On The Verge

The Socceroos took one giant step closer to World Cup Qualification overnight, and they didn’t even have to play. With results in other matches going our way in Japan and Uzbekistan, the Green and Gold are left in an envious position where we only need four out of the remaining possible twelve points in order to qualify.

Japan’s mercurial playmaker Shunsuke Nakamura broke a vigilant Bahraini defence early in the second half – albeit with a deflected free kick – to send the Blue Samurai to the top of the group with 11 points from five games. Again, the same criticism of the Japanese game rang true, with the home side producing some brilliant build up play but constantly lacking that final incisive ball.

Meanwhile in Tashkent, Uzbekistan fired off a warning to the Socceroos ahead of Wednesday night’s encounter in Sydney with an emphatic 4-0 drubbing of Qatar. Despite a disappointing campaign so far – where they went into the game as cellar dwellers with only one point – the home side came out of the blocks against a shell-shocked Qatar side, and took full advantage when the visitors had a man sent off midway through the first half. Dangerman Farhod Tadjiyev scored a hat trick, and will need to be closely monitored by Neill and Co. on Wednesday along with their other game breakers Sever Djeparov and Maksim Shatskikh.

The two results means that Japan are the new group leaders, with the Socceroos sitting second on ten points and with a game in hand. The remaining three teams now all have four points, having played five games each. Since each team only plays eight matches, this means that the bottom three can (mathematically) only get another 9 points, which will give them 13 points. However, only one of the three will potentially reach this 13 point target, as they still need to play each other. All this means that a Socceroos victory on Wednesday will give us 13 points (plus an advantageous goal-difference), and so anything we get after that will guarantee us a spot as at least runners up in the group.

1 Jap 5 3 2 0 8 3 5 11
2 Aus 4 3 1 0 6 0 6 10
3 Uzb 5 1 1 3 5 6 -1 4
4 Bah 5 1 1 3 4 6 -2 4
5 Qat 5 1 1 3 4 12 -8 4