澳大利亚在客场0：0战平日本

wdmznzd

世界杯亚洲区预选赛，澳大利亚在客场0：0战平日本，继续在小组中领先


Socceroos edge closer to finals
The Socceroos kept their fourth clean sheet in four matches to stay on top of Group A, two points ahead of Japan.

The Australians were in control of the game for the best part of an hour but they had to endure waves of Japanese attacks in the latter stages of the match to earn a priceless point in their hardest away match of the campaign.

With Uzbekistan, who crashed to a shock 1-0 home defeat to Bahrain in the other Group A match of the night, coming up next in Sydney on April 1, it is looking good for Pim Verbeek's team.

"In the first hour we played very well defensively," Verbeek said later.

"But in the last 20 minutes we started to get a bit tired and Japan suddenly became very dangerous.

"So I am happy with the result especially since Japan played very well today.

"I was not always pleased with the way we played but I thought we earned the draw. We did not deserve to win."

Verbeek said that his team now were in a strong position to reach the finals in South Africa but warned that there was still plenty of work to do before they could book their flights to the Rainbow Nation.

"We are six points ahead (of third placed Bahrain and Qatar) with four games to go so I think we are doing very well," he said.

"We still are not qualified but we have made a big step today."

After a cagey first half in which the Socceroos held their own pretty comfortably although they tended to give the ball away too often, Japan threw everything at Mark Schwarzer's goal in a bid to overtake the Australians at the top of the group.

Shunsuke Nakamura and his men came at them from all sides but Australia's central defenders Lucas Neill and Craig Moore were so dominant in the air and on the ground that the hosts, for all their possession, were limited to only two clear-cut chances.

First midfielder Yasuhito Endo, Gamba Osaka's star, hit a spectacular rising shot that was turned over the bar for a corner by Schwarzer.

And moments later, with the fervent home fans raising the noise levels on a night of raw passion, Yuto Nagatomo gave Luke Wilkshire the slip on the left wing and his immaculate cross was headed over the bar by striker Kaiji Tamada with Schwarzer beaten.

Tim Cahill, as expected, played in a lone striker's role in a defensive 4-2-3-1 formation but his contribution to the team was scant, not least because he was marked tightly by Japan's best two players Yuji Nakazawa and Marcus Tulio Tanaka.

西关少爷

I watched it live last night. The Socceroos are not the same anymore even though it ranks the top in the group. The Japs have done really well but failed to deliver as usual.

wdmznzd

0：0正是澳洲所需要的，维贝克赛后也承认澳洲打得不好，没有获胜是正常的，但是日本已经失去了反超澳洲的最好机会。Socceroo只需要在四月一日悉尼主场胜乌兹别克斯坦就可以提前出现了。