Australian football team started with a serious upset in the qualifying round of Fifa World Cup 2010. On Saturday, in their first match, Australian Football team beat the Netherlands by 2 goals to 1. The winning goals came from English footballer, Harry Kewell and Josh Kennedy. Australia’s Dutch coach, Pim Verbeek, was very happy with the team’s performance in the game. He said:
"We're very pleased with the result, but I'm more pleased with the organisation, the way they played, especially in the first half,"
The two goals came at a very critical moment when the match was moving towards tiebreaker. However, Verbeek said that the result of the Netherlands match did not matter. What matters is the result on Wednesday.
From the time of the SovietRepublic, Uzbekistan has remained the strongest team in central Asia. After experiencing a shocking 3-0 defeat against Qatar on Saturday, the team has become desperate. Rauf Inliev, coach of Uzbekistan and Asian coach of 2007, admitted that the upcoming Uzbekistan-Australia match is going to be a tough one. However, he is very much determined to win the match and gain a pass at the world Cup. Ignaty Nesterov, captain, Uzbekistan football team, also voiced the same determination.
English Australian footballer, Harry Kewell, said that Australian team is very happy with its win against the Netherlands on September 6, 2008, but it is going to face a tough opponent on September 10, 2008. Kewell said:
“While it will be good to get off to a good start, the Uzbekistan team will have the same kind of plan,”
Both Australia and Uzbekistan started their World Cup qualifying game on Saturday. Australia caused a major upset by beating the Netherlands, the fourth ranked team, by 2 goals to 1. On the other hand, Qatar stunned the world by defeating Uzbekistan, one of the strongest football teams in Asia. Uzbekistan was defeated by 3 goals to none. It was a crushing victory for Qatar.
Now, Uzbekistan is in a must win situation.In the other group match, Japan defeated Bahrain by 3 goals to 2. Now, Qatar and Japan are the two top teams in the group. In order to play in the Fifa World Cup 2010, Australia has to remain in the top two position in the qualifying round that will continue till June 2009.
After being defeated badly by Qatar, Uzbekistan will be desperate to win their next match with Australia. Hence, Australian football coach, Pim Verbeek, warned his players to be extra cautious. The Australian team which defeated Netherland by 2 goals to 1, seemed pretty confident but Pim Verbeek told them that they should be ready to face a serious opponent.
Australia is going to face Uzbekistan in Tashkent on September 10, 2008. Pim Verbeek said that he would change the team's strategy to face Uzbekistan and he said that he has good impressions of the team and his plans for Wednesday.
Australian striker, Brett Holman, also agreed with Verbeek and said that result is not the main factor. They should think about themselves and how they should play the game. Brett believes that Uzbekistan is a better team, or else, they could not have made it to the second round of the World Cup qualifying match. However, Australians are hopeful because the formation of Uzbekistan is similar to that of Netherlands whom they beat.