Australia, S. Korea Stay Top In Asian Qualifiers

The Socceroos played out a goalless draw with Japan in Yokohama to stretch their unbeaten run at the top of Group One.

Asian heavyweights Australia and South Korea secured away draws to maintain their leads in the final round of 2010 World Cup qualifying on Wednesday.

The Socceroos played out a goalless draw with Japan in Yokohama to stretch their unbeaten run at the top of Group One, while Park Ji-sung netted a late equaliser for South Korea to make the score 1-1 against Iran.

North Korea's Mun In-guk seized on a clever back-heel from Hong Yong-jo to slot home on 28 minutes and give his unfancied team a 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia, putting them second and a point behind fierce rivals South Korea.

In Tashkent, Mahmood Abdulrahman scored a free kick deep into stoppage time to earn Bahrain a 1-0 win over troubled Uzbekistan, which moved the Gulf side third behind Japan on four points.

"It's a very good result for us," Bahrain's Czech coach Milan Macala told reporters. "I hope that we will battle for second spot in this group."

Japan had the best of the chances in Yokohama but were frustrated by a resolute Socceroos defence, which kept out Shunsuke Nakamura, Keiji Tamada and Yasuhito Endo.

Having struggled in recent games, Japan fought hard for a win in front of a packed home crowd, with Nakamura's 25th-minute free kick clipping the crossbar and Endo's potent shot forcing a superb save from Mark Schwarzer.

Tamada could have stolen the points for Japan near to the end when he diverted Makoto Hasebe's volley inches wide of the post.

'SITTING PRETTY'

"It's a great result," Australia forward Tim Cahill told Reuters. "We're sitting pretty and so are Japan."

Japan Coach Takeshi Okada said: "It's frustrating not to take three points. We did everything but put the ball in the net."

In a thrilling encounter in Tehran, Iran took the lead through Javad Nekounam close to the hour mark and had keeper Sayed Mahdi Rahmati to thank for turning away two well-taken free kicks by Yeom Ki-hun.

However, Rahmati failed to hold Yeom's free kick nine minutes before the end, allowing Park to score the equaliser.

North Korea gave their hopes of reaching their first World Cup finals since 1966 a big lift by putting down a deluge of Saudi attacks in Pyongyang.

The Saudis looked dangerous but struggled with a slew of poor final deliveries and a constantly packed North Korean area.

Seven minutes from time, prolific striker Yasser Al-Kahtani almost levelled but his stinging 20-metre effort bound for the top corner was spectacularly clawed away.

Uzbekistan's defeat left them with only one point and a huge dent in their campaign to reach their first finals, although coach Mirdjalal Kasimov would not rule out a late revival.

"We were unlucky to miss a lot of chances," he said. "We lost but we will fight for every point in the remaining matches."

The top two teams in each of the two groups will advance to South Africa 2010 and one of the two third-placed teams can also qualify via two playoffs.