Caltex Socceroos praise penalty hero and birthday boy Vukovic
Mile Jedinak has paid tribute to his former Central Coast Mariners team-mate Danny Vukovic after he produced a late penalty save to earn Australia a 0-0 draw with Colombia in London.
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The Caltex Socceroos skipper played three Hyundai A-League seasons with the veteran stopper who finally made his Australia debut on his 33rd birthday.
Vukovic gave away and then saved a spot-kick in the dying moments of the game at Craven Cottage.
“He deserved that,” Jedinak told Fox Sports after the game.
“He's been working his socks off to get in the team, to get his opportunity and I'm really, really pleased for him.
“I've known him for a long time and to do it today on the big stage, I couldn't be happier for him,” said Jedinak.
It was a far more pleasing performance from Bert van Marwijk's men and came after a 4-1 loss to Norway in Oslo over the weekend.
“We let ourselves down the other night and we wanted to put it right,” said Jedinak.
“I thought we gave a better account of ourselves and got to grips with what we wanted to do and made it difficult for them.
“We set out to stay compact all over the pitch, not to get too stretched and not to drop off too early.
“Milos and Millsy did a really good job with that today, they kept a really high line and we kept really close to them.
“Anything that was played through behind us, we were onto straight away.
“Everyone put an absolute shift in tonight and we've got a better outcome than the other night.
“At the end we had a bit of luck and Danny with a fantastic save.”
