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Australia players celebrate after scoring a goal against Uzbekistan during their AFC Asian Cup semi-final
The Socceroos will face Japan in Sunday morning’s (AEDT) Asian Cup final after delivering an Australia Day present with a stunning 6-0 demolition of Uzbekistan in their semi-final in Doha.
The Socceroos turned in a ruthless performance in front of 24,836 fans at Khalifa Stadium, with Harry Kewell, Sasa Ognenovski, David Carney, Brett Emerton, Carl Valeri and Robbie Kruse all scoring to earn Australia’s first shot at the continental trophy.
The resurgent Kewell broke Uzbek hearts with a fifth-minute goal and the world’s 108th ranked side offered little resistance from then on, finishing with 10 men after Ulugbek Bakaev saw a second yellow in the 67th minute.
“We had a brilliant game today, the players put on a great show and great performance,” Socceroos coach Holger Osieck said.
“What they did today was fantastic. It’s an Australia Day holiday and it’s the right present from our team to the Australian people.”
“It’s unreal. How can you expect a result like that?
“We definitely wanted to win but you can never predict the score.”
The match continued the remarkable rise of Brisbane Roar midfielder Matt McKay, who was brilliant in setting up three goals in a man-of-the-match performance, while fellow A-League bolter Kruse came off the bench to help set up two and score his first for Australia.
Osieck sprung a surprise prior to kick-off, naming McKay in the starting side in place of Emerton, who was available again after a one-game suspension.
“I line up my team based on performance and after the game against Iraq it would have been impossible to leave Matty out,” Osieck said.
“That is what I told Brett and he had to understand it was my decision.”
The decision payed almost-instant dividends, with McKay combining with Kewell to break through, just as they had done to set up the late winner in the quarter-final win over Iraq.
The pair played a neat one-two with McKay creating space with a brilliant turn before playing in Kewell and the Galatasaray star made a difficult finish look easy with his left foot.
Australia continued to find plenty of space and doubled their lead when Ognenovski picked up the scraps of Carney free kick and hammered a low shot past Uzbek ‘keeper Temur Juraev in this seventh appearance.
Things continued much in the same fashion in the second half, with Carney finishing off a brilliant move kick-started by Kruse and also involving Tim Cahill in the 65th minute.
When Bakaev was ejected minutes later an already-poor Uzbekistan simply fell apart with gaps appearing left, right and centre.
Kruse missed several sitters to open his account but unselfishly laid off to Emerton in the 74th minute and then was again involved with a clever flick as McKay set up Valeri to become the third first-time scorer in the 82nd minute.
Kruse only had to wait a minute for his deserved goal through, with his timid shot trickling under Juraev.
The match marked Mark Schwarzer’s 87th appearance in A internationals, equalling Alex Tobin’s record, but he was called into action only once with a diving save to deny Odil Akhmedov in the second half.
Uzbekistan had Vadim Abramov declared on Monday Australia were “no Brazil” but was forced into a re-think as the full-time whistle ended his side’s humiliation.
“This is a big problem. I don’t know what happened,” said Abramov, whose side amazingly finished with 65 per cent of possession.
While the comfortable win allowed coach Holger Osieck to hand Kewell, Tim Cahill and Brett Holman early marks, Australia will face a Japan side coming off an epic win over South Korea on penalties, after scores were locked a 2-2 after extra time.
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