The Young Socceroos have fallen narrowly short of a win in their opening Group E match at the Under-20 World Cup in Egypt, losing to the Czech Republic 2-1 in Port Said on Sunday night (AEST).
Captain James Holland fired home an injury-time penalty for the Australians but it wasn't enough to get them over the line after the Czechs opened the scoring through Michael Rabusic's 50th minute header, before doubling the advantage through Tomas Pekhart's 89th-minute penalty.
Young Socceroos coach Jan Versleijen said his team could perform much better.
“If you want to get results in a World Cup you have to play at a high level and we didn’t see that today," Versleijen said.
"You can always pinpoint reasons and there's a lot of expectations, not from outside but from the players themselves, because everyone wants to get a big result and maybe that worked a bit against us, maybe we were nervous."
"But that aside, I know we can do much better and everybody knows we can do much better and that’s the positive coming out of it."
"The important thing now is to get a result against Costa Rica to have a chance of qualifying for the next round," he said.
Australia created the first chance in the 13th minute when striker Jason Hoffman blasted wide following a lightning Kofi Danning counter attack.
But it was the Czechs who produced the best chances. Jan Vosahlik's deflected shot forced goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis to tip over the bar in the 22nd minute before Lukas Marecek fired inches wide of the upright six minutes later.
Newcastle Jet Sean Rooney was brought on for Hoffman at half-time but it was the Czechs who netted first.
Lukas Vacha fired in the free kick from the right and Michael Rabusic got his head to the ball, flicking it on to the back post and into the net via the upright in the 50th minute.
Seven minutes later Tom Oar hit a fierce left foot strike which forced 'keeper Tomas Vaclik to scramble but he did enough to keep it out of the net.
Tahj Minniecon and Chris Herd came on with 20 minutes remaining but could do little when referee Marco Rodriguez pointed to the spot and consequently handed Ryan McGowan a red card, with substitute striker Tomas Pekhart converting in the 89th minute.
The Young Socceroos pulled one back through Holland's penalty for a shirt tug deep into stoppage time but it was too late for the Australians.
Brazil, meanwhile, have taken control of Group E through a 5-0 thrashing of Costa Rica powered by Alan Kardec's double.
Honduras leads the way in Group F as a Mario Roberto Martinez brace helped the Central Americans to a 3-0 win over Hungary, while the United Arab Emirates and South Africa shared the points in a 2-2 draw.