It may have been the narrowest of winning margins, and perhaps on the balance of play, a little fortunate, but the Socceroos historic first-ever win in Jordan on Friday morning, consolidates its position at the head of its group B and represents a sizeable step towards World Cup qualification.

Coach Graeme Arnold chose to start with striker Adam Taggart leading the line and the Korean based striker justified the move with a surgical strike in the 13th minute to score the ultimate match-winner. Incisive successive passes forward from Jimmy Jeggo and Jackson Irvine pierced a flat footed Jordanian defence to find Taggart in behind and he neatly finished first time over an onrushing Jordanian keeper Amer Shafi.

The Jordanians sat deep in the first half and the Socceroos on the other hand pressed high. Tom Rogic, returning to the midfield playmaker’s role, showed his touch hadn’t deserted him, and Aaron Mooy controlled the tempo as Australia played out from the back.

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That all changed in the second half with the introduction off the bench of Jordanian attacking subs. These were Cypriot-based winger Musa Al Taamari , or the ‘Jordanian Messi’ as he is known in his homeland, because of his impressive left-footed dribbling skills, and Hamza Al-Dardour, the national team’s leading goal-scorer. They immediately had an impact providing a threat to the Socceroos back four which until then had looked relatively comfortable. Particularly Al Taamari who seemed to lift the whole team’s performance as Jordan dominated the second half. Were it not for some wasteful finishing and some goalkeeping heroics from Socceroos Matt Ryan, Jordan could have easily at least equalised and perhaps scored a winner in the second half as they produced a dozen or so scoring chances.

It was perhaps the first time in this campaign that the Socceroos were genuinely under the pump. Still there were some positive signs to come out of the game, such as the return of Tom Rogic, and even the introduction of Scottish based winger Martin Boyle off the bench in the second half, whose brief cameo was full of brio and energy.

The Socceroos now take a break and resume their campaign in a few months when they play Kuwait at home on 28 March.