Kennedy downs Danes
Giant striker Josh Kennedy has continued his remarkable scoring rate for Australia to give manager Pim Verbeek a pleasant selection dilemma ahead of the World Cup as the Qantas Socceroos beat Denmark 1-0 in their first warm-up friendly in South Africa on Tuesday night.
Giant striker Josh Kennedy has continued his remarkable scoring rate for Australia to give manager Pim Verbeek a pleasant selection dilemma ahead of the World Cup as the Qantas Socceroos beat Denmark 1-0 in their first warm-up friendly in South Africa on Tuesday night.
The match appeared headed for a 0-0 draw at Ruimsig Stadium on the outskirts of Johannesburg until Kennedy took full advantage of a slice of luck for the Aussies in the 71st minute to score his seventh goal in just 18 appearances for the Qantas Socceroos.
Kennedy was playing as Australia's sole striker under Verbeek's preferred 4-5-1 system but it is a position he is only likely to have during the World Cup should Verbeek's preferred choice of striker in Harry Kewell not be fit.
But while Kewell - who is expected to re-join full training with his teammates in South Africa on Thursday as his injured groin continues to improve - is expected to be fit for Australia's opening World Cup game against Germany in just under a fortnight; Kennedy again showed he is ready to step into the breach should Kewell either not be ready or suffer another injury setback.
Kennedy again demonstrated throughout a match of few chances that he is a great target man as he took full advantage of a deflected cross from Luke Wilkshire with just under 20 minutes remaining.
As a result of the deflection the ball looped up in the air between two Danish defenders and landed perfectly for the Japanese-based striker.
Kennedy then created more space for himself by heading the ball down before finishing superbly on the volley with his non-preferred right foot as he blasted home despite the close attention of Denmark defender Daniel Agger - who plays for English Premier League giants Liverpool.
It is the first goal Kennedy has ever scored for Australia that has not come as a result of a header but yet again underlined the 27-year-old's value to his country.
Kennedy's goal capped off a much-improved performance from the Qantas Socceroos compared to last week's 2-1 win over New Zealand in its Australian farewell friendly at the MCG as the Qantas Socceroos stretched their great recent record to just two defeats in their past 21 internationals under Verbeek.
And once again Australia kept a clean sheet with the Qantas Socceroos now having conceded just nine goals in their past 19 matches to again send a warning to their Group D rivals in South Africa in Germany, Serbia and Ghana, that they will be an extremely difficult team to break down during the World Cup.
Verbeek made five changes from the starting line-up that struggled to beat lowly New Zealand with the Qantas Socceroos at full-strength other than Kewell and Brett Emerton, who is still recovering from a calf strain.
Number one keeper Mark Schwarzer, experienced defenders Luke Wilkshire and Scott Chipperfield as well as Richard Garcia and Kennedy all returned from injury as Adam Federici, Mark Milligan, David Carney, Dario Vidosic and the axed Scott McDonald were the players to make way from the team that started against the All Whites.
And the return of Chipperfield and Wilkshire in particular made the Australian defence look much more solid as Denmark rarely threatened throughout the match while Wilkshire's set pieces were a constant danger throughout as he again underlined his status as the country's most improved player since the last World Cup.
However the Danes elected not to start their two best strikers in Arsenal star Niklas Bendtner, who did not play at all, and Soren Larsen - who was their leading goalscorer during qualifying for the World Cup, although Larsen did come on in the second half.
But Denmark, which has had the same manager in Morten Olsen for the past ten years and at 36 is ranked just 16 places behind Australia on FIFA's official rankings, did field a strong defence including EPL stars Agger and Lars Jacobsen, who is a teammate of Vince Grella and Emerton at Blackburn Rovers.
However after Agger gave the Qantas Socceroos an early scare with a free-kick that whistled just wide in the fourth minute, the first half became a dour stalemate as both sides struggled on a sandy pitch and with their first taste of the World Cup ball which appeared to often 'run away' from the players at altitude in Johannesburg.
Australia began to threaten Denmark in the air just before the half-time break despite Denmark enjoying the greater possession, while Schwarzer made his only save for the match early in the second half as the Danes - who will be appearing in their first major tournament since Euro 2004 - enjoyed their best spell of the match.
However as Verbeek made three changes at half-time with Brett Holman, Carl Valeri and David Carney on for Garcia, Tim Cahill and Chipperfield, Australia began to become more attacking on the back of their clear defensive stability at the other end as Kennedy eventually ensured a hard-fought but deserved win.
Australia's next and final warm-up match ahead of the World Cup is against the United States on Saturday.
Australia: 1 (Kennedy 71) Denmark: 0
At Ruimsig Stadium, Johannesburg