Soccerooed

Australia vs Japan
Kaiserslautern

Fans in Australia and Japan will be having a late night in front of their television at home. For the rest of us, it's another hot afternoon in Germany.

The first free-kick was awarded to Japan, on the edge of the Australian area, within a minute.
Then on the sixth minute, Australia's Mark Viduka had a double chance as he came in from the left. The angle at the near post was tight and Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi was fortunate to keep the threat out, at the second attempt.

Both teams continued to have little half chances; with a sleek back-heeled, one-two from Mark Viduka, almost working for the in-running Marco Bresciano.

Then the Australians were shocked in the 26th minute, when Shunsuke Nakamura crossed high from the right wing. Mark Schwarzer jumped and almost reached out his palm to the ball but seemed to be nudged out of way the by a crouching, Naohiro 'Kamikazee' Takahara.

Guus Hiddink wanted to see the replay on an official's monitor.

Harry Kewell replied at the other end with a shot that just skimmed over the bar.

Bresciano's free-kick, five minutes before the break, curled around the wall and swung in towards the near post. Unfortunately, for the jumping Australians, the ball fell into the side-netting. From the wrong part of the stadium, it might have looked like a goal.

Half-time: (0:1).

The question on everyone's mind was whether this was going to be another one of those afternoon second-halves, where the players are drained of energy due to the heat.

In a strategic sleight of hand, Guus Hiddink introduced Joshua Kennedy for Craig Moore, with thirty minutes left to change the balance of the game.

Straight away, the Dynamo Dresden was involved in a few goal area incidents and earned the 68th minute free-kick for Mark Viduka's grass skimming shot that forced Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi to dive down to the right for another crucial save.

With nothing left to lose, Hiddink played his last card with fifteen minutes to go; risking holes in the middle for more firepower up front. Within two minutes, John Aloisi was in the Egyptian referee's book for the wrong reason though.

With six minutes to go, Australia scored their first ever World Cup Finals goal when Tim Cahill hooked in a loose ball from Lucas Neill's long throw-in on the left.

In the last minutes, neither team was prepared to settle for a draw.

Just before closing time, Tim Cahill again put his name on the score-sheet again after he received a square ball from the right and curled it into the top left-hand corner; to send a slightly overweight Guus Hiddink into something of a kangaroo dance.

There was still energy left in the Australians as a fresh John Aloisi ran the ball into the area; past the back-peddling Yuichi Komano; in front of the incoming Tsuneyasu Miyamoto; to release a shot across the face of Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi.

Final Score:
Australia 3 - Japan 1

Teams
Australia: (Captain Mark Viduka)
1 Mark Schwarzer; 2 Lucas Neill, 3 Craig Moore; 5 Jason Culina, 7 Brett Emerton, 13 Vince Grella, 14 Scott Chipperfield, 20 Luke Wilkshire, 23 Marco Bresciano; 9 Mark Viduka, 10 Harry Kewell.

Japan: (Captain Tsuneyasu Miyamoto)
23 Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi; 3 Yuichi Komano, 5 Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, 14 Alessandro Santos, 19 Keisuke Tsuboi, 22 Yuji Nakazawa; 7 Hidetoshi Nakata, 10 Shunsuke Nakamura, 15 Takashi Fukunishi; 9 Naohiro Takahara, 13 Atsushi Yanagisawa.

Referee:
Essam Abd El Fatah (Egypt)

Our Man of The Match:
Tim Cahill; who wrote history for Australia with the Socceroos' first World Cup Finals goal and inspired the team to push on and extend their lead.