Olyroos come unstuck against Japan

The Olyroos have been defeated 2-1 by Japan in their second-last friendly before the Beijing Olympics.

With the match looking like ending in a 1-1 draw, an 89th-minute deflected strike by Shinji Okazaki gave the home side a stunning victory.

Over-age players Jade North and Archie Thompson were both in the starting line-up, while goalkeeper Adam Federici made his Olyroos debut.

It was Thompson who opened the scoring in the 34th minute after he calmly slotted past the on-rushing keeper after good work from Nikita Rukavytsya.

Japan equalised just before the half-time break through Shinji Kagawa.

Kristian Sarkies almost gave Australia the lead soon after the break, but Japan goalkeeper Kaito Yamamoto produced an outstanding reflex save.

As both teams pushed for a winner, Japan was able to make the breakthrough with Okazaki scoring after a fine cross from Hiroyuki Taniguchi.

Following the match coach Graham Arnold was proud of the performance of his players but disappointed with the final scoreline.

"A couple of lapses in concentration cost us the game tonight, but I'd prefer that errors like these occur during these friendly matches and we learn from them rather than during the Olympics where these types of mistakes will have more severe consequences," Arnold said after the match.

"The biggest positives to come out of the match are the performances of Archie Thompson and Jade North."

"Archie showed everyone the quality of player that he really. His goal was a just reward for the effort he put in and the eighty minutes of football in tough humid conditions will help boost his match fitness going into the Olympic Games."

"Jade North also showed great leadership at the back and I'm happy with the way that he has fitted in with the team and our style of football. His experience will be key to our performance at the Olympics and I'm very comfortable with that fact."

"Japan are a very fit team and all their players are in the middle of their domestic competitions. It was the type of hit out we needed in these hot conditions."

"Now we head off for a week in South Korea to continue our acclimatisation process and tournament preparations."

"We are still 14 days away from our opening match against Serbia and that is still our focus."

The Olyroos will now travel to Korea for their final pre-Olympic warm-up match next Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Matildas were beaten by Japan 3-0 in Kobe on Thursday night.

Homare Sawa and Yuki Nagasato both scored either side of the half-time interval to set up the victory, while Karina Maruyama added another from the penalty spot five minutes before full-time.

After the match Matildas coach Tom Sermanni was not surprised about the final result but did have some concerns regarding his team's performance.

"Japan are at the top of their game heading into the Olympics and we are currently going through a rebuilding phase," said Sermanni

"Although the result was not in our favour, I was more disappointed with the way we conceded our goals. But that is something that can be worked on."

The Matildas will not be playing in the Olympic tournament and will now turn their focus to the upcoming ASEAN Football Federation Women's Championships which will be played in Vietnam in October.