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The sense of anticipation was increased with the draw for the World Cup Finals being completed. We now know who's in which pool, who can meet in the knockout rounds, etc.

Last night, New Zealand's All Whites qualified for the World Cup Finals! A massive result and great news for mine. Honestly it was 2005 all over again for me. A crucial goal in the first half. An outstanding penalty save. And remembering what it felt like for us as a country. Let's hope NZ do well.

I've been saying for a long time that Tim Cahill is our most valuable player and I think he proved it again here. His two goals gave us a significant psychological advantage over Japan. Sure this game was a dead rubber in terms of qualification, but there's still rankings in Asia and the World to consider. Plus our rivalry with Japan. So inflicting their first defeat of this round as well as maintaining our record were both important.

In the end Australia were comfortable winners. It wasn't a great performance, but it was another win and another clean sheet and there's a lot to be said for that.

Woo-hoo! Australia secured the point it needed in an exciting 0-0 draw. We're off to South Africa as one of the first qualifiers, instead of the last.

When Valeri went down and the referee awarded a penalty, there was that feeling again. We're off to the World Cup Finals! A great result for Australia. The other result overnight means technically we can't be certain, but it's all over bar the shouting. We will get the solitary point required from our next three matches. And then it's South Africa here we come.

Circumstances conspired to prevent me from seeing the game. Reports suggest I didn't miss much. We played a defensive game and managed to contain a very well prepared Japan and escape with a 0-0 draw. In the scheme of things, ie. qualifying, a good result.

The ultimate snatch-and-grab victory. Bahrain played out of their skins and were on top for most of the match. We were kept in it by some good work by Schwarzer (again). And Bresciano steals victory with an injury-time goal.

Man I really hate the fact that the Socceroos are only on Foxtel. By all accounts we played really well and blew Qatar off the park. The 4-0 result combined with Japan's 1-1 draw with Uzbekistan means we've gone top of the group and we've had our bye.

We had the bye for Match Day 1 and enjoyed a 2-1 win over Holland in a friendly. Uzbekistan meanwhile had gone down 0-3 to Qatar. So we were in form, but they were desperate and at home. And we came away with a priceless 0-1 win away. I didn't see much of the match, but by all accounts we did pretty well.