Aussies fall to late defeat in Slovenia

New Australia coach Holger Osieck watched from the stands as the Socceroos slipped to a 2-0 defeat against Slovenia on Wednesday.

Osieck, the surprise successor to Pim Verbeek as Australia begin their build-up to the 2011 Asian Cup, knew the game against fellow World Cup finalists would be a tough assignment with the team missing experienced trio Brett Emerton, Tim Cahill and Harry Kewell.

Zlatko Dedic put Slovenia ahead in the 78th minute with Zlatan Ljubijankic adding the second in injury time at the new Stozice stadium in front of a crowd of 16,155 spectators.

Slovenia, who like Australia failed to get out of the group stages at the World Cup, pressed forward from the start with Tim Matavz drawing a great save from Mark Schwarzer after 15 minutes.

Schwarzer, who has been linked with a move away from English Premier League club Fulham, was called into action again in the 35th minute to keep out Andraz Kirm just moments after Milivoje Novakovic had missed a chance on the counter-attack.

Australia’s best opportunity in the first half fell to Bruce Djit but he was unable to punish an error by Slovenian goalkeeper Samir Handanovic.

Brett Holman was proving to be Australia’s most potent threat and was unlucky to see an attempt stopped by Slovenia defender Bojan Jokic.

Dedic came on as a substitute for Matavz and was quickly into the action by forcing substitute goalkeeper Adam Federicija.

Andraz Kirm, Robert Koren and Novakovic continued to cause problems and they went ahead with 12 minutes left when Miso Brecko set up Dedic to head in the opener.

Ljubijankic then added a second in the dying moments with a long-distance drive.

Osieck, 61, who was Franz Beckenbauer’s assistant when Germany won the 1990 World Cup, will take full charge of the Socceroos in their next friendly against Switzerland on September 3.