Midfield maestro Mark Bresciano fired an early warning shot across the bows of Australia's main Asian Cup rivals with a stunning goal in a 2-0 win over Bahrain at Aussie Stadium in Sydney.

The Socceroos sealed top spot in their qualifying group, and an all-important seeding for the tournament in South East Asia next July, with a professional if not overly impressive victory against the inexperienced Gulf nation side.

Bahrain, wanting to keep its top squad fresh for next month's final qualifier against Kuwait, fielded its Olympic under-23 team against the might of Australia's World Cup stars with Socceroos coach Graham Arnold admitting playing a "youth" team had affected his side's performance, which he rated as "sloppy in stages".

It didn't, however, affect Bresciano's penchant for the spectacular, with his stunning side-kick strike in the 24th minute ensuring the game will remain long in the memory of the 36,606-strong crowd at Aussie Stadium, while giving the likes of Japan and South Korea some food for thought ahead of next year's showpiece event.

Striker John Aloisi had put the Socceroos ahead 1-0 in the 18th minute with his 25th career international goal.

Six minutes later Scott Chipperfield lobbed a quality ball to the right edge of the box for a charging Mile Sterjovski, who in turn fired a superb half-volley across the box just behind Bresciano.

The Palermo midfielder opted against the safe option of trying to control the ball and instead went for the spectacular - positioning himself nearly horizontal in cracking an amazing side-kick thunderbolt from eight metres which nearly made a hole in the back of the net.

While not as important as his goal for the Socceroos the last time he was in Sydney for the Socceroos' World Cup playoff against Uruguay, Bresciano's strike will no doubt be rolled out on many an Australian football highlight reel in years to come.

"Only Bresciano can come up with them," Arnold said.

Bresciano had scored a similar goal for Palermo against Reggina in the Italian Serie A this season, but said the strike in Australian colours carried more significance.

"This was extra special because I scored it in front of Australia fans," Bresciano said.

"I think every goal is a good goal. But scoring a goal back in Australia gives me a better feeling (than scoring at club level)."

Sterjovski nearly added his own wonder goal early in the second half, but his scorching right-foot shot from the edge of the box was denied by the crossbar.

The Socceroos, for all their endeavour and dominance, found it tough to break down a determined Bahrain defence.

They weren't helped by Bahrain's time-wasting tactics, which frustrated the Australians and seemed obvious to everyone at the ground except the referee, who bemused the Socceroos with his decisions.

Bahrain players fell to the turf in agony at regular intervals throughout the night, only to make a miraculous recovery after being carted off on stretcher, prompting Arnold to remark: "There was only one team out there tonight, and that was us ... how many times did the stretcher come on tonight, they must be knackered the people carrying the stretchers."

Arnold admitted knowing his side was playing against an understrength Bahrain side had somewhat deflated the Socceroos.

"Obviously it takes a bit of the motivation away ... but overall it was sloppy at stages," Arnold said.

"You try to play a high-tempo game, but when they go down like flies every couple of minutes and the referee blows fouls all the time, it's very hard to find a rhythm in the game.

"But overall the goal set was to win the game and to top the group. We've done that, and the players over the last eight days have handled themselves brilliantly.

"They put in a wonderful performance against Paraguay and a very professional performance tonight."

Added to the Socceroos' strong showing against Paraguay in Saturday's 1-1 draw, Arnold said the team's performances over the last week had shown he was up to the task of coaching the Socceroos.

"Over the last eight days, if anything, I've proved I can handle the job if need be for however long they want me to handle it," said Arnold, who has been installed as interim coach since June while Football Australia searches for a high-profile replacement for World Cup boss Guus Hiddink.

"I think it's shown that the players want to play for me ... and tactically we've been fine on both occasions."

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