April 01, 2009

The Socceroos moved to the very brink of qualification for the 2010 World Cup with a hard-fought 2-0 win over Uzbekistan at ANZ Stadium on Wednesday night.

After a disappointing first-half performance in front of 57,292 fans, Australia came alive in the second half with a 66th-minute goal to substitute Josh Kennedy and a 73rd minute Harry Kewell penalty sealing the win.

The Socceroos' place in South Africa could be officially booked as soon as early Thursday morning if Bahrain and Qatar play out a draw in Manama.

But even if that doesn't happen, they now only need one point from their final three qualifiers - an away trip to Qatar in June and home clashes with Bahrain and Japan - to assure qualification.

“There was a lot of pressure on tonight's game because we knew had to win the game and we did and now we could be the first team to qualify for the World Cup,'' Socceroos captain Lucas Neill said.

“The second half, the boys put a lot of pressure on and we got what we deserved.''

There was a sense of disappointment from the home fans as the Socceroos headed for halftime locked at 0-0 on a wet night in Sydney.

But the Australian team sprung to life in the 59th minute when midfielder Jason Culina forced a top-class save out of Uzbekistan goalkeeper Ignatiy Nesterov with a brilliant, 25-metre swerving shot.

Kennedy, who somewhat surprisingly started on the bench, came on for Celtic striker Scott McDonald in the 60th minute and it took only six minutes for the substitution to pay dividends.

The towering Kalrsruhe striker again showed his prowess in the air in leaping to meet a Mark Bresciano cross and steer in a header for his sixth goal in just 12 international appearances.

Any worries of an Uzbek comeback were killed off seven minutes later when Hull City midfielder Richard Garcia, handed his first Socceroos start in place of the injured Tim Cahill, was brought down in the box by a clumsy challenge by Hayrulla Karimov.

Kewell, in fine form with his Turkish club Galatasaray, then stepped up and cooly slotted the penalty to secure the vital win.

There were few chances in a lacklustre first half, but both sides would have felt they could have gone into the break in front.

Bresciano had Australia's best chance in the 16th minute when he did brilliantly to take a McDonald cross but drove a shot straight at Nesterov.

Uzbekistan's best chance came when star midfielder Server Djeparov threaded a fine through ball to striker Farhod Tadjiyev but the hat-trick hero from Saturday's 4-0 win over Qatar flashed his shot just wide of Mark Schwarzer's goals.

The short turnaround and hectic travel since their win over Qatar clearly affected the tiring Uzbeks, who can now only hope for the third-placed play-off spot in Group A.