
	Recoba magic sinks the Socceroos Brought to you by the Herald and The Age newsrooms MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Nov 26 AAP - One superstar and two moments of genius today crushed Australia's hopes of qualifying for soccer's World Cup finals for the first time in 28 years. Uruguay ensured itself the last remaining place in next year's World Cup tournament in Japan and Korea, defeating the Socceroos 3-0 in their second leg playoff in Montevideo. It gave Uruguay a 3-1 aggregate win after the Socceroos' 1-0 victory in Melbourne last week and left Australian soccer facing a financial crisis it had hoped to erase with a possible $12 million windfall from qualifying for the finals. In the end, the best soccer side Australia has ever assembled simply wasn't good enough against a Uruguayan team which outplayed it from start to finish. Uruguay's star striker Alvaro Recoba proved the difference, with two moments of second half magic to create goals for substitute Richard Morales. With Uruguay leading 1-0 through Dario Silva's 14th minute goal, Recoba conjured up a free-kick of exquisite precision in the 70th minute to find Morales, who headed powerfully past Socceroos keeper Mark Schwarzer. Then with the Socceroos pushing forward in search of a goal which could have still won the tie on the away goals rule, Recoba sealed Australia's fate in the 90th minute. He tormented two Socceroos defenders and slid a pass through Tony Vidmar's legs to the unmarked Morales for his second and Uruguay's third. That sent the crowd of 65,000 in the Estadio Centenario into raptures and Uruguay to its first World Cup finals tournament since 1990. Australia has not qualified for the World Cup finals since 1974. The Socceroos were under pressure from the opening whistle and took on the look of bunnies in a speeding car's headlights as they tried to protect a one-goal lead from the opening leg. The speedy Silva, who returned to the side for today's match from injury, negated Australia's advantage inside the opening 15 minutes. He held off Australian centre-back Shaun Murphy, then shot low past Schwarzer. Uruguay then dominated the rest of the half - with Murphy forced to clear off the line in the 25th minute and Federico Magallanes producing a good save from Schwarzer 12 minutes later. The Socceroos had their chances as well - the best falling to striker Mark Viduka on 64 minutes. A long throw from skipper Paul Okon found Viduka who headed over the bar from point-blank range. Six minutes later, it was virtually all over as Morales scored his first goal to force Socceroos coach Frank Farina to chase the game. Murphy's header from a corner forced a good save from Uruguayan keeper Fabian Carini on 79 minutes. But Recoba continued to threaten on the counter-attack, striking paydirt in the 90th minute with his pass to Morales to seal the game and a 3-0 win.