australia

An entertaining nil-all draw - an oxymoron is some sports perhaps - but a fair reflection of an enjoyable game.

A comfortable 3-0 win for Australia, but the result doesn't mean a lot. A weakened New Zealand, after a long flight following of a drubbing at the hands of Mexico in the USA on Thursday, were clearly not going to push us. More interesting was the chance given to several possible Socceroos of the future. Expect a different side and a much tougher match against Serbia on Tuesday.

Our first hit-out since our loss in the Asian Cup final. It may have been a friendly, but defeating World #3 Germany at home is still a great result.

An absolute classic match that will only add to the intensity of the Japan-Australia rivalry. The two best teams at the competition played a match worthy of a final. Unfortunately the result did not go Australia'a way, with Japan claiming a record fourth title in the 1-0 extra-time win.

The first half belonged to Australia. We continued as we had in the semi-final, with purposeful attack and resolute defence. Japan barely got a look in and had just a couple of passages of play where they were able to hold possession and build an attack.

The Socceroos celebrated Australia Day with one of their most, if not their most comprehensive performance ever. The 6-0 annihilation of Uzbekistan was emphatic, they dominated all aspects of the game and earnt themselves a spot in the final.

I'm not a big fan of Kewell these days, but credit where credit's due, his late goal was very well taken and put us into the semi-finals. A huge result after our disappointing exit in 2007.

Australia and Iraq have some history now, with both sides recording some key wins. Significantly, Australia's performance improved over their last match. It needed to, but in the end, they probably deserved the win. Iraq had its moments and played very well, but Australia created more chances and edged Iraq in performance.

A scrappy match on a wet pitch, but we did enough to win and finish top of the group - objective achieved. However, neither our coach nor our captain sugar-coated it, we'll need to do better in our next match against Iraq.

Bahrain needed the win and were more adventurous as a result. The first half was roughly even, with both sides creating good chances. Jedinak scored his second goal in two games in the first half to give us a very valuable lead.