When assessing our chances against Serbia and thus advancing from Group D on Thursday morning I think everyone has neglected to highlight the main point.
Hello! Our destiny is still in our own hands!
We only have to win by seven goals on Thursday morning and then regardless of what happens in the Germany v Ghana match we will make it through to the second round.
Guys, it was only nine years ago that we won a game 31-0, days after we had won another 22-0.
And lets not forget that it was Serbia and Montenegro who suffered the biggest loss of the World Cup in 2006 when they were slaughtered 6-0 by Argentina.
We've seen Portugal dismantle North Korea. They may have won 7-0, but they also scored six goals in about 35 minutes. Surely we can do likewise?
7-0 would require us to score a goal every 12min and 50sec or so. I would assume being so attacking that we would concede one goal, so we'd need to score eight, leaving us needing a goal every 11min and 15sec.
Doable.
But okay,maybe it's a little farfetched. Maybe I forgot to mention that those rugby scores came against American Samoa and Tonga, and maybe we don't have the quality to score goals like Portugal and Argentina, and maybe I forgot to mention that since Serbia has been playing as an independent nation their largest loss was 2-0 - to the Ukraine in 2008.
We're not going to win 7-0, obviously our best chance of progressing is to win 2-0 and hope Germany put three past Ghana, which is not entirely out of the realms of possibility.
But I wouldn't even be thinking about that if I was amongst the team.
Given the position we find ourselves in, we literally have nothing to lose.
So, as listeners in Melbourne to the Four Diegos would attest, I simply hope that we go to Nelspruit and play with gay abandon.
We're not going to make any friends sitting back and playing for a 1-0 result.
We're at the World Cup, most likely in our last match there. Why not go out there and have some fun and try to show the world what we can do?
If I were Pim Verbeek I would tell the boys to break the shackles, admit we screwed up in the first game and then harness the energy and momentum taken out of that great performance on Saturday night and transfer that on to the pitch against Serbia.
With that in mind, I'd suggest a slight, slight change in formation to allow us to put our most attacking outfit on the ground that we can.
Mark Schwarzer, keeper, obviously.
Back four of Luke Wilkshire, Lucas Neill, Michael Beauchamp, Dave Carney.
Jason Culina holding midfielder.
Brett Emerton on the right wing, Brett Holman in the centre, Mark Bresciano on the left.
Tim Cahill as our centre forward.
And Scott Chipperfield up front.
It's never been done, but so what? These players showed it could work on Saturday night.
Beauchamp comes in as our best option to replace Moore, Carney did a great job at left back on Saturday and gave us more drive up the field.
Holman has been fantastic when given the chance since his performance in Melbourne against New Zealand and deserves another start. Bresciano, meanwhile, did enough to hold his spot.
Cahill is self explanatory, but I never want to see him alone up front again, therefore I would put Chippers in there.
Why not? He attacked with vigour the other night, and has an outstanding record for his club side in Switzerland when playing as a forward.
It might not be a traditional Socceroos line-up, but again, why not try it? It's not totally outlandish as our line-up against Germany was. So let's just have a bit of fun and just see what happens. We've still got enough on the bench in case it doesn't work out (Josh Kennedy, Richard Garcia, Nikita Rukavytsya, Dario Vidosic, Carl Valeri come to mind).
I'm actually really looking forward to the game. Regardless of whether or not we live to fight another day.
Just back on Saturday night, and I couldn't have been prouder of the way the boys responded.
When the chips were down the boys came out and played their best hand despite the best efforts of the Italian referee.
Seriously, to play 70 minutes with 10 men against the best side Africa has to offer and, not just hold them out, but dominate. It was simply amazing.
Sure, we should have won, Wilkshire and Chipperfield will be ruing those missed opportunities for weeks and months to come, but we our effort cannot be faulted.
Let's hope a similar sentiment rings true once the dust settles on Thursday morning.
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Can I just say too, on our cousins across the ditch, I am having the best time watching their exploits in South Africa.
Having lived in New Zealand for a couple of years as a kid I was well and truly on the bandwagon even before they qualified, and have watched every game since the Confederations Cup last year.
It's also exciting because this was us four years ago, punching above their weight, defying all expectations and thrilling the crowds back home.
Anzac rivalries aside, I hope everyone in Australia has adopted the All Whites as their second team.
And I'll be up late on Thursday night cheering them on against Paraguay hoping and praying that they can find that win that will seal for them a second round berth that could not even have been dreamt about only weeks ago.
