World Football

By Martin Petty

BANGKOK, June 2 (Reuters) - Bahrain and Uzbekistan maintained their 100 percent records in World Cup Asian qualifying on Monday and fortified their group leads with crucial away victories.

After coming agonisingly close to reaching the 2006 World Cup, both sides boosted their chances of making the 2010 finals, Bahrain beating a battling Thailand 3-2 and Uzbekistan pounding Southeast Asian champions Singapore 7-3.

Asian player of the year Yasser Al Qahtani struck twice in Saudi Arabia's 4-1 drubbing of Lebanon to move within three points of the runaway Uzbeks in Group 4.

Japan comfortably saw off Oman 3-0 in Yokohama to move within three points of Bahrain in Group 2, while United Arab Emirates kept their lead in the all-Middle East Group 5 after holding struggling heavyweights Iran to a goalless draw.

The Gulf champions UAE head the group on goals scored, ahead of Syria, who clinched a 1-0 win over Kuwait.

North Korea missed their chance to go top of Group 3 ahead of their rivals from the South after being held to a 0-0 draw with Turkmenistan and Qatar clung on to second place in Group 1 after their goalless encounter with China in Doha. Australia lead the Group by three points.

Goals from Yuji Nakazawa, Yoshito Okubo and Shunsuke Nakamura against Oman gave Japan's under-fire coach Takeshi Okada some breathing space, although they could have had plenty more.

"It was nice to score three but we'll have to take our chances in our last three games," Nakazawa told reporters. "We should have scored four or five goals tonight."

RAMPANT UZBEKS

Uzbekistan, whose 2006 qualifying campaign ended in acrimony when they were forced to replay a game they had won because of a refereeing error, did their goal difference no harm when they punished Singapore.

Timur Kapadze put them in front after 10 minutes with Aleksandar Duric levelling six minutes later for Singapore. Victor Karpenko restored the lead on 22 minutes before Singapore again found an equaliser, Mustafic Fahrudin converting a spot kick after half an hour.

Server Djeparov struck twice and Vitaly Denisov added another to put the Uzbeks 5-2 up and Aziz Ibragimov, Maksim Shatskikh rounded off victory.

Singapore coach Radojko Avramovic said his side had a lot to learn, adding: "Today the defence looked like it didn't exist. We couldn't cope."

The Saudis, chasing a spot at their fifth successive World Cup finals, had a scare in Riyadh when Lebanon took the lead on 43 minutes through Mahmoud El Ali but prolific marksman Al Qahtani answered back on the stroke of halftime.

Osama Hawsawi and Redha Tukar scored after the break before Al Qahtani struck again to secure the points.

Bahrain capitalised on some poor defending by Thailand, whose hopes of making the next round appear to be over.

They took the lead on 21 minutes through Isa Salman, but the hosts pressed hard for the equaliser and found it four minutes later when goal-poacher Surayuth Chaikamdee headed home.

Bahrain forged ahead on 34 minutes through Hasan Ismaeel but the troublesome Teerathep Winothai levelled for the Thais in first half stoppage time.

Sayed Hussein secured the points when his weak effort somehow made it into the left hand corner.

"We were always under pressure," said Bahrain's Czech coach Milan Macala. "I'm happy with three points, that's all I wanted. I don't care how we got them."

Ten countries will progress to the final round of qualifiers, five of whom can earn places at South Africa 2010.