Bahrain (National Football)

It is official: the Antipodes are back in the FIFA World Cup.

Four years ago, Australia rode on the penalty-shooting prowess from John Aloisi to clinch a spot in the 2006 FIFA World Cup over Uruguay. They ended a 32-year absence from the beautiful game's greatest stage.

Fast forward four years later. New Zealand's All Whites are returning to the World Cup for the first time since 1982 with a 1-0 victory over Bahrain at Westpac Stadium in Wellington.

And the John Aloisi of New Zealand is a young rising star in Plymouth Argyle's Rory Fallon. His 45th minute wonder header from Leo Bertos eluded Bahraini goalkeeper Sayed Jaffer.

On top of clutch set pieces, clutch saves define the winners from the losers. 

And All Whites keeper Mark Paston made some impressive saves that rivalled those of his Socceroo counterpart Mark Schwartzer. He made a critical save on a Sayed Mohamed penalty in the second half.

Defensively in the second half, New Zealand frustrated Bahrain in their own half, although they could have done better on a number of opportunities  in the Bahrainis' half.

The setback for Milan Macala's national team adds to their recent qualifying woes.

In 2005, they fell to Trinidad & Tobago in the home-and-away series. This time, the Oceania champions sucker-punched their ticket to South Africa into the waters of Cook Strait.

35,194 filled the Ring of Fire dressed in All White, feasting on the throes of history. The scenes of jubilation evoked similarities to the reaction of their neighbors across the Tasman in 2005 when the Socceroos went to Germany for their first time since 1972.

Now, for the first time ever, Australia and New Zealand have qualified for the FIFA World Cup together.

Spread the word.

It wasn't the prettiest of FIFA 2010 World Cup Qualification victories, but as the old adage holds, "A win is a win."

After surviving Doha with a 0-0 draw against Qatar, Mile Sterjovski and David Carney scored in the second half to give Australia a 2-0 victory over Bahrain on Wednesday night at Stadium Australia.

In the 55th minute, Sterjovski scored his first international in over a year for Australia by capitalizing on a defensive error inside the six-yard box by Bahraini keeper Sayed Mohamed.

A botched bicycle kick by Jason Culina in the 88th minute was salvaged off the woodwork by Carney, who tapped it home, sealing the match for the Green and Gold.

Bahrain had a chance to equalize in the 62nd minute through Jasim Al Mazood, but he was offside, to the disgust of Milan Macala's men.

But what may have worried the nearly-40,000 partisan home faithful was the poor finish and personnel issues.

Stiffness in Tim Cahill's muscles made him a liability, and Grella only came in as a substitute.

Harry Kewell, however, was mediocre in his finishing. His biggest opportunity to get on the score sheet was wasted in the 75th minute. Celtic striker Scott McDonald has yet to score a goal for the Socceroos, with his biggest opportunity in the 12th sailing over the crossbar.

Despite the need for improvement, Australia have gone 708 match minutes without giving up a goal in World Cup Qualifying (with China scoring the only goal against the Socceroos).

They currently sit at the top of the table, with five wins, two draws and no defeats (17 points) with one match to go.

Bahrain, however, were given a lifeline after the match. Qatar's 1-1 draw with Japan means that they can qualify for the AFC playoff if they earn a win or a draw against Uzbekistan in Manama.

As for football fans Down Under, they can expect a packed Melbourne Cricket Ground on June 17 when Australia faces Japan.

And with the Roos and Blue Samurai having punched their tickets, the final match in World Cup qualification is sure to be a sneak peek at what's to come next year in South Africa for both teams.

Dr. Mario Thiessen and Team BMW Sauber are happy campers after their better-than-expected results in Bahrain that landed Poland's Robert Kubica his first-ever pole position on the starting grid and a solid third-place at the winner's podium. His win secured BMW as the leader in the in the points for the constructors' championship.

Kubica's teammate Nick Heidfeld, whose race-rhythm was quite decent, was right behind Kubica for a fourth-place finish pushing him up to second in driver's championship points

Ferrari drivers Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa were the top-2 finishers of this race. Race winner Massa and his determined driving style gave way to no mistakes while Räikkönen's patience and stamina delivered him to the second-step of the winner's podium.

The mandated absence of automatic launch and traction control is looking like the Great Equalizer this season, as these processes must be executed manually, a task failed by Lewis Hamilton, one of the most impressive performers of last season.

Hamilton, who was in a good starting position at fourth on the grid, acknowledged that he "let the team down" at the start of the race by not manually engaging into launch mode in time.

He was passed at the start by those behind him, and then soon after ran up the backside of Fernando Alonso's Renault. This resulted in the loss of the McLaren's front wing and I'm guessing a few choice Spanish cuss-words from the front-end of Alonso.

Renault's second driver, Heikki Kovalainen, finished 5th and gave us the fastest lap of the race at 1:30.193.

Judging by the closeness in championship points so far, I'm guessing that this season may be similar to last -- another nail-biter where the champion remained undecided until the very last race.

The next race can be seen live 4:30am PST on Speed TV  April 27th. It is the fourth race of the season and takes place in Spain. Word on the street is that Max Mosely is planning to attend providing his bondage gear is back from the cleaners.