Australia: a Début to Celebrate

Australia's first match in its route to the 2010 Southand a last one from Marc Bresciano (3-0) close to the
African World Cup was a real surprise to most fansend of the first half.
as the Aussies defeated Qatar 3-2. Many have"I'm impressed", declared Jason Ballarino, one of the
stated that they need to be cautious and not gothousands of fans who wore the yellow shirt of the
crazy about the first results in order to avoid futureSocceroos. "To begin a competition is always difficult
disappointments as it happened last year in the Asianand besides, we did not know anything about Qatar.
Cup playoffs where the team was eliminated.If we play thus we will be in South Africa".
The team has overcome big obstacles such as havingAt the end of the game Coach Verbeek was very
a new Coach (Pim Verbeek) who had to travel verypleased " Was a pleasant surprise. In the prior training
long distances in order to be present at the trainingsto the game we had not been all ready. But the
in Melbourne. This has made it even more difficult forenvironment that has this team is impressive and the
Verbeek to get to know his players. But the fansplayers took advantage of the opportunities" said
keep hanging around and basically flooded the TelstraVerbeek. This victory gave the Dutch Coach much
Dome stadium in Yellow color garments to encourageconfidence for their coming Asian adventure.
their team.Additionally, he mentioned, "I was not in the Asian
From the very beginning of the match more thanCup with the team, so I prefer not to compare, but
70,000 animated souls cheered for the Australianwhat happened today leaves me very calm for the
team while at the 11th minute forward Mark Kennedycommitments that are approaching because I see a
scored a powerful goal in the Qatar's net (1-0). Thisvery strong team".
goal was followed by a second from Tim Cahil (2-0)