Australia maintained their unbeaten record in the final round of Asian World Cup qualifiers

with a 2-0 win over Bahrain at the Olympic stadium on Wednesday.

Midfielder Mile Sterjovski broke the deadlock when he scored

in the 55th minute and left back David Carney sealed the Group

One win with a goal in the 88th.

Australia fielded a mostly second-string team having already

secured their place at next year's World Cup in South Africa

when they held Qatar to a goalless draw in Doha at the weekend.

Bahrain are still in the hunt to reach their first World Cup

but need a point from their last match against Uzbekistan next

week to be absolutely sure of making the playoffs.

Australia lead Group One with 17 points from seven matches

ahead of Japan, who have also qualified for the finals, on 15.

Bahrain are third with seven points ahead of Qatar, who have

finished their matches, on six and Uzbekistan with four.

After a slow start Australia took control of the match

against Bahrain in the second half despite squandering a series

of chances to win by a bigger margin.

"I think we created enough chances to score more than two

goals," Australia coach Pim Verbeek said in a televised

interview. "We were probably not really sharp enough to finish

it off.

"A lot of new players came into the team but if you win the

game 2-0 I think you've done everything you have to do."

Despite making seven changes to the starting lineup, the

Australians extended their impressive record of not conceding a

goal in any of their seven games so far in the last stage of

qualifying.

They play Japan, who have also qualified for South Africa,

in their last group match in Melbourne next week.

Australia struggled in the first half, with striker Scott

McDonald missing a golden chance to score, but they took control

after the break.

Sterjovski pounced on a defensive error to score then Carney

reacted quickly to poke home a rebound after a bicycle kick by

Jason Culina hit the post.

Australia were unlucky not to score a third with Harry

Kewell also hitting the woodwork.

That prompted goalkeeper and stand-in captain Mark Schwarzer

to launched a spirited defence of the team's tactics after they

were criticised during the qualifiers for not scoring enough.

"I'm extremely proud (of) the way the whole team and

management have gone about their job the whole campaign, they've

been extremely professional," Schwarzer said.

"I think if we can push on again against Japan and keep

another clean sheet, we can't do any better than that.

"It's very hard to understand how difficult the conditions

(in Asia) are at times. You need to go away and just get the job

done, sometimes it's not pretty."