THERE was no game time for former Blayney football junior Nathan Burns in the Socceroos' 2-0 win over the United Arab Emirates in Tuesday night's Asian Cup semi-final, leaving him one more chance this competition at a run in national colours on Saturday night.
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The win at Newcastle will see the Socceroos take on South Korea for the title, a team who handed the Australians a 1-0 defeat in the group stages.
It's the second of the five Socceroos matches this tournament Burns has seen no match time following his side's 4-0 win over Oman.
Australia secured a second consecutive cup final - they lost to Japan four years ago - courtesy of goals from defenders Trent Sainsbury and Jason Davidson against the Emirates.
They were both scored within 14 minutes in a perfect start to what became a comprehensive victory.
"We wanted to start really strong, even if we couldn't score, to really put some pressure on," Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou said.
"We felt that was our best chance, if we could get through that early period without conceding and hopefully scoring, then we could control the game after that.
"We came out really strong and whilst I don't think in the first half, even though we were 2-0 up, we controlled the game, by the time we got into the second half we dominated as we should and made the win comfortable.
"The staff are already planning about our next steps, so that part of my job is really easy - we have got good people involved and the players are absolute professionals, so from that perspective I won't have to do much during the week."
Sainsbury's goal came after just three minutes on the back of a corner and just nine minutes later Davidson added the second with a well-directed low shot into the left corner of the UAE goal.
