Munro's finish was enough to see off Thailand 1-0 but it wasn't all good news with Nick Tsattalios sent off for a straight red card in the closing 10 minutes.

Coming into the tournament, Young Socceroos goalkeeper Alex Cisak had to withdraw from the squad due to a bout of chicken pox and Mike McEntagert was called in late as a replacement.

James Holland and Ryan McGowan had to watch the opening match from the stands with both having to serve one match suspensions after both players collected two yellow cards during the first stage of qualifications.

The Young Socceroos scored the only goal of the match in the 20th minute after Thailand turned over in the midfield. Mitch Nichols capitalised on the error and found Sam Munro in the middle of the pitch with a perfect pass. Munro then attacked, sidestepped his defender at the edge of the penalty box and hit a sweet left foot strike into the bottom right hand corner of the past the outstretched Thai goalkeeper.

Nichols had a great chance to double the Young Socceroos lead shortly after, but his shot from just inside the box on the right sprayed wide of the left goal-post.

Thailand’s best chance to equalise came midway through the second half with a free kick 30 metres out but the attempt went wide of right post.

Thailand had another opportunity to equalise when Young Socceroos defender Nik Tsattalios was red-carded for a heavy tackle just outside the box. Thailand were unable to convert the resulting free-kick and were also unable to exploit their one-man overlap in the final ten minutes to allow the Young Socceroos to take all three points from the opening match

Speaking after the match, Young Socceroos Head Coach Jan Versleijen was pleased with his team’s start to the tournament.

"The win was important as it gives us a good start and we know that two wins should allow us to make the next round, so a win to start puts us in a good position,” said Versleijen.

“The first 20 minutes was very good and we should have had a second goal, by not converting ensured that Thailand could still exert some pressure on us. But that being the case Thailand only had one or two shots at goal in ninety minutes.

“Our next game will be a lot tougher and if we want to win this we will need to convert our opportunities," concluded Versleijen.

In the other group match, Uzbekistan defeated Jordan 1-0.

The Qantas Young Socceroos will play their play their next Group D match against Uzbekistan on Monday 3 November before their final group match against Jordan on Wednesday 5 November.

Australia: Andrew Redmayne, Seb Ryall, Ben Kantarovski, Luke DeVere, Niko Tsattalios, Mitch Nichols (Matt Jurman 83), Tahj Minniecon (Isaka Cernak 72), Tommy Oar, Sam Munro, Marko Jesic (Milos Lujic 58), Daniel Mullen.

Substitutes Not Used: Oliver Bozanic, James Brown, Peter Cvetanovski, Nathan Elasi, Daniel Ireland (gk), Michael McEntagert (gk), Jason Naidovski.