The Socceroos have effectively sealed qualification to the third round of qualifying for next year’s World Cup with a comfortable 5-1 win over Taiwan.
Harry Souttar headed Australia in front in the 11th minute, with Jamie Maclaren and Trent Sainsbury also scoring in the first half before Mitch Duke added a second-half brace.
Australia now have a maximum 18 points from six games – with games against Nepal and Jordan remaining – to sit top of Group B, with a top-two finish guaranteed.
Even if the Socceroos let top spot slip to Jordan, they will almost certainly be one of the four-best runners-up that also advance to the next phase along with the eight group winners.
Graham Arnold rotated his entire starting XI from the team that beat Kuwait 3-0.
Macarthur FC midfielder Denis Genreau started on debut with Arnold introducing Connor Metcalfe in the 64th minute and Ruon Tongyik in the 86th for their maiden caps.
(Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)
Kenny Dougall and Riley McGree made their first starts in the green and gold while defender Curtis Good started at left back for his first cap since his 2014 debut.
The Socceroos were busy early at Jaber Al-Ahmad International Stadium and took the lead when McGree picked out Souttar from a corner and the Stoke City defender powered home a back-post header.
Maclaren was hacked down as he streaked towards goal in the 26th minute and blasted the penalty down the middle a minute later to double Australia’s lead.
Three minutes later, Brandon Borrello spurned a golden opportunity when he put a tap-in onto the post.
In the 41st minute, McGree floated in a corner to the far post where Sainsbury, wearing the captain’s armband, comfortably headed home.
Less than a minute into the second half, Genreau burst forward and found Borrello, whose clever cross was well met by Duke at the near post – for his first Socceroos goal since 2013.
The Aussies would have been disappointed after conceding off the back of sloppy defending in the 62nd minute.
Tu Shao-chieh burst forward and cut the ball back for the inexplicably unmarked Wei-Jie Gao, who smacked a first-time shot past Danny Vukovic.
Striker Nikita Rukavytsya made his first appearance since November 2017 in the 74th minute.
Ten minutes later, substitute Ajdin Hrustic dropped a clever ball to Rukavytsya who held his ground and cut the ball back for Duke to bury his second and round out the result.
Coastyboi
Guest
Is that you, Sam Dastyari?
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Petratos hasnt got to play striker for years, he can play either wing as well. The wings are weak for starters, the worst has been Borello so he would be the first to go. However there would be a lot of other players a sensible person would drop for Petratos.
Stevo
Roar Rookie
Hard to take much from the game given the state of the pitch and heat. I was hoping for a clean sheet. That they scored is of concern.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
Which attacking mid/striker would you drop?
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Why isnt Petratos in the squad has scored 9 goals for his Saudi club and he would be perfectly aclimatised to the weather.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
I wasn't impressed by the coaching of Arnold or the performances. Arnold has reverted to type using a center back in the left back position its part of his old identity and Australia were attacking 9 with 5 and having 5 guarding 1 for a lot of the match. If Borello had been any good this might not have been a problem I dont see what spending 5 years in Europe has done for this guy looks worse if anything than when he left. McLaren struggled to control the ball under pressure like usual, Duke scored 2 and looked a bit better in that aspect, Ruka showed good control to set up the last goal. McDougall he passes well along the ground to players feet but doesn;t have capacity to hit balls over the top or into the corners.
Brian
Guest
The Dates don't really overlap given we've already won 2 games and the COPA hasn't started. There's 27 players in the squad could have had 37 beaten Kuwait and then 20 headed off to Brazil assuming the COPA goes ahead. Arnold changed the whole XI anyway. We are not going to improve by beating Nepal. If we want to improve playing in the COPA was a golden opportunity
AGO74
Guest
I don’t have a problem with that in principle but I’d be reluctant to play UAE or Saudis with a Qatar home game where the conditions would be optimal for them and detrimental for us.
Mark
Guest
Possibly our second-string team could have won some of these matches easily, but what message would fielding a B team whilst the A team plays elsewhere, in a competition outside the AFC, have sent the entire confederation? The people who talk about excluding Australia from the AFC would have been given a huge free-kick at Australian football. They wouldn't stop talking about how arrogant Australia is and that we shouldn't be in the AFC. BTW the Copa America may still end up being cancelled because of Covid - they are now onto the third host nation (Brazil) and the Brazilian team says the country shouldn't be hosting the tournament!
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
Depending on the opposition, Qatar may be a good choice. At least that way if we do qualify we'll be playing in a familiar environment.
Brian
Guest
Maybe if they reject London we can host Iran in Tel Aviv. Realistically given our perilious position in the AFC I suspect we'll have to play home games either in Dubai or Singapore, I guess either way we may face conditions more useful to the visiting teams.
AGO74
Guest
Thinking ahead - I can't see any feasible likelihood that we will be able to play 'home' qualifiers due to our quarantine requirements. Maybe next year, but certainly not this calendar year. On that basis, I'm wondering if it is possible to utilise London as a home ground. Its actually better for our Euro-players and we could still have a degree of home advantage on account of Aussie expats. Big obstacle to clear I assume would be AFC teams arcing up about playing a qualifier outside of Asia. Given the AFC's love for bureacracy and byzantine rules, I'm struggling to see how this would be approved.....
Brian
Guest
I wonder what we are really getting from these games. Surely a 2nd string side could have beaten Taiwan and Nepal whilst the 1st team played the COPA America. Major opportunity to improve lot
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
We hammered them twice in '85, however things were closer prior, indeed we had a draw in '81. Not a student of Taiwanese football however it seems their football stagnated in the early '80's and hasn't recovered.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
yoshida and tomiyasu are both big boys (6'2? 6'3?) and can be physical, which will negate souttars influence
Roberto Bettega
Roar Rookie
Even in the good ol' days of Oceania, our NSL part-timers would thrash Taiwan. Back in 23 October 1985, we thrashed Taiwan 7-0 (in a WC qualifier). Dave Mitchell got a hattrick, even Arnie snagged one.
Paolo
Guest
How good is Hrustic! Ten man defence so he lifts the ball to a running Rukavytsya. Great ball. Even better Ruka stops it on the end of his feet, turns way from the goalie and has the smarts to pass back to an attacker. I know the commentators didn’t make much of that but I thought it was fantastic.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
Let's see. I've watched one-touch football from Samurai Blue for the past couple of games and are far more concerned about our defense being light on their feet rather than big. They'd just match Yoshida or Tomiyasu up to Souttar at set pieces and that would be the end of that. Personally I'd rather we avoid Japan in the next round.
The Rev. Pat Brodnik 2.0
Guest
Technically not that either, but "(Republic of) China".
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
Asian teams really struggle to cope with souttar, i'm still not overly sold on him against European or south American opposition, but against the asian nations hes a menace at both ends of the field lol