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By Greg Stutchbury
MELBOURNE, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Australia began their first World Cup qualifying campaign through Asia with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Qatar at Docklands Stadium on Wednesday.
The Socceroos, who qualified for the 2006 World Cup through Oceania after defeating Uruguay in a penalty shootout, had too much firepower for a young Qatar side.
Striker Josh Kennedy and midfielders Tim Cahill and Mark Bresciano scored first half goals for Pim Verbeek's side to give them the ideal start to the 2010 campaign in Group One, which also includes Asian champions Iraq and China.
"We played a fantastic first half. We created chances, we scored great goals, we never gave them one chance," Verbeek told reporters.
"(We played) exactly what we planned before the game. I'm very proud of what they did."
The Australians, despite having a disjointed preparation with their mostly European-based squad filtering into Melbourne, took little time to settle with Cahill's side-footed shot well saved by Qatar goalkeeper Mohammed Sadr in the sixth minute.
The home side, roared on by a near-capacity crowd of 50,969, exploited the width given to them by a hesitant Qatari defence, with Brett Emerton's 11th minute cross met by Kennedy, who outjumped two defenders and nodded the ball past Sadr.
Cahill, who had missed an earlier chance, made amends in the 17th minute when he glanced a Luke Wilkshire corner past a hesitant Sadr.
Bresciano completed the scoring in the 33rd minute when he slotted home Scott McDonald's superbly weighted square ball after the Qatari defence had bungled a clearance.
The home side had numerous chances in the second half but failed to add to their score.
They also lost concentration several times and were lucky to keep a clean sheet, particularly when Qatar substitute Mesaad Al Hamad missed an open goal after they had caught Australia on the counter-attack.
The match then fizzled out with Mark Schwarzer barely troubled again, while Australia substitute John Aloisi scuffed his shot while one-on-one against Sadr.
"It was a good win and we knew we were going to get tired later so it was important that we scored early, open the game up a little bit," captain Lucas Neill said.
"We scored some really good goals. It's a pity we couldn't score again to kill the game off."
(Editing by John O'Brien and Trevor Huggins)
