football

Japan arrived full of confidence and in form. Australia arrived battle-weary from a tough away match in Oman. But it didn't seem to matter. Australia threw everything into the match, while Japan absorbed it and used their skill. It was a thrilling match that finished 1-1. Probably a fair result, all things considered.

Oman sought to make the most of their home advantage, starting the game at 5:00pm in 32 deg heat. Both sides had their chances, Australia perhaps slightly ahead here, but neither side managed to score. An away drawis a pretty good result under tough conditions.

Our next opponents, Japan, have had the luxury of two home games and are in tip-top form with a 3-0 win over Oman and a 6-0 win over Jordan (although Jordan played with 10 men from 2-0 down). Japan will arrive full of confidence for what should be a very tough match for Australia.

A lacklustre Australia went down 0-2 to Denmark overnight. Just our second match for the year and we were setting ourselves up for a tricky away game in the heat in Oman in a few days. Denmark on the other hand, are just a few days out from Euro 2012. All up, a loss, while disappointing, was probably not too surprising.

The Socceroos were a bit scratchy in the first and the Saudis deserved their lead at the break. A devastating spell from the Aussies saw them comfortably home and they finished top of their group.

It had been a while since our last game. In addition Osieck had made some changes to the line up, eg. the return on Bresciano. So a little roughness around the edges is to be expected. The Saudis attacked well in the first half and lead twice after Brosque's first cancelled out their lead. Our defence was a little poor at times and it was disappointing to concede so close to half-time.

The floods in Thailand forced a change of venue, but that didn't put off the Thais. They played out of their skin and deserved something from this match. Unlike last month though, we hung tough and scored the winner through Brett Holman.

What a difference a month makes. After an excellent effort last time, we failed to show up and went down 0-1 in an insipid performance. We really need to eliminate these poor performances from our repertoire and become more consistent. Annoying.

A potentially tough match against a team we've struggled to beat in the past and we were without Schwarzer, Cahill and Emerton (and Kewell if you care). And we nailed it. A superb performance and a great 3-0 win. Top of the group and virtually guaranteed of progressing to the next stage.

A warm up match for next week's qualifier against a weak opponent doesn't tell you a great deal. However, we looked very sharp and comfortably put them away, something we've struggled to do in the past.

All the talk in the lead up was about whether Kewell and Emerton would be selected or left with their clubs to give the A-League its dream match up. Hosieck cleverly left them out for both this match and the qualifier, thus retaining control and not devaluing selection for the Socceroos. It also gave some up-and-comers another chance to impress.

A difficult road trip was met with a much improved performance from the Socceroos. They triumphed comfortably 3-1. This is what we need to see. The poor performance of just a few days ago was taken on board and a much better effort (that was called for) was delivered. Good work.