asian cup

A thrilling, high-quality match provided a fitting ending to a wonderful tournament. To cap it off, the Socceroos captured their first major trophy in front of a sell-out crowd.

Australia confirmed they're playing well, nailing a spot in the final with a comfortable 2-0 win over U.A.E.

A sterling performance from both teams, but there could only be on winner. Australia is through to the semi-finals on the back of a relentless effort and two moments of Tim Cahill magic.

The big test against South Korea ended in a frustrating 0-1 loss. But what does this say about Australia?

The Socceroos played their best match in a long time. They completely dominated this match and dished out a 4-0 hiding. Do we need to recalibrate what they're capable of and how far they can go in this tournament?

From the perspective of results, this was the perfect start for Australia. There's still work to do, not least managing the expectations of supporters, but you'd take this any day.

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.