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the socceroos have taken the lead in their world cup qualifying group after a convincing 4-0 drubbing of qatar in lang park. australia have won both of our opening games and lead the group with 6 points,  followed by japan and qatar with 4 points each.

coach verbeek warned the socceroos not to be complaciant against qatar, despite 3-0 and 3-1 victories against them previously. and despite giving qatar more possession, australia’s defense remained inpenetrable.

tim cahill, returning from a long injury, opened the scoring after just 9 minutes. cahill has a history of terrorising asian nations after his two goals gave australia victory over japan in the last world cup. brett emerton doubled the lead 10 minutes later with a penalty.

emerton had a good game and was in the thick of the action. he got his second, and australia’s third, after the break. josh kennedy added to qatar’s woes with a late header.

qatar had a few shots on goal, but couldn’t get a breakthrough.

despite the good start, the socceroos still have a long way to go and are rightly cautious about their good form. the team played well, despite the absence of kewell, viduka and bresciano.

now the team looks to their november 19th game away to bahrain.

in other matches, japan drew with uzbekistan, blowing their chances of staying level with australia. south korea, after a run of mediocre form, turned on a 4-1 victory over uae. the koreans now top their group, but saudi arabia and north korea are level on points.

liverpool’s title hopes are being taken seriously after the reds won a comfortable derby against mersey rivals everton. liverpool traveled to goodison for what is usually one of the most torrid derby matches in england, however from the outset the reds completely dominated everton with slick passing and clean movements. the first half was all liverpool, despite few chances at scoring.

the second half started in the same fashion, with liverpool dominating possession and the controling the ball. however liverpool were starting to put a lot of pressure on the toffees’ back line. howard, everton’s keeper, made a few saves from gerrard and kuyt, but was completely undone when keane and torres combined to open the scoring. keen flicked a good lobbed cross into the box, kuyt ran an angle and took everton’s defense with him, leaving torres wide open to smash the ball past the keeper.

strike sensation fernando torres celebrates his second goal against everton

a minute later, torres claimed the rebound after kuyt’s shot. he doubled the score with a volley that ricocheted in off the top post. liverpool were on fire and everton had no answers. kuyt found the net, but his shot was ruled off side, and torres also hit the net again but was denied too after an ufair foul ruling against kuyt.

everton’s aussie player tim cahill had a good game, until he was red carded for a foul on alonso. it seemed not to be a serious foul, but he walked away from the referee, which is why i think the red was given. and in other news, arsenal were defeated by promoted team hull. hull are celebrating a shock 2-1 win over the gunners, which for them will be just as good as winning the league.

aside from a draw at stoke, liverpool have beaten two important teams in the league, and now look forward to their midweek game against psv eindhoven. a win in their champions league group will put liverpool in a great position. after that, the reds have a good run of games. liverpool face manchester city and wigan athletic, before they face athletico madrid. at the end of october, liverpool face the all important crunch match against co-league leaders chelsea.

liverpool are currently 2nd in the league, behind chelsea. we’re equal on points, but behind on goal difference.

the socceroos got their world cup qualifiers underway in fine style after beating qatar 3-0 in melbourne last night. the aussies’ first game under new coach pim verbeek featured most of australia’s big guns, with the exception of kewell and viduka.

the socceroo’s class showed through as they kept qatar chasing the ball for the first half. kennedy opened the scoring with a 10th minute header. cahill didn’t waste much time doubling australia’s lead with an easy goal. kennedy missed a chance but australia still looked strong and the third goal was drilled home by bresciano. cahill should have made it 4, but his header was saved by some good keeping.

the aussies took their foot off the accelerator in the second half, as jetlag set in for the traveling players. qatar had a few chances, but schwarzer was barely troubled all night.

australia has taken an early lead in the group, after iraq drew with china. with only 6 group games to play, the opening win gives the socceroos a good position. the aussies travel to china in march for their second game, before facing iraq in june.