Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Socceroos 4 v Qatar 0: Wallop

Half hour delay and Pim put McDonald and Kennedy up front with Cahill in behind. The direction: lots of high balls into the box. Result: Qatar can't jump, playing with 2nd goalkeeper who wouldn't make Perth Glory.

Lang Park was heavy and Qatar wanted to cancel. But it dried out well and the cooler wet conditions gave the Socceroos the advantage. Which they leveraged by playing attack for the first half hour.

As it turned out Qatar's highly questionable qualification to this round over Iraq seems to have paid off for the Socceroos. Qatar changing coaches mid stream had me favouring the Socceroos. But they really belted them. Moore, Emerton (with 2 goals), and Cahill (1 goal) stood out. But every Socceroo beat their counter-part. Qatar lone striker - very lonely and missed a sitter near the end - tried diving in the box early on.

Lots of foul play from Qatar and their standin 2nd half captain should have been sent off for 2nd yellow hand ball.

The hard games are Japan and Bahrain. But so far so good.

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