The Qantas Socceroos will play-off against the fifth-best South American nation in November for a berth at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany following a hard-fought 2-1 win over the Solomon Islands in Honiara today.
Australia won the final of the Oceania qualifying tournament with a 9-1 aggregate win over the Solomons following the 7-0 victory in Sydney on Saturday.
Today's match was vastly different to Saturday's lopsided first leg encounter with the match played in hot and extremely humid conditions and Australia needing to rely on a 59th minute winner from Brett Emerton (pictured celebrating with Archie Thompson) to claim the victory.
Australia, playing their 100th match against Oceania opposition, opened the scoring in the 17th minute through Melbourne Victory's in-form striker Archie Thompson who latched onto a Vince Grella pass to lift his shot over the advancing goalkeeper.
The Qantas Socceroos had more possession but were unable to create much in the way of goalscoring opportunities with only Bresciano, Cahill and Thompson troubling the goalkeeper in the first half.
The Solomon Islands roared on by a noisy home crowd equalised in dramatic circumstances four minutes after the interval. Perth Glory's Henry Fa'arodo scored from the penalty spot after Commins Menapi had his penalty saved by Qantas Socceroos goalkeeper Zeljko Kalac, only to see the referee order a retake on the advice of the linesman after Kalac was deemed to have moved off his line.
Kalac was required to make three saves from the initial penalty as a goalmouth scramble developed with Solomons midfielder George Lui sent off as he dived in recklessly on the Australian goalkeeper. Lucas Neill had originally conceded the penalty bringing down Fa'arodo in the penalty area and receiving a yellow card.
The Australians however regained the lead ten minutes later with Emerton finishing from close range as he got on the end of a Jason Culina cross for what proved to be the winning goal.
The final round of FIFA World Cup qualifiers in South America will take place on October 12 (October 13 Australian time) with the draw to decide the order of the play-off matches to take place at the FIFA Congress this Saturday (Sunday Australian time) in Marrakesh, Morocco.
The matches are due to be played on November 12 and 16.
Match Details
AUSTRALIA 2 (Archie Thompson 17', Brett Emerton 59')
SOLOMON ISLANDS 1 (Henry Fa'arodo 49' pen)
Australia line-up: Zeljko Kalac (gk); Lucas Neill, Brett Emerton, Mark Viduka (c) (Ahmad Elrich h/t), Tim Cahill (Luke Wilkshire h/t), Scott Chipperfield (Stan Lazaridis 71'), Vince Grella, Archie Thompson, Jon McKain, Jason Culina, Mark Bresciano
Cautions: Neill 48', Kalac 49', Bresciano 64', Grella 75', McKain 93'
Solomon Islands - Felix Ray Jr (gk); George Suri, Gideon Omokirio, Lesley Leo (Richard Anisua), Mahlon Houkarawa, Henry Fa'arodo (c), George Lui, Francis Wasi, Stanley Waita (Jack Samani), Commins Menapi, Batram Suri (Abraham Iniga)
Referee - Shamsul Maidin (Singapore)
Assistant Referee - Fathi Al Arabati (Jordan)
Assistant Referee - Eisa Ghuloum (United Arab Emirates)
Fourth Official - Santhan Nagalingam (Singapore)
