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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.

after a great string of wins,the socceroos have jumped to #34 overall in fifa’s football rankings. it’s a dramatic jump up 5 places from last month. we’ve recently beaten #4 team netherlands in a friendly, #25 team ghana and drew against #85 team south africa.

australia has been playing well lately and we are very close to our best ever ranking of 31st, which we achieved in july 1997. in six days australia faces qatar in brisbane (rc may be in attendance) and in november the socceroos travel to bahrain. we have already won our opening group match and should definitely finish in the top two, which will give us automatic qualification into the 2010 world cup.

in other news, south korea has dropped to #55, just behind new zealand who have jumped an incredible 57 places innto #54 spot.

the socceroos continue their good run with a crucial away win to uzbekistan last night.

the game started at a slow tempo, but the aussies took control of the match after the 28th minute. it was the defenders who did all the hard work, keeping the uzbeki strikers at bay and putting together the only goal of the match. luke wiltshire’s cross was met by a chipperfield header. chipper’s low header hit the ground, bounced over the keeper, off the post and into goal. both teams had numerous chances, and the uzbeki players pleaded for a penalty after they claimed that their player was fouled in the box. however, neither side were able to add to the score line.

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coach verbeek was understandably happy with the result, the aussies taking full points in their first game and all but eliminating uzbekistan from the tournament. the socceroos get a month off to prepare for their tough brisbane match against qatar.

in other news, english striker theo walcott has cemented his reputation with a sensational hattrick against a 10 man croatia. beckham was benched and the youngster make the most of his run on. england cruised to a thumping 4-1 win.

the aussie football team have scored a surprise win against the netherlands in a friendliy overnight. the netherlands drew first blood after just 5 minutes, thanks to good work by liverpool winger ryan babel who set up the goal. it seemed to be all down hill from there. josh kennedy, however, was having a good game and working hard up front. he earned a penalty and had the dutch goal keeper sent off with a red card. former red, harry kewell, converted the spot kick, leveling the scores.

the aussies continued to hold their own, thanks to the extra man, and it was kennedy again who found himself in the right place, heading home a beautiful wiltshire cross.

the socceroos have made the most of their warmup and look to wednesday’s clash with uzbekistan in the world cup qualifiers. last night, uzubekistand were convincingly beaten by qatar 3-0, so there’s no reason why the socceroos shouldn’t take full points.

the socceroos have beaten qatar 3-1 to reach the asian playoff group, which is the final step to qualifying for the 2010 world cup. the aussies traveled to doha looking for an opportunity to bounce back from the stun loss to iraq. the socceroos played much better football. australia was almost at full strength. kewell, emerton, bresciano and culina played. scott mcdonald was on the bench but didn’t play. the only notable absentees were viduka, lucas neill and tim cahill. brett emerton played further up front in a much more attacking role. he was rewarded with two goals. harry kewell nabbed australia’s third. mark schwarzer made some good saves to deny the qatari players, however the home side did manage to break their duck with a late consolation goal.

the socceroos will join a pool of 9 other teams to play in 2 groups of 5 teams. from there, the top 2 teams from each group go through to the world cup and the 3rd place teams play off against each other. the winner of that game plays against the winner of oceania. the winner of that match will also go through to the world cup. although one game remains, australia, bahrain, japan, north korea, south korea, uzbekistan, saudi arabia and iran are already through to the round robin group. iraq/qatar and uae/syria contest the last two places.

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.