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 agonizingly 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 champion 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 the United Arab Emirates kept its lead in the all-Middle East Group 5 after holding struggling heavyweight Iran to a goalless draw.
The Gulf champion UAE heads the group on goals scored, ahead of Syria, which clinched a 1-0 win over Kuwait.
DPR Korea missed its chance to go top of Group 3 ahead of its rival from the South after being held to a 0-0 draw with Turkmenistan and Qatar clung on to second place in Group 1 after its goalless encounter with China in Doha. Australia leads 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 Japan 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 it was forced to replay a game it had won because of a refereeing error, did its goal difference no harm when it punished Singapore.
Timur Kapadze put it in front after 10 minutes with Aleksandar Duric leveling six minutes later for Singapore. Victor Karpenko restored the lead on 22 minutes before Singapore again found an equalizer, 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 defense looked like it didn't exist. We couldn't cope."
The Saudis, chasing a spot at its 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 capitalized on some poor defending by Thailand, whose hopes of making the next round appear to be over.
"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 teams will progress to the final round of qualifiers, five of whom can earn places at South Africa 2010.
(Agencies via China Daily June 4, 2008)