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the socceroos claimed all three points with a late victory over bahrain last night. the aussie team traveled to bahrain determined to continue their unbeaten run in the world cup qualifying group. despite missing a few big names, the socceroos were favourites to win the match.

both teams had chances to win the game, however thanks to good work by aussie keeper mark schwarzer, the hosts remained goalless. bresciano scored late in the game to secure the win.

australia remains on top of group b. japan is second after their win. in group a, south korea beat saudi arabia for the first time in nineteen years to go top of their group. the koreans were helped in their cause by iran who could only manage a draw against uae.

all national teams take a break until next february.

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 reds have kept with tradition, barely managing to put away belgian team standard liege at anfield last night. the visitors had nothing to lose and played gritty football. they had two good chances denied thanks to the great work of pepe reina. liverpool couldn’t seem to find their paces and the game went into overtime, in search of a result. dirk kuyt came to liverpool’s rescue, side footing in a close range ball to give the reds victory.

tonight liverpool will discover their three opponents for the champions league group matches. fortunately, all four english teams have been seeded, meaning that we cannot be grouped with man u, chelsea or arsenal. however some very strong teams are in the mix, including barca, juventus, madrid and inter milan. none of the other teams look that threatening.

in other news, former liverpool winger and aussie international harry kewell has been finding some decent form at his new club galatasaray. he scored on his debut and socceroos coach verbeek has praised kewell’s return to form. harry will be included in the squad to face uzbekistan in september. hopefully he can stay on his feet this season, helping the aussies into our second consecutive world cup.

in england last night, the socceroos played a friendly against commonwealth compatriots south africa. the game ended in a 2-2 draw. australia played a large squad for the game, most notably with scott chipperfield playing after a long term injury. the first half ended 2-1 in the socceroo’s favour, however south africa scored in the second half to level the game.

the socceroos will face the netherlands in another friendly before facing uzbekistan in next month’s world cup qualifier.

the premier league kicks off in two weeks, with liverpool spending big to try and improve their title chances. former tottenham golden boy robbie keane has been lured to anfield to partner torres up front. the gareth barry dramas continue, with liverpool claiming that he will be signed by this weekend, despite aston villa’s denial that the deal is dead.

it’ll be interesting if barry does make the switch. villa are due to play at aston villa in their 3rd game of the season … which i’m sure will result in a torrid reception for barry.

champions league 2nd round teams were drawn today. liverpool have picked up belgian minnows r. standard de liège. obviously the reds fancy themselves making it through to the groups.

and although i detest the olympics, and the money grubbing commercial sell out it has become, i’ll at least watch the aussie soccer team and hope they don’t get their asses kicked too badly.

the socceroos were handed an extremely easy draw on their road to qualifying for the 2010 world cup. the aussies and south korea were the only two seeded teams, based on the last world cup’s performance, and couldn’t be drawn together. however, we are in group a with japan, qatar, bahrain and uzbekistan. south korea were not so lucky. their group is going to be tough, with north korea, saudi arabia, iran and uae all difficult teams to beat.

this is fantastic news for the socceroos, who should be able to put in solid performances and qualify for the world cup … and it looks like i’ll definitely have a reason to be there!

australia’s socceroos, despite losing to china in the weekend’s dead rubber, have progressed to the round robin groups which will be announced this friday. china was already eliminated from the world cup when they traveled down under to face the group leaders. however the socceroos fielded a much weakened side, made up of olypmic under 23 players, to give them some experience on the pitch.

china scored after the 12th minute, pouncing on a weak clearance. they had a chance to double the lead when awarded a penalty. in a strange turn of events, the striker scored the penalty, but was ordered to retake it by the referee, after other players were deemed to have encroached upon the area. the penalty was taken again and this time the striker missed the target completely.

australia too had chances, but we weren’t able to make the most of them. despite the loss, we finished on top of the group (thanks to goal difference).

the final 10 nations are decided: australia, qatar, japan, bahrain, south korea, north korea, saudi arabia, uzbekistan, iran and uae. the most notable losers are china and iraq (asia cup winners). i’m happy that china is out, considering the retarded nationalism coming out of that country at the moment.

although the socceroos progress, we’re going to have to pick up our game. the top 4 teams will get entry into the world cup, the 5th will play off for entry. australia finished with 10 points in the group, which was the lowest total amongst all groups. we lost 2 games and  scored the fewest goals of any group leader. in our defense, the socceroos were in the most difficult group, but we’re still going to have to work a lot harder to ensure progress to the world cup.

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 are on track to progress through to the next round of world cup qualifiers after beating iraq 1-0. the game looked in doubt after the iraq government disolved the iraqi football federation. in return, fifa banned iraq from internationals, but the ban was overturned when the government complied with fifa regulations.

iraq traveled to suncorp stadium, brisbane and were met by a full house, including the rubber chicken himself. australia’s defense was poor but they managed to hold iraq out. the socceroos took the lead just after half time when harry kewell put away a good header.

australia held on to win the match. we lead our group with 7 points and three games remaining. we play iraq again next week, to be played in dubai since bagdhad is not considered safe enough for home games. one more win should comfortably secure the socceroos’ progress to round 4.

sepp blatter may have redeemed himself in the eyes of aussie football fans. when he was seeking re-election as fifa president, the sack-o-crap promised that he’d lobby to give oceania automatic entry into the world cup. despite that promise never eventuating, he did help the socceroos abandon the weak oceania group and join asia (which is going to virtually guarantee our entry into future world cups).

this week, during fifa’s sydney congress, blatter also announced that australia is in the running to get the 2018 world cup. 2010 will be held in south africa and 2014 is in brazil. the best part is, if australia is unsuccessful in winning the 2018 world cup bid, then we’d be a good shot at getting 2022 instead.

i’m sure that the 2018 world cup will go to europe, since their last world cup will have been 12 years prior during germany 2006. the european countries will complain that they deserve to host again. however, i reckon it’s well overdue that australia’s growing reputation in world football is recognised by allowing us to host the big event.

after all, we’ve hosted 2 olympic games, numerous commonwealth games, and are generally awesome on all levels … bring on an aussie world cup!!!

here’s a promise: if we get a world cup, i’ll definitely go back home and see it.

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.

for the second time since the world cup, australia have been given a dutch coach who has also managed the korean national team. pim verbeek accepted the job in singapore yesterday, with his first charge being to guide the socceroos through a tricky group stage in the asian qualifiers for the world cup.

verbeek has good experience in asia and has also managed a few decent club teams, including feyenoord. he should do a good job as aussie manager, but i was hoping for a coach with more european experience. i suppose it’s helpful to know a lot about asia, but that’s not terribly useful if we get to the world cup and are trounced by european teams.

the talismanic hiddink did wonders for us at the last world cup, as he did for korea before, but i don’t want to rely on such luck in the future. we need to step up and play better football … and shelling out the money for a world class coach is part of that.

however, i hope verbeek does the job well. more important than the manager is the success of the team. we ought to be a regular world cup team and that’s all i ask.