Vidmar, the third most capped Australian player ever, and Okon - a former Socceroos' captain and one of the first Australians to forge a successful club career in Europe - said those criticising recent performances have short memories of Australia's many past failed World Cup campaigns.

Despite collecting over 100 caps between them the pair never got to represent Australia at the World Cup Finals although Vidmar will always hold a special place in the heart of every Australian football fan after being one of the successful penalty takers during the memorable shoot-out win over Uruguay in November, 2005 which enabled the Socceroos to qualify for their first World Cup in 32 years.

Unfortunately Vidmar would miss the trip to Germany months later due to an irregular heartbeat, and both he and Okon said they would give anything to be in the position the current Socceroos' team finds itself in - already guaranteed to be part of the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa after successfully qualifying through Asia for the first time.

Okon said he can't understand why a team has lost just four of its past 24 matches and has already qualified for the World Cup is being criticised for its performances.

"If we hadn't of got there then everyone had the right to criticise but the fact is we are there and it's been a tough road because it was never going to be easy to qualify from Asia," he said.

Most of the recent criticisms levelled at Pim Verbeek's team have been due to the team's unadventurous style of play - with Australia's success having been built on 17 clean sheets in the past 25 matches while in contrast in attack there seems to be an unhealthy reliance on Tim Cahill to score goals.

But Okon believes the Socceroos will perform well in South Africa, after reaching the knockout stages for the first time in Germany in 2006.

"Hopefully we will get a good draw and that experience from Germany will help a lot of the players and I'm sure we will perform well in South Africa," he said.

Vidmar, whose long career coincided with Australia's rise from football backwater to genuine World Cup aspirants, said he would rather see the team playing dourly and qualify for the World Cup as the current team has done than playing exciting football but ultimately failing to make it to the world's biggest sporting event as the Socceroos did during his time in 1997 following the fateful 2-2 draw with Iran at the MCG.

"The main objective is to qualify for the World Cup and they have done that," he said. "I think the expectations are now very high with the quality of players we do have in the squad and we are expected to win easily but people either kind of neglect or don't take too much consideration of our opposition."

Vidmar knows better than just about any Australian player of the highs and lows of World Cup qualification and few fans will forget his tears after Australia lost to Uruguay in 2001 and missed the 2002 finals before his unrestrained joy four years later against the same opponents as Australia finally made it to the World Cup.

He added: "Sport is like that you have to take the good with the bad because a lot of the time it going to be up and down but fortunately for me I dealt with the low times fairly well and got back into it and was able to continue on the journey."