Supersub slams home two for historic Socceroo victory

Cahill, Cahill, Cahill - those words rang out across Australia overnight as Everton superstar Tim Cahill left his mark on this World Cup, after he scored a brilliant brace in the space of four minutes which left the Japanese heartbroken.

Guus Hiddink rolled the dice when selecting the Australian team for this match, not only starting with Harry Kewell, whose fitness could be questioned, but also young Luke Wilkshire ahead of both Cahill and Josip Skoko.

And so our World Cup campaign started in earnest, and after an early foul by Marco Bresciano gave the Japanese the first chance of the game, Australia soon took control, utilising their size and strength when pushing through balls over the Japanese defenders to Mark Viduka, who was on song early showing great skill to constantly turn the Japanese defence inside out, and in the sixth minute of the game was foiled by a superb double save by Japanese keeper Yoshi Kawaguchi.

For the next 20 minutes the Australians dominated creating opportunities but perhaps waiting too long to take them, and in the 24th minute Bresciano failed to capitalise on a great flick by Viduka, hitting a tame shot straight to Kawaguchi.

Then in the 27th minute, disaster struck, a tame through ball from Nakamura found its way over Mark Schwarzer and into the back of the net. The Australian team, especially the goalkeeper who has been in such great form was furious, and the replay showed why. Blatant for all to see was a Japanese striker clattering into the keeper just as he was to claim the ball sending him crashing to the ground, along with the tentative hopes of a nation.

The next best chance fell to Bresciano who hit a free kick into the side netting at the 41st minute.

The frailties of Australia were shown on both wings where Jason Culina and Luke Wilkshire were unable to match their opponents for speed or skill. Especially Wilkshire who was constantly beaten by the Japanese teams Brazilian import Alex.

The second half started much the same as the first with the play being mostly made by the Aussies but we lacked spark and fluency in attack and some players needed to go.

Hiddink heeded the warning signs and started to bring a more attacking style to Australia first replacing Bresciano with Cahill at the 53rd minute, then substituting Craig Moore for Josh Kennedy and finally at the 75th minute Wilkshire for John Aloisi.

Aloisi proved the catalyst for our remarkable comeback, playing aggressively from the get go, and stepping up at a free kick only to have his low drive parried away, but that drive led to the build up that saw Cahill start our resurgence, and in the last 10 minutes, the game truly came alive.

After 83 minutes of wondering if we were going to ‘get screwed’ by poor officiating, Cahill pounced on a mistake from Japanese keeper Kawaguchi; who had been flawless up to that point to fire into the net and equalise for Australia.

Then four minutes later at the top of the box, the man who had already saved us from defeat struck again with a curling shot right out of the top drawer, the shot clattered into the post and inside the net to not only be a contender for goal of the tournament, but also send Australia into a frenzy.

Shortly after Aloisi who came on at the death of the game put the icing on the cake, strolling leisurely past two hapless and tiring Japanese defenders and firing past the keeper into the bottom left corner of the net to seal the game at 3-1.

The Socceroos did it, and it was sheer guts and determination by the entire team that saw us through to a deserved win, which was achieved through no small part to the stars who started on the bench.

It was a great win, but questions need to be asked of Hiddink for not only playing grafters like Wilkshire and Culina, who do not seem to be ready for the top level, but also playing Kewell in a demanding central midfield role, in which he is unaccustomed.

AUSTRALIA: Mark Schwarzer; Brett Emerton, Lucas Neill, Craig Moore (Josh Kennedy 60min), Scott Chipperfield; Vince Grella, Jason Culina, Luke Wilkshire (John Aloisi, 75min), Marco Bresciano (Tim Cahill, 52min), Harry Kewell; Mark Viduka (captain).

JAPAN: Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi; Yuichi Komano, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto (captain), Hidetoshi Nakata; Naohiro Takahara; Shunsuke Nakamura, Atsushi Yanasigawa (Shinji Ono, 78min), Alsessandro 'Alex' Santos, Takashi Fukunushi; Keisuke Tsuboi (Teruyuki Monawa, 56min), Yuji Nakazawa.

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