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Australia’s Olympic qualifying hopes were dealt a blow by their third successive 0-0 draw on Sunday as Japan and South Korea both stayed on course with narrow wins.
Olyroos coach Aurelio Vidmar said he was considering ordering extra shooting practice after the Aussies were held in Sydney by Uzbekistan, after similar bore draws against UAE and Iraq.
The complete absence of goals has put Australia under severe pressure at the halfway stage and it got worse for them later on Sunday as Iraq leap-frogged them into second after they claimed their first win of the campaign a 2-0 away victory over winless UAE.
The top teams from three groups gain an automatic ticket to London 2012, while the second-placed sides enter a round-robin with the prize of a play-off against an African nation.
“Maybe it’s time we stopped doing tactical work at training and concentrated a bit more on shooting,” Vidmar said. “We seem to be lacking that little bit of extra finesse (in attack).
“We get in front of the penalty box time and time again, but the wall pass goes too long or the through ball hits the striker on the back of the neck instead of going in front of him.
“It’s the small detail that’s letting us down.”
In Tokyo, Yuki Otsu’s 86th-minute winner gave Japan a 2-1 win over Syria and the outright lead in Group C with a maximum nine points.
Striker Otsu got on the end of a Yusuke Higa cross to settle it for the Japanese after Omar Al Suma’s solo effort had cancelled out defender Mizuki Hamada’s first-half opener.
South Korea needed a first-half penalty as they edged Saudi Arabia 1-0 to stay top of Group A.
Cho Young-Cheol put his 33rd-minute spot-kick past Saudi ‘keeper Hussein Shaian after defender Ahmed Walibi’s foul, stretching South Korea’s group lead to four points ahead of second-placed Oman’s game with Qatar.
South Korea are three points clear of Oman who could only manage a 1-1 draw at home to Qatar.
The Qataris are a point further back after drawing all three of their matches.
In Kuala Lumpur, Bahrain stunned Malaysia with three goals in the last 10 minutes as they stormed back to win a remarkable match 3-2.
The visitors had gone behind to a long-distance scorcher from Malaysian livewire Muhammad Nazmi and they looked dead-and-buried when Mohamed Al Hayam put the ball in his own net midway through the second half.
But a moment of magic from Saad Al Amer reduced the deficit on 80 minutes when his sublime bicycle-kick dropped over goalkeeper Khairul Fahmi and into the Malaysian net.
Four minutes later Bahrain were back on terms courtesy of a superb free-kick from Isa Al Ahmed, who was then on hand to fire the winner on 86 minutes.
The dramatic turn-around earned Bahrain their first points of qualifying but it put a big dent in the hopes of Malaysia, who have now lost twice since lifting the Southeast Asian Games trophy last week.
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