Perth Glory ‘keeper had an excellent game between the sticks, pulling off several match-saving blocks and looking decisive and commanding throughout.

“He’s always been second behind ‘Vuka’ and today he got his chance and was just outstanding.”

Graham Arnold also lauded the efforts of 18-year-old Newcastle Jet James Holland, who played a full game in the heart of midfield and showed no nerves on debut in front of a raucous crowd of over 40,000 Mexican fans. Two of Holland’s Newcastle teammates, Tarek Elrich and Jason Hoffman, also made their debut coming off the bench in the second half. The Jets capped off a great week with midfielder Troy Hearfield scoring the equaliser with a sweetly-timed volley.

Captain Adrian Leijer, who has been at English Premier League side Fulham this season, was one of only two European-based players on the park, the other being David Williams. The former Melbourne Victory defender says he was impressed by the young talent emerging in the A-League.

“The young guys did really well. There’s a lot of talent coming through in Australia. I hadn’t seen many of them play before this week and I was impressed. There’s going to be a lot of competition now for spots in Beijing, with all these young guys impressing Arnie.”

Despite being pleased with the overall performance, Graham Arnold singled out fitness as the main aspect of the game that the Olyroos need to work on, with some players showing tired legs by the end of the match.

“That was a great lesson on fitness. You can’t play at A-League fitness levels in international football. We have 120 days before we announce our squad and a hundred of those will be working on physical fitness, to get them ready.”

Teams:

Australia
Ruben Zadkovich (Tarek Elrich, 60’), Adrian Leijer, Leigh Broxham (Robert Corthwaite, 85’), Adam D’Apuzzo (Nigel Boogaard, 53’), Nikolai Topor-Stanely, David Williams (Jason Hoffman, 76’), Billy Celeski (Troy Heartfield, 76’), Bruce Djite (Matt Simon, 72’), Nathan Burns (Nikita Rukavysya, 72’), James Holland, Tando Velaphi.

Mexico
Guiillermo Ochoa, Francisco Gamboa (Luis Angel Landin, 46’), Edgar Castillo, Hugo Ayala, Julio Cesar Dominguez, Patricio Araujo, Pablo Barrera (Omar Arellano, 79’), Sergio Avila (Edgar Andrade, 46’), Santiago Fernandez (Luis Omar Hernandez, 46’), Cesar Villaluz, Enrique Esqueda (Alan Zamora, 79’.)