Australia-Qatar: Scoreless Draw Sends Socceroos to the FIFA World Cup Again

There's no question that in Australia, people are celebrating as we speak. It's going to be a day filled with tears of happiness and excitement all around.

From Federation Square in Melbourne, to pubs and restaurants with televisions in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, and all over, millions of fans clad in green and gold watched the Socceroos qualify for the 2010 World Cup with a 0-0 draw against Qatar at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha.

With the draw, the Socceroos qualified for the FIFA 2010 World Cup with two matches to go.

It wasn't the most auspicious of starts for Australia, however.

Joshua "Jesus" Kennedy was marked by the Maroons' Bilal Mohammed Rajab, and Sebastian Quintana had an opportunity to break the deadlock at 18 minutes with a shot missing the far post.

In the 27th minute, Everton's Tim Cahill had an acrobatic bicycle kick that hit the right post. Harry Kewell of Galatasaray also put pressure on the Qatari defense with two opportunities to tap the ball home.

Near the end of the first half, Cahill stopped a Quintana volley from six yards away. It was the best opportunity for Qatar the entire match.

In the second half Qatar should have been behind when Colchester United's Chris Coyne's shot off a rebound by Tim Cahill was saved by keeper Qasem Burhan in the 55th minute.

Later in the half, a couple of scoring opportunities by Kewell went for naught.

The Socceroos will certainly need to step up their finishing when they face Bahrain on Jun. 10 at ANZ Stadium.

It may be a dead rubber game, but this will be a great proving ground for fringe players that want to make an impression for Pim Verbeek's selection for South Africa next year.

For now, let the celebrations in Australia go around and about. After all, isn't drawing 0-0 with Qatar a whole lot better than having to go through Uruguay all over again?