SYDNEY, Australia — Mile Jedinak led Australia into next year’s World Cup with a deflected free kick and two penalties in Wednesday’s 3-1 intercontinental playoff victory over Honduras.
Jedinak, who missed the latter stages of Australia’s Asian qualifying campaign because of injury, opened the scoring when his free kick curled to the left of the wall and went in off defender Henry Figueroa in the 54th minute, bringing the 77,060 crowd at Sydney’s Olympic stadium to life.
Jedinak, the Australian captain, converted from the spot in the 72nd after referee Nestor Pitana penalized Bryan Acosta for a hand ball and calmly slotted home another penalty in the 85th to ensure Australia qualified for its fourth consecutive World Cup.