Joeys down Thailand in opener

First-half goals from Taylor Tombides and Josh MacDonald helped Australia to victory, meaning it will go into its next match against Oman in good spirits.

Alex Gersbach came closest to opening the scoring in just the fourth minute, with his flick hitting the post, but 10 minutes later the Joeys were ahead.

MacDonald was heavily involved in Australia's 14th-minute opener, earning his side a penalty after being brought down by Thailand defender Jutitep Tonglim. Tombides made no mistake from the resulting spot kick.

The Joeys doubled the lead in the 29th minute with MacDonald firing home.

Thailand's best chance came late on with Puangbut Saran hitting a long-range shot against the crossbar

"Thoroughly professional first-up performance by the boys, the first 45 minutes especially was top class," Joeys coach Alistair Edwards said afterwards.

"We had a number of opportunities to kill the game but some desperate defending from the Thais kept things interesting up until the final whistle.

"Their coach was very complimentary on how we approached the game and on the whole we are satisfied with not only the three points but the way in which we created quality opportunities, controlled large parts of the game and when called upon defended superbly.

"We stayed back and watched an excellent Oman v Iraq game this evening and as expected, the standard of both these teams is very high.

"We will now switch our focus to Oman and look to build on the positive start to the competition, from what we have seen today we will again enjoy the lion's share of possession and this is something that we have prepared specifically for, they have a Dutch coach so we are looking forward to another intriguing tactical battle."

In the other Group B match Iraq defeated Oman 2-1.

Australia: 1 Andre JANNESE (gk), 3 Aaron CALVER , 4 Jack IREDALE, 5 James BALDACCHINO (c), 8 Kevin LY, 9 Josh MACDONALD, 10 Daniel DE SILVA , 11 Alex GERSBACH, 13 Rocco PIZZATA, 19 Taylor TOMBIDES (22 Todd NORRIS 75'), 20 Hyuga TANNER (23 Lukas STERGIOU 69')

Yellow Cards: Josh MacDonald 9', Hyuga Tanner 39'