Luck is on our side

While there is no doubt the Socceroos did not deserve the three points in their latest World Cup qualifier against Bahrain, few would begrudge the Australian team beginning to get some overdue slices of luck.

Indeed the luck that has eluded Australia's national team for the best part of 30 years seems to be returning in spades under coach Pim Verbeek - who is fast laying claims to being a lucky manager as well as a very good one.

The Socceroos' 1-0 win in Manama on Thursday morning (Australian time) came in a match in which the underdog hosts surprisingly dominated but simply could not score.

Only the brilliance in goal we have come to expect from veteran keeper Mark Schwarzer kept the scores locked at 0-0 and the Socceroos barely managed to get a shot on target before Mark Bresciano took full advantage of a defensive howler by Bahrain in injury time to lash home the winner.

The results leaves Verbeek's team with the perfect record in the final stage of qualifying and clear on top in Group One with nine points from three games and with the proud record of still not having conceded a goal.

Japan, after its 3-0 demolition of Qatar in Doha, is in a clear second place with seven points with Qatar - which has played a game more than the other nations - in third spot with four points from four games and both Bahrain and Uzbekistan struggling with just one point from three games.

Considering the top two nations progress to the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa and even the third-placed team goes into a playoff with the third-placed team in the other group for the right to face lowly New Zealand and it is obvious the Socceroos virtually have one foot on the plane towards their second successive appearance at the world's biggest sporting event.

And considering the country had to wait an agonising 32 years before the team's second appearance at the World Cup in 2006 under Guus Hiddink - following on from their shock appearance at the 1974 tournament - to qualify again just four years later would be a fine achievement.

The Socceroos showed yet again against Bahrain that with more regular matches and much tougher competition in their first qualifying campaign in the much tougher Asian confederation that they are maturing as a team and are able to deal with issues such as limited preparation, unavailability of key players and even a poor performance and yet still come away with a result.

It is also a tribute to the patient coaching methods of Verbeek and the belief he has instilled into a team that is fast developing a reputation as being extremely hard to beat.

But a slice of luck, which the team had in droves against Bahrain, certainly helps and no-one can argue that it is not overdue.

Not only did the Socceroos have to endure a farcical and indeed unfair qualifying path for so long through the Oceania confederation but there were numerous heartbreaks and slices of bad luck over the ill-fated period between the end of the 1974 World Cup and the arrival of Hiddink as coach for the 2006 campaign.

Who can ever forget the heartbreak of the 2-2 draw against Iran at the MCG in the deciding qualifier for the 1998 World