Australia show Singapore how to score

By Les Tan

National Stadium, June 30, 2007 – Australia put up a scoring clinic for Singapore when they beat their hosts 3-0 at the National Stadium.

I had to decide which side of the pitch to station myself to get photographs. Do I stick myself behind Mark Schwarzer’s goal and hope for Indra Shahdan to score? Or do I wait behind Lionel Lewis and hope Harry Kewell or Mark Viduka will do the business? After noticing that most of the photographers stood behind the Singapore goal, I decided that Australia would probably do all the scoring.

As it turned out, it proved to be the right choice as I managed to get Mark Viduka scoring his first goal for Australia. Here’s a sequence of three shots leading up to the goal:

In fact, Singapore hit the bar at least once in the first half and another time in the second half through Indra Shahdan. If Singapore had scored first, the complexion of the game may have been quite different.

In the second half, Harry Kewell came on and he scored the second goal for Australia. Taking the ball from left to right across the top of the Singapore penalty box, he took a shot with his weaker right foot and the ball arrowed into the bottom left corner of the goal past a sprawling Lionel Lewis.

Kewell then had a hand in setting up Australia’s third goal. He swung the ball in from the left and Viduka darted across the six-yard box to power his header past a static Lionel Lewis. The Australians seem almost embarrassed with their muted celebrations. The 40,000-strong crowd were happy though. They had seen three good goals and could go home happy.