Socceroos starting to gel as World Cup edges closer

Sydney, 21 March  - Socceroos coach Tony Popovic believes his team is starting to hit their stride with a World Cup place firmly in sight,

but they are still not where he wants them to be.

Popovic was parachuted into the job six months ago when Graham Arnold quit,
and his vision for the squad is beginning to take shape.

A 5-1 thumping of Indonesia in Sydney on Thursday was their best performance
since he took over and leaves them in pole position to join already-qualified
Japan at next year's tournament from Asian Group C.

"I aim quite high," said Popovic, who is looking to steer Australia to their
sixth successive World Cup.

"They're not there where we want to be, but that's not a negative, that's a
positive. They've taken strides forward, and it's not easy to do what they
did (against Indonesia).

"Five goals is difficult against anyone. We've played a good opponent, it's a
World Cup qualifier. We all want to always get better and try and improve the
game style and that will happen with more games together."

Australia travel to Hangzhou in China for a crunch match on Tuesday, needing
another win to keep their dream alive of booking the second automatic
qualifying place.

Just the top two from the group progress automatically, with third and fourth
forced into another round of Asian qualifying.

With three games left, the race for that second slot remains wide open after
Saudi Arabia beat 10-man China 1-0 in Riyadh.

Heading into next week's games, the Socceroos have 10 points, one ahead of
the Saudis who travel to Japan, and four clear of Indonesia, China and
Bahrain.

"Unfortunately, with a lot of injuries and a lot of changes, it's hard to
build continuity," said Popovic. "But what we are building is squad depth.

"This camp is the first time I felt in training and around the hotel that
this group is now starting to build into what we're trying to build going
forward.

"So positive and very excited by the next game."

Australia got the win without a handful of injured regulars, including
Leicester defender Harry Souttar and Middlesbrough midfielder Riley McGree.

Adding to their worries, goal-scorer Martin Boyle and striker Adam Taggart
both went off at half-time with niggles against Indonesia.BSS