The Football Tragic

Well...Pim Verbeek pulled a surprise. Only one holding midfielder, and - joy of joys - twin strikers.

And didn't the team respond to his vote of confidence in the first half! Qatar were ripped apart on the flanks, Scott McDonald peeling off to the left to good effect on a number of occasions, thereby allowing Mark Bresciano to make those dangerous diagonal runs into the box which Jorge Fossati would remember only too well. David Carney, too, played a crucial role in Australia's penetration down the left, both overlapping and pushing up to provide the option for a quick give-and-go at times.

On the other wing, Brett Emerton (probably the man of the match) and Luke Wilkshire showed impressive positional fluidity, with the former more right-winger than right-back in the first period.

And, of course, the physical threat of Josh Kennedy up front was crucially important, particularly in terms of creating space for the other attackers. With Mark Viduka's star on the wane, Kennedy will surely be one of the key players in this qualifying campaign.

It helped Australia's cause that Qatar were so feeble in defence, their communication in particular leaving much to be desired. The goalkeeper, Mohammed Saqr, will not remember the second goal with any fondness, but there were plenty of other panicky moments.

The second half was far less impressive from an Australian point of view, but there have been several parallels in the recent Socceroo past, especially the game against China in Guangzhou. That Qatar occasionally managed to penetrate out wide, given our fullbacks' propensity to stay upfield, was not surprising; perhaps more worrisome was the fact that the elusive Khalfan Ibrahim, who positioned himself in the hole throughout, often looked like breaking through our central defence.

Verbeek's substitutions were perhaps not the ideal ones, either. Mark Bresciano, after an excellent first half, was fading noticeably in the second, and the logical introduction of Carl Valeri should maybe have been made at the expense of Bresciano rather than Tim Cahill. As for Craig Moore's departure, sentimentality is all very well, but Brett Holman as replacement, leaving Emerton to fulfil a central defensive role? Three-goal buffer or not, it was a strange move.

And now that Moore is gone, who will plug the hole in central defence? All of the recent candidates have shown themselves to be intermittently fallible...it won't be an easy choice for our new supremo.

Yet one shouldn't dwell on the small negatives to emerge from the evening. Verbeek's side played fluent, positive, effective football for 45 minutes, and a campaign which offers so many pitfalls has begun comfortably.