Comment: Dramatic World Cup Night In Asia

Wednesday was a dramatic night in the Middle East. Controversial decisions and late goals have produced clear leaders in both groups that make up the final round of Asian qualification for the 2010 World Cup.

20-Nov-2008 2:43:12 AM

WCQ: Karim Bagheri - Adel Abdelaziz, UAE-Iran

Teams

Australia maintained their 100% record with a 1-0 win in Bahrain and won’t be too concerned that they were second best for most of the match against a determined and, at times, dynamic host.

No prizes are given for performances in football and in qualification, how you play matters only when you are not winning. Booking that place in South Africa is everything and Australia gave Milan Macala’s men a lesson in ruthlessness.

With one point from three games, Bahrain may have plenty of time to reflect in the summer of 2010 that it is no good being on top for most of the match if you don’t take advantage. Bahrain missed chance after chance and at the death when Mark Bresciano fired home, they paid the price.

That puts the Aussies on nine points and five clear of Qatar in fourth who have played a game more. Only a miracle will stop the Socceroos claiming one of the top two automatic spots. Boss Pim Verbeek would not have been too upset at Japan defeating Qatar 3-0 in Doha to send the top two clear.

It was a comfortable performance by Takeshi Okada’s men and the hosts had no answer to the fluidity of the Japanese game. After dropping two points at home to Uzbekistan last month, Shunsuke Nakamura lamented the team’s inability to ‘win ugly’. The Blue Samurai don’t need to worry about such a thing if they continue to play the way they did at Al Sadd Stadium with goals from Tatsuya Tanaka, Keiji Tamada and Marcus Tulio Tanaka - though a defence as obliging as Qatar's may be hard to find.

Qatar, who started this stahe of the campaign well, have a good deal of work to do after losing 4-0 in Australia last month.

Group Two is a good deal tighter but South Korea have broken clear at the top, their 2-0 win in Saudi Arabia giving them a two-point advantage over Iran in second.

It was a hard-working performance from the visitors at the King Fahd Stadium and the game was finely poised when Naif Hazizi was shown a second yellow card for diving when he wanted and expected a penalty. The striker was looking for the foul and while a spot kick would have been on the harsh side, it would not have been a surprise to see the referee point to the spot - Korean hearts were certainly in their mouths.

It didn’t take the 2002 semi-finalists too long to take advantage of their advantage and in-form striker Lee Keun-ho broke the deadlock and AS Monaco striker Park Chu-young scored a fine second to calm nerves and seal a rare win against the Saudis.

There was also a late goal in Dubai as Iran had to come back to draw 1-1 with UAE. As this was the UAE’s first point of the final round, one might expect a little relief to be in order but instead there was frustration as the hosts felt they should have won.

They were right as they were the better team throughout and only the inspired goalkeeping of Iran’s Medhi Rathami kept Team Melli in the game until the prodigal son Karim Bagheri powered in a header to send the hordes of travelling fans into raptures.

There is a three-month break until the next round takes place - lots of time to prepare for some more mouth-watering clashes.

John Duerden

Asia Editor

john.duerden@goal.com