Australia into 2007 Asian Cup with Kuwait win

Australia has secured its place in the Asian Cup finals next year after recording a 2-0 win over Kuwait at Aussie Stadium in Sydney tonight. Late goals to Travis Dodd and Sasho Petrovski saw Australia skip five points clear of both Kuwait and Bahrain on the Group D table.

Australia has secured its place in the Asian Cup finals next year after recording a 2-0 win over Kuwait at Aussie Stadium in Sydney tonight. Late goals to Travis Dodd and Sasho Petrovski saw Australia skip five points clear of both Kuwait and Bahrain on the Group D table.

It wasn-t the most convincing performance, but Australia always looked the most likely to score and their patience was rewarded with goals to debutant Dodd in the 76th minute and Petrovski in the 87th minute.

The 32,000 plus fans would have left Aussie Stadium happy to see Australia-s best local players go to the next level and produce a steady performance that has certainly put a few in the thoughts of Arnold for future matches.

Coach Graham Arnold wanted his side to entertain, but what they showed was grit and patience against a well-organised Kuwait team that tried to shut the game down and play on the break.

The game though looked like it might get away from Australia until the last 15 minutes when some great work by Sydney FC midfielder set up Dodd for the opening goal.

Adelaide United-s Dodd then created the second goal with a great run and shot, which sealed him man of the match honours.

The first 25 minutes was as Arnold expected with neither side prepared to risk too much, hence little goal mouth action.

Australia-s first effort on goal didn-t come until the 27th minute from a piledriver by Carney, but that seemed to lift the Australian players and for the remainder of the half they piled on the pressure.

Thompson had two great efforts soon after, slicing the first wide from close range and then sending a free header straight to the Kuwaiti keeper.

After a first 30 minutes that saw very little in the way of goalmouth action, Australia suddenly stepped up a gear as they laid siege to the Kuwaiti penalty area.

Carney was inches away from putting a drive into the top corner, while Steve Corica hit a thumping shot which the keeper could only punch away.

The Australians though couldn-t repeat it in the early stages of the first half and it was Kuwait that had the best chance early on with.

The breakthrough came on 76 minutes when Ceccoli played Carney into the box, who did brilliantly to cut back the ball from the by-line where it found the onrushing Dodd and he slammed home the shot from 12 yards.

That seemed to relax the nervous crowd and the players with substitute Petrovski heading straight to the keeper five minutes later.

Petrovski made the game safe with three minutes of normal time remaining, when Dodd made a surging run into the box and his shot saw the keeper parry it out in front of the Sydney FC marksmen who slotted home.

The match saw three players Dodd, Michael Valkanis and Matt McKay make their debuts for the senior team.

It was a satisfied Arnold after the match.

"It was like I anticipated, I said it was going to be a difficult game from what I saw," he said. "I had to pick a faster, mobile side because technically [Kuwait] can hurt you with their speed as well as their technique.

"I was pretty much certain they would sit back on block and make it as difficult as possible for us, and they did a good job on that.

"The hardest thing to work on when you have limited time, is cohesion in the attacking part of the field," he said. "We worked on our defence hard and we restricted them to a couple of long-range shots."

"We didn't play stupid and I think a lot of that goes down to Kevin Muscat. He was outstanding, he organised the side for me, that's why I brought him back."