The Socceroos are adamant they can get to the bottom of their slow starts ahead of their World Cup opener against Turkey after fighting back from a goal down to draw 1-1 with Switzerland.
The Swiss opened the scoring in the 14th minute before debutant Tete Yengi deservedly equalised in the 56th at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego on Saturday (Sunday AEST) in front of 6107 fans.
Like last week's 1-0 loss to Mexico, Switzerland dominated early, with Australia - albeit with a youthful line-up - only really settling after the drinks break in the 22nd minute and improving again after half-time substitutes.
Two of those substitutes - Cameron Burgess and Connor Metcalfe - combined to set up Yengi's equaliser in a slick team move.
The opening minutes remain an area of concern ahead of next Saturday's Group D opener in Vancouver, then matches against the United States and Paraguay.
When asked if he was worried that slow starts were becoming a pattern, captain on the day Harry Souttar said: "No, not really.
"I'll need to watch it back and see what we were doing in the first half but it doesn't worry me at all.
"We've just got to take the positives from our reaction to it. It would be nice, obviously, to start the game with that, but sometimes you don't.
"The positives are after the drinks break and the second half, the whole half."
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Coach Tony Popovic pointed to his seven changes and inexperienced line-up compared to a close to full strength 19th-ranked Switzerland.
Debutant Cristian Volpato, newly defected from Italy, headlined a starting line-up which, with an average age of 24.6 years, was the youngest of the Popovic era.
"If you don't play these games and we don't expose our players to this, we don't evolve, we don't improve - so that's why we did it," Popovic said.
"Everything we wanted from the game we got. We've got no injuries, we got a result - that always helps - and we scored a very nice goal.
"So overall, we're happy. We need to start better, of course next week, that will help us.
"But we've got to try and manage those moments well when things aren't going our way."
Souttar felt the Australians had "looked dangerous" in both of their warm-up games.
Nestory Irankunda, 20, was by far Australia's most dangerous and explosive player while tracking back hard defensively before he was substituted in the 71st minute.
That included in the 49th minute when Irankunda won the ball, burst forward and let rip with a venomous strike that Gregor Kobel tipped onto the bar.
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Popovic felt Irankunda grew into the game after struggling early.
"Second half, like the team, he did better, and we know he's got those moments," Popovic said.
Irankunda was later booked for kicking the ball at Granit Xhaka after the Swiss captain had been fouled.
Popovic hailed Souttar's huge defensive showing as "outstanding" while young goalkeeper Patrick Beach also impressed.
The coach said Volpato, who grew into the first half, before being substituted at halftime, had found it difficult.
For Switzerland's goal, after Beach had denied Ndoye in the eighth and 12th minutes, Xhaka sliced through the Australian defensive lines with a wonderful ball for Ndoye to score.
Eleven minutes after Irankunda's would-be screamer was denied, centre-back Burgess brilliantly released Metcalfe, who squared the ball for a sliding Yengi to score.
Popovic kept making substitutes and the Socceroos withstood a Swiss flurry.
STARTING XI
Patrick Beach (GK); Jacob Italiano, Alessandro Circati, Harry Souttar, Lucas Herrington, Aziz Behich; Paul Okon-Engstler, Aiden O'Neill; Cristian Volpato, Nestory Irankunda; Tete Yengi
