Australia on course for 2010 World Cup

October 15, 2008

Blackburn Rovers midfielder Brett Emerton scored twice as Australia made light work of Qatar to continue their progress towards the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa.

Further strikes from Everton star Tim Cahill and Josh Kennedy secured a 4-0 win for Australia, moving them to the top of Group A with their second victory of the final qualifying phase after a 1-0 away win last month in Uzbekistan, setting themselves up nicely for their next assignment in Bahrain on November 19.

“I’m not going to start running around with a bottle of champagne and celebrating yet, but it’s six points from two games and five goals with none conceded,” Australian coach Pim Verbeek said.

Uzbekistan’s 1-1 draw with Japan has left Australia top of the group outright.

“That means that Uzbekistan will now be trying to win all their remaining games at home and our three points there are now fantastic, so tonight couldn’t get any better for us,” Australian skipper Lucas Neill said.

Everton star Cahill’s goal continued his incredible near 1 goal for every 2 games ratio with his country, scoring after just nine minutes.

Blackburn Rovers’ Emerton converted from the spot to give the confident Australians a two-goal buffer.

The Qataris must now regroup under their new French coach Bruno Metsu for their third home match of the series against Japan next month.

“Playing Japan at home anything is possible and it’s an opportunity for us if we can beat them and we can get back into the running for the World Cup,” Metsu said.

“It was a difficult game for us tonight and we made some mistakes, but we have some advantages that came out of the match that we can work on for our next game.”

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