A day after men’s basketball captain Andrew Gaze was named the Australian team flag-bearer for the Opening Ceremony, and women’s hockey gold medalist, Rechelle Hawkes, and water polo referee, Peter Kerr, were chosen to take the respective athletes and officials oaths, the first Australian teams in action were the Australian women’s and men’s football teams.
The football tournament commenced two days before the Opening Ceremony and the Australian women’s team had the honour of being the first team in action when playing Germany at Canberra’s Bruce Stadium before a sold-out crowd of 24,800.
Led by Alison Forman, Australia began the match brightly with two early chances to Forman and Sacha Wainright before Germany’s tactical nous saw it take the lead in the 34th minute.
Australia battled doggedly and was delivered a blow just before the hour when striker Julie Murray was stretchered off with a strained hamstring.
Soon after, Germany doubled the lead and then added a third goal in injury time to complete a 3-0 victory.
While Germany deserved the victory, the final scoreline flattered the eventual Olympic bronze medalists.
“We worked really hard, but you can’t make elementary errors and expect to come away with something,” lamented coach Chris Tanzey.
Hours later, a 93,252-strong crowd at the MCG saw a Brett Emerton-led Australian team and Italy clash in the men’s tournament with Italy snatching a 1-0 victory.
The match-winning goal was scored by Italian striker Andrea Pirlo in the 81st minute after Hayden Foxe attempted to clip the ball past Italian substitute Massimo Margiotta.
But the ball was charged down and Margiotta then crossed to an unmarked Pirlo who slotted the ball past goal-keeper Danny Milosevic. The ball hit the left post and managed to cross the goal-line before a desperate Foxe hacked the ball away.
The internationally celebrated Pirlo was later to become the fifth most capped Italian player of all-time making 116 full international appearances.
It was a cruel end to a game where Australia deserved a draw against an Azzurri team oozing with multi-million-dollar Serie A players. “The way we played, we deserved a draw at least,” lamented coach Raul Blanco.
The match was a cruel prelude to the 2006 FIFA World Cup clash in Germany where the two nations faced off in the infamous quarter-final sudden death fixture where Italy won via a controversial penalty with only seconds of extra-time remaining.
Pirlo, along with fellow Sydney 2000 Olympians Gennaro Gattuso and Gianluca Zambrotta, featured in the Italian World Cup team six years later as did Australian Olympians Emerton, Lucas Neill, Stan Lazaridis, Josip Skoko, Vince Grella, Jason Culina, Mark Bresciano and Mark Viduka.
For the Australian players, the pain of defeat against the football powerhouse nation cut deep for a second time.
Photos of 13 September 2000
Features athletes
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