Australia captain Mark Milligan said the Socceroos showed "showed more patience" in earning a 1-1 draw with Cameroon at the Confederations Cup on Thursday.
Following an opening defeat to Germany, Australia continued their development under coach Ange Postecoglou but could only manage a disappointing point, damaging their hopes of qualifying for the knockout phase in Russia.
Cameroon won over the 35,021 fans at St Petersburg Stadium with entertaining football, while Australia dominated the possession battle but took only five shots to Cameroon's 19, but Milligan said he came down on the side of slower football.
"We were a bit more patient tonight and when we're patient we tended to open them up and stretch them a little bit," he said. "It felt like a better performance.
"I think we showed more patience than we did against Germany. In the second half against Germany we showed a little bit of patience and we played better football. Tonight it was similar."
Australia must now beat Chile and rely on a positive result from the Germany-Cameroon game to progress, but Postecoglou saw development in their more considered approach.
"In both games, we've performed in the manner we want to," he said. "We're still unfortunately having little lapses that are costing us but that's against the very best.
"For large parts of it we dictated the game. There's certainly progression in there. And they didn't give up. There's spirit in this team."
Postecoglou said he wouldn't be changing the team's approach when they meet the FIFA's fourth-ranked team on Sunday in Moscow.
"We'll just keep doing what we're doing. We're playing against the world's best and we haven't sat back for a moment," he said. "That's all I want to see. We won't keep sitting back. We'll get to where we want to get to and we'll be relentless at that.
"[Chile are] another challenge against a top nation. We'll try and take the game to them and try and get maximum points.
"We're still alive in the tournament. A point tonight keeps us in it. We'll have an opportunity to get three points in the final game and see how far that takes us."