Sportingbet.com.au – World Cup Qualifier
February 23, 2009 11:00 am Footballwww.sportinbet.com.au – The Soceroos have landed in Yokohama ahead of their World Cup qualifier tomorrow night.
The two sides have plenty to play for, with the winner of this match almost a certainty to gain automatic qualification into the next World Cup.
Who forget the last time the two sides met in the opening pool match of the 2007 world cup in which Australia carried a one – nil deficit into the final fifteen minutes before one of the most extraordinary passages of play in the history of the World Cup saw Australia pile on three goals in ten minutes to wow fans right around the world.
However the Soceroos are under no pretences that they will see another fairy tale like ending to this match.
Striker Scott McDonald has warned that the ‘Blue Samurai’s’ top striker and not so secret weapon Shunsuke Nakamura will prove more than a handful.
Nakamura is McDonald’s partner in crime at Scottish club Celtic and McDonald has warned that he is not only technically a wizard on the football pitch – but has one of the most lethal and pin point free kicks in the game.
How does Scott McDonald know?
He is usually on the end of just about every single one of them.
The Australian back line will have to nullify Nakamura effectively and legally in and around the box if they are to be any chance of victory.
To award Nakamura a free kick anywhere within striking distance will be punished, if not the first time then the second, third and fourth McDonald said. www.sportingbet.com.au