The Socceroos have all but secured their place in the next round of qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup with a good win over Oman last week.
Having swept Malaysia aside with an easy 5-0 friendly win in Canberra on Friday evening, the national team backed up with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Oman in Sydney.
Brett Holman put the Socceroos on their way inside the first ten minutes, finishing Matt McKay’s cross from close range and setting the tone for Australia’s domination of possession. The only negative was an inability to convert possession into goal-scoring opportunities. Oman regrouped at half-time and posed a brief threat at the start of the second half, but once Josh Kennedy scored in the 65th minute it was game-over. The goal was a fitting reward for Kennedy, who was denied a hat-trick against Malaysia on Friday when he was substituted at half-time having scored two in the first half. Mile Jedinak grabbed a third shortly before the end to underline Australia’s superiority and send the crowd home happy.
The result was made more impressive by the fact that it was secured without Harry Kewell and Bret Emerton, both left out in order to allow them to settle into their new A-League clubs, or the injured Tim Cahill and Mark Schwarzer, and with several other senior players either out of action or recently retired from international action – a new generation of Socceroos is beginning to bed in, and the results suggest the future is bright. Holger Osieck’s men have now won three out of three in the first group stage and it would take a remarkable series of results for them to miss out on advancing to the next stage.
A win against Oman in November would make things certain and the way the team is playing at the moment it would be a brave man who would bet against the Socceroos finishing the group with a 100 per cent record. In the next round of qualifiers, the ten remaining teams will be split into two groups, and five of those ten will progress to the World Cup finals. Whilst Osieck won’t allow complacency to slip in, it would be fair to say that even this new generation of players shouldn’t have too much to fear from anyone other than Japan, and qualification should be secured with relative ease.
With Michael Zullo, Rhys Williams, Matty Spiranovic forming a solid-looking back line with Lucas Niell, the Socceroos have the defensive basis for a strong future. Add in Mile Jedinak and Bret Holman (whose man of the match performance against Oman underlined his new-found confidence in the green and gold) in central midfield and Josh Kennedy’s goal-scoring prowess against Asian opposition, and things look very bright for the remainder of the qualifiers. Things will be tougher once the team makes it to Brazil 2014, but the fact that they are looking forward confidently to a third successive world cup is a huge boost to the local game.
