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You don't take a lot from friendlies, but it's nice to win. Losing 1-3 is not a disaster for the same reason, but you'd rather not lose like this in your last warm-up match before a big tournament. By all accounts, the USA played well and deserved their win. They're also rated a better side than Denmark, putting our last friendly in perspective.

A good hit out against a good team. Friendlies don't always tell you much, but there's some promising news in the 1-0 win.

This time next week the first game (South Africa vs Mexico) will have been played. Australia was the first team to arrive in South Africa and are training at altitude. The aim is to be the fittest team (again?) at the finals, but will we be?

A friendly against the Kiwis is normally anything but and this was no exception. However, it was Australia who behaved poorly with a couple of very rash tackles. We also played poorly. New Zealand took a deserved early lead in the first half. We picked up a bit in the second half and probably deserved our equaliser. We then pinched a goal with nothing on the clock to claim an undeserved win.

There's a little under four weeks to go to the kick off of the 2010 Finals. The 32 countries have announced their preliminary teams. Leagues around the world have wrapped up. The sense of anticipation is building. Who will win this time?

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.