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7 mins: The Socceroos are making all the attacking as their front three continues to find space on either flank. Nestory Irankunda stands alone at the top of the penalty box but just as the teenager is about to unleash a rocket a Venezuela defender intervenes. Lewis Miller perhaps fortunate to avoid a caution in the build up.
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5 mins: Toure gets another shot away after shrugging off the Venezuela defender. The powerful strike would have tested the keeper Contreras but it crashes into the side netting.
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3 mins: Mo Toure brings the first save of the game with a clever run and sharp shot. José Contreras is forced to make an early save.
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1 min: A cagey opening with both sides probing and prodding with young lineups hoping to force their way into becoming regulars.
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Kickoff
Peeeeeeep! The Socceroos have first rights with the ball as the international friendly against Venezuela gets under way in Houston.
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The players are out on the pitch at Shell Energy Stadium in Houston with Advance Australia Fair the first national anthem to sound out. Venezuela’s Gloria al Bravo Pueblo – Glory to the Brave People – is up now.
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This is the second meeting been Venezuela and Australia – but the first in more than 21 years – after the sides played out a 1-1 draw in a friendly in February 2004. Paul Agostino opened the scoring for the Socceroos, while Juan Arango equalised for Venezuela in the dying stages.
Here is some suitably grainy footage of the game from a potentially unreliable source.
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Venezuela XI
La Vinotinto: J Contreras (capt), N Ferraressi, T Quintero, D Pereira, G Mendoza, C Casseres, T Segovia, E Echenique, L Balbo, R Hernandez, J Ramirez.
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Australia XI
Socceroos: Patrick Beach (gk), Lewis Miller, Jason Geria, Milos Degenek (capt), Kai Trewin, Craig Goodwin, Aiden O’Neill, Paul Okon-Engstler, Connor Metcalfe, Nestory Irankunda, Mohamed Toure.
Beach, Trewin and Okon-Engstler make their senior debuts. Degenek takes the captain’s armband. The budding partnership between Irankunda and Toure is given more time to blossom.
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Preamble
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the international football friendly between Venezuela and Australia at Shell Energy Stadium in Houston.
The Socceroos continue to ramp up their preparations for the 2026 World Cup to be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico with a pair of friendlies against South American opponents. The first is against a rebuilding La Vinotinto before facing fellow World Cup qualifiers Colombia on Wednesday (Australia time). The back-to-back matches against opposition from the same region is all part of coach Tony Popovic’s grand plan to prepare for different strategies and styles that his side might face in the group stage – or beyond – at next year’s tournament.
Australia have laid a strong foundation since Popovic took the reins and were one of the first sides to book their place in the showpiece event, though their 12-match unbeaten run was snapped in the last international window. A 2-1 defeat to the US followed an edgy 1-0 win over Canada as Popovic and the Socceroos continue to test themselves against challenging opponents rather than go all in on their hopes to rise up the rankings and snatch a spot in pot 2 of the World Cup draw next month.
The Socceroos are ranked No 25 in the world and within reach of three teams ahead of them including South Korea in 22nd place. Venezuela are ranked 50th in the world after a 1-0 loss to Argentina last month.
La Vinotinto finished eighth in CONMEBOL qualifying to miss out on a World Cup play-off spot when beaten by Colombia in the last group game at the same time as Bolivia stunned Brazil to leap over them in the standings. Venezuela will have to wait at least another four years to qualify for a first World Cup but are already preparing for the future with a new-look squad filled with emerging talent to take on the Socceroos.
Kick off in Houston is 8.30pm local / 1.30pm AEDT. I’ll be back shortly with the line-ups. But now is the time to hit me up with questions, thoughts and predictions – shoot me an email, or find me on X @martinpegan and Bluesky @martinpegan.bsky.social. Let’s get into it!
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