Can you feel it? Have you got the fever?
It's actually within touching distance now. The World Cup officially starts next week! Well, at the end of next week. But it's close enough.
And there is cause for optimism for Australian fans as we head into our clash with the mighty Germans now officially less than a fortnight away.
While it may be distasteful to make light of injuries to anyone, it's hard not to mention them given Group D has seemingly been placed under an injury curse.
Only Serbia has so far managed to fare relatively well, but we are still about two weeks and multiple friendlies away from the start of the tournament proper.
Germany have most definitely lost enough players to cover for the both of them with Michael Ballack, Christian Traesch, Rene Adler, Simon Rolfes and now Heiko Westermann all ruled out.
Words about the misfortune of Ballack and Michael Essien have been done to death, so I won't bore you with more except to say this - while Germany and Ghana need to be respected as much now as they were before these two generals went down, surely those two teams would be better with their respective captains in them rather than on the sidelines?
I don't read in to the talk about how they are equally strong without them. They aren't captains for nothing.
Of course, we haven't escaped injury misfortune either. But it appears our injuries have come and gone at the right time (if there is one).
Surely Pim Verbeek would not have axed Scotty McDonald unless he was 110 per cent confident in Harry Kewell's fitness?
My main concern is Brett Emerton. I hope, I pray, his calf injury does not develop in to anything more. We sorely miss his combination, particularly with Luke Wilkshire, any time that pair is not together on the park.
On to the field and after walking away from the MCG in the rain last Monday night I was alarmed by our performance to say the least.
But after some reflection, and after listening to Verbeek's explanation of loading up the players with heavy training sessions, I started to feel more contented.
In swimming parlance, Verbeek is trying to peak us for Germany. The boys are no doubt going to feel heavy and sluggish in their friendlies before tapering off to have us in prime condition for our Durban D-Day.
It was a meaningless match after all, and boy did it feel like one. At the end of the day, ugly or not, lucky or not, undeserved or not, the stats sheet said we won 2-1. And seriously, aside from beating Ireland 3-0 and Qatar (x 3), when have we really won well under Verbeek?
It is, in the end, a results game.
Not that I'm expecting one against Denmark. In fact I would not be surprised if we get a little touch up.
But I still wouldn't sound the alarm bells. I'm still holding out confidence in the coaching and fitness staff that the preparation of our boys is top class.
What I wouldn't mind seeing against the Danes is Michael Beauchamp in the centre of defence with Lucas Neill.
I was critical of him before, but he played really, really well against New Zealand. In particular in dealing with Rory Fallon, who went on to cause Manchester United/Serbia defender Nemanja Vidic all sorts of trouble on the weekend.
Speaking of New Zealand, even though it was just a friendly, am I not the only one feeling just a little bit better about things after their result against Serbia?
On two fronts.
One, the All Whites are definitely not as bad as people say. I watched the game in full and the Kiwis were fantastic.
And two, while Serbia didn't have their best team in, it definitely wasn't a complete second string line-up. Maybe they aren't as crash hot as people say.
Time will tell.
It's been a big week just gone, the next is only going to get bigger and better. I'm getting excited!
Come on the Roos!
