THE final stage of the Olyroos' preparations for the Beijing Olympics resulted in a shaky 3-2 victory against New Zealand yesterday.
Despite enjoying the lion's share of possession and bagging three goals, the partly experimental line-up still looked a touch unsure in defence and were never completely composed going forward as they tried to impose a rapid tempo on the game.
Handed the captaincy armband by coach Graham Arnold, Mark Milligan didn't let him down, scoring two goals and adapting well to his midfield role while Adelaide United's Kristian Sarkies had a hand in all of Australia's goals, and bagged one for himself in the process.
Arnold admitted he was happy with the result, especially after seeing the visitors twice draw level.
"We played well - if anything, the conditions helped them a little more, but that [quick] type of football was what the boys have been playing for the past eight months," Arnold said.
"It's a fast side, a very athletic one. The only thing which was again disappointing was that we didn't get on the end of things to finish off, and you should try to kill those games off earlier.
"If we can get the other 20 per cent that I'm looking for in fitness and when they play together more, I'm quite confident in the boys."
The Olyroos fielded a new-look strike pairing, with first-choice duo Archie Thompson and Mark Bridge benched in favour of the largely untested pairing of Nikita Rukavytsya and a deeper-lying James Troisi.
The match marked the first time the final Olympics squad had come together, and they appeared eager to make good on Arnold's promise that Australia would adopt a fitness-based game to cope with the heat in China.
The Australians maintained a frenetic pace until half-time but such eagerness didn't always translate to fluidity, sometimes appearing more concerned with the speed rather than quality of the movement.
However, New Zealand's defence didn't inspire confidence.
On 26 minutes, the Olyroos grabbed the lead when an unmarked Milligan rifled a header past Jacob Spoonley from a Sarkies corner.
However, New Zealand's reply was virtually instant, with ex-Sydney FC forward Jeremy Brockie breaking free of his marker to drill Daniel Ellensohn's free kick around a stranded Tando Velaphi.
Just minutes later, Sarkies took advantage of a looping clearance to score with a crisp volley.
Six minutes into the second half, Brockie slalomed past three players with a mixture of pace and touch before rounding Velaphi for the simplest of finishes.
Then with just under 20 minutes remaining, Milligan bundled the ball home, again off a Sarkies set piece, after a scramble on the ground.
AUSTRALIA 3 (M Milligan 26m 79m, K Sarkies 38m) beat NEW ZEALAND 2 (J Brockie 28m 52m) at North Sydney Oval. Crowd: 2312.