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Cahill nets double in World Cup qualifier win

Socceroos superstar Tim Cahill says he and his teammates have become “machines” who know exactly where the others will be at all times.

Cahill scored Australia’s last two goals in Tuesday night’s 3-0 win over Tajikistan in Dushanbe but could barely contain his delight about how they were created.

His first, in the 74th minute, was a clinical finish off a Ryan McGowan cutback while his second, in injury time, was a product of a near-telepathic understanding he says he has forged with winger Tommy Oar, a second-half substitute who provided him with a pinpoint cross from the left.

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“Tommy Oar comes on and he doesn’t even have to look at me,” Cahill said.

“Time and time again he knows that I make my run from the second (defender) to the middle, that I don’t run in front of the first defender. That’s my game.

“I was buzzing, and I said to Tommy that’s not the first time he has done that.

“Seeing us now we are like machines, the way we run.

“It’s the football that we wanted to play. We have come here knowing why we have won.”

It all holds Australia in good stead as they look towards next month’s qualifier against second-placed Jordan.

A win there and the Socceroos will move five points clear on top of Group B, an almost unassailable position that would put them within touching distance of the next phase of qualification.

But Cahill holds bad memories of the last time the national side visited Jordan three years ago.

Under former coach Holger Osieck, the Socceroos fell 2-1, a loss that was endemic of the team’s problems at the time and appeared to put their 2014 World Cup hopes in jeopardy.

Cahill said there is a completely different feel about the team this time around.

“The last qualifying campaign was probably the most difficult of those I have been a part of,” he said.

“We were lucky in some instances and just did enough. Now going into this game against Jordan, and even going into the Bangladesh and Tajikistan games, there was a really good confidence amongst the lads.

“Our midfield is fully stacked. It seems like everything is going really well.”

– AAP

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