Review: Australia V Bahrain

So much for my 3 nil victory for the Australians prediction, they were lucky to escape with the three points and first place in the group. It was a game that had a few 'heart-in-mouth' moments, in particular for Socceroos supporters. Evergreen 'keeper Mark Schwarzer was at his best making some brilliant saves for the Australians and probably deserved man of the match for his efforts. Mile Jedinak despite his horror passing performance in midfield scored the only goal of the match and my word what a strike it was. It proved to be the difference despite a pressuring Bahrain early in the second half, with a couple of brilliant opportunities falling to danger man Abdulatif. It just wasn't Bahrain's night and the coach's tactics were not helping. He pulled their other biggest goal threat Jaycee John off in the 66th minute and replaced him with 21 year old striker Abdulla Al Dakeel. The coach really should have went for two up front at this stage of the match when they were looking dangerous.

Matt McKay did the best he could in the unfamiliar left back role, his passing was pin point accurate as always. However his defensive game needs plenty of work, much like Australia's first choice left back David Carney. Cahill was again marked out of the game quite well by Bahrain's centre backs, and came of late with a knock, fingers crossed he will be fit for the finals. Brett Emerton was given his second yellow card of the tournament for a silly shirt pulling incident and will now miss the Socceroos next match. Unfortunately for Emerton he has become quite ill-disciplined in recent years which is very disappointing considering his wealth of talent and experince. Now the Australians must wait to find out their next opponent for the knockout stages of the 2011 Asian Cup.