The more days that pass following our exit from the World Cup in South Africa, the more I look back with pride on the side that gave its all but in the end fell just short of qualifying for the second round.

Mind you, the more days that pass, the more it becomes eminently clear that if we did manage to sneak through in place of Ghana to the Round of 16 we could have still been on one hell of a ride with the Socceroos.

I have no doubt that, given the chance Ghana was, we would have toppled the USA on Saturday night and set up a game against Uruguay in the quarter finals.

We were all touting a possible second round clash with England as potentially the biggest game in the sport's history in this country, but imagine what a quarter final against our arch nemesis from 2001 and 2005 would have meant.

I would bet that the feeling coming from Montevideo would be the same.

It would have been by no means a lay-down win for us, but a quarter final against Uruguay would have allowed us to dream of a possible semi final berth.

Alas, it remains all a pointless thought process. A final 'what-if' to chuck in on top of these: What if Pim Verbeek was more attacking against Germany? What if Tim Cahill didn't get sent off? What if Harry Kewell wasn't sent off against Ghana? What if Scott Chipperfield headed that great cross down rather than over the cross bar? What if Luke Wilkshire managed to chip that ball over rather than into Ghana's goalkeeper? What if we'd found a third goal against Serbia?

In fairness though, all 16 nations eliminated before the knockout stages ponder these what-ifs - in particular Slovenia, the hosts and our cousins from across the ditch.

But back to my first point, and I say I look back with pride because of the way the boys responded after being totally smashed by Germany.

They could have slinked away, tail between their legs and not given a yelp in their final two games, but instead they turned their fortunes totally around - against the odds - and showed the world the type of football that players from this country can dish up.

And suddenly our future stocks don't look so bad after all.

Sure we will lose some of this golden generation straight away, namely Craig Moore and Scott Chipperfield. And sure a lot of the other mainstays may struggle to reach Brazil in 2014.

But there are replacements waiting in the wings. Brett Holman was fantastic in the Republic and has his best years ahead of him, likewise Carl Valeri, Michael Beauchamp can slot in for Moore in central defense and, I don't know about you, but I think Luke Wilkshire is the prime candidate to be our next captain. I absolutely love him.

Elsewhere, the likes of Tommy Oar, James Holland, Dario Vidosic and Nikita Rukavytsya will take plenty away from being around the squad over the past few weeks.

Rhys Williams is a gem and was unlucky to be struck down with injury before the tournament.

While Scott McDonald will surely fit into the team when a new manager plays with a new formation and then you have Patrick Kisnorbo and Matthew Spiranovic, both injured and/or out of form heading into South Africa, who I still foresee a future for with the national team.

Which takes me to the Asian Cup.

And what pleases me is that all of the right noises are coming out of the camp in relation to our second crack at the continental title. If Brett Emerton is to be believed, the Asian Cup will be given total commitment by the boys despite it falling in the middle of the European club season.

This should not be seen as an opportunity to blood new players for the future, we must go to Qatar to win, and we will be given every chance to do so.

So could our first piece of silverware be on its way? Only time will tell. But once the dust settles on our second World Cup campaign in four years, I think you will find that there are plenty of positives to take away from South Africa 2010 when pushing forward into the future.