Verbeek leaves the champagne on ice
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Tim Cahill made an immediate impact upon his international return. (AAP: Dave Hunt)
Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek says he will not accept complacency in Australia's bid to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup following a resounding 4-0 win over Qatar in Brisbane last night.
Australia scored goals through Brett Emerton (2), Tim Cahill and Josh Kennedy on the sodden Lang Park surface to record its second consecutive win of the qualifying stage.
The Socceroos now have a perfect two-from-two record in this stage to lead Group A following an impressive away victory in Uzbekistan last month.
It was Australia's third win over Qatar in World Cup qualifying - the Socceroos posting 3-0 and 3-1 wins in the previous qualification stage. The top two teams in Group A earn direct qualification to the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.
But Verbeek believes it is far too early to start thinking about a World Cup berth despite the Socceroos' flying start to the campaign.
"I'm not the one who is running around with a bottle of champagne in my hand because we have six points... but I will do that when we qualify," he said.
"Before we qualify we should not think we are there, we still have a long way to go."
Qatar's new coach Bruno Metsu spoke confidently prior to the game about the prospects of forcing a draw, but will encourage his players to learn from the loss.
"When you play against a strong team it is difficult to make one mistake, but one mistake it finishes you," he said.
"Today the first mistake - they score. But I think for everybody, especially it is a good lesson today."
Strength in depth
Emerton heaped praised the depth of Australia's football stocks after playing a key role in the Socceroos' 4-0 thrashing of Qatar.
Emerton scored twice with goals either side of half-time, and exploited the space on the right flank in a more advance role in the midfield to expose Qatar's brittle defence.
Cahill also made an immediate impact in his first international appearance in eight months, celebrating his return from injury with a brilliant strike in the ninth minute to open the scoring.
Despite their dominance the Socceroos played without a number of injured stars in Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka, Mark Bresciano and Vince Grella and Emerton says the win highlights the depth in the squad.
"A number of players have come along over the last 6-12 months and performed particularly well," he said.
"I think what's pleasing as well is the depth we've got in the squad at the moment, [we're] missing a number of important players in the team and still performed quite well so that's very pleasing."
Kennedy, who completed the rout with a header from a Luke Wilkshere cross, echoed those sentiments and believes confidence is high within the Australian squad.
"We've come off a good couple of wins now, but in saying that we've got two away games coming up," he said.
"Every game is different and every game is very difficult.
"We don't take anything for granted and say any game is going to be easy... step by step and we'll take it from there."
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Comments (10)
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carlos:
16 Oct 2008 10:49:16am
Great. Keep going! We are behind you all the way..Lets show the world that the Australia is not all about cricket and rugby..
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Martin:
16 Oct 2008 11:01:45am
The game was a joy to watch. Free-flowing, end-to-end play of a high standard. If they can keep this up, they are sure to qualify. Congrats to Pim and the team.
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Bruce:
16 Oct 2008 11:19:32am
It would have been great to watch! I can't believe that a sporting event of this stature is not available free to air. Football Australia says it is promoting the sport, how does making the top games unavailable to the vast majority of the population promote the sport?
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Bazza:
16 Oct 2008 11:03:29am
If this were cricket or rugby, Qatar would not have to qualify. FIFA would be begging them to come to the world cup finals themselves, and any other country who had vaguely heard of football.
I just hope the Japan game on June 17 is not a dead rubber. Can't wait for another experience like the Uraguay game.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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finwizer:
16 Oct 2008 11:32:00am
Actually Bazza, I hope it is a dead rubber because it will mean we will have already qualified! Perhaps the thinking should be if we beat Japan in Melbourne, we can eliminate them from qualifying.
I was at the game last night, our boys were magic to watch, the skills they displayed were awesome, clearly a week together before the game helped.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Troy:
16 Oct 2008 11:06:36am
Shame on the FFA for the empty top tier at Suncorp Stadium last night. It had nothing to do with the weather and everything to do with the exhorbitant prices charged for this game. I went to the game against Iraq at Suncopr during the previous qualifying. $65 was a reasonable price to pay to watch the Socceroos play the Champions of Asia. The prices for the same seats this time were close to $90. The FFA cannot justify that amount of money to watch the Socceroos play a mediocre team. If the FFA is serious about bidding for the World Cup then they need to have full stadiums at our international games, and they are not going to do it when they charge unreasonable prices for tickets. The Japan game will go close to selling out but I hope the FFA has learnt its lesson and reduces ticket prices for the Bahrain and Uzbekistan games.
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Matthew:
16 Oct 2008 11:42:59am
Great game by the boys, only 9 points away from qualifaction. Also well said Pim, the real test lies in the next two games, Bahrain and Japan both away. I holeheartly agree, $90 to WAY TOO MUCH to pay for that sort of ticket. I only hope the Uzbeck and Bahraini game tickets aren't THAT pricey.
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Z Yan:
16 Oct 2008 11:13:12am
Well done and congratulations, guys. Keep it up!!!!!
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Horrocks:
16 Oct 2008 11:18:51am
great work from the whole team, lovely to watch great lessons for the youngsters, and for that other code having a "world cup" that is what a real World Cup qualifier is all about
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Brad:
16 Oct 2008 11:20:09am
This shows how strong Australian football is, beating a relatively good nation without some of our star players.
It is bizarre that corporate sponsors and the commercial media largely ignore the second most popular football code in the country while still pumping money into the fourth most popular code, the sinking ship called rugby league.Agree (2) Alert moderator
