The Victorian Government and FFA today announcedthe last game in Australia's long list of qualifying matches for the 2010 World Cup - against arch-rivals Japan - will be played at the MCG on Wednesday June 17.

Given the memorable clashes between Australia and Japan - arguably the two strongest teams in Asia - at both the 2006 World Cup in Germany (when the Socceroos came from behind to win with three goals in the last 10 minutes) and at the 2007 Asian Cup (when Japan beat the Socceroos in a penalty shoot-out in the quarter-finals) - the match could potentially be the biggest event on the sporting calendar in Australia next year, let alone on the football calendar.

But equally with the top two teams in the final five-nation Asian qualifying group guaranteed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa - there is also a strong possibility that Japan and Australia may have already secured their progression to the World Cup by the last round of matches effectively making the match a 'dead rubber.'

Indeed if the Socceroos beat Qatar in their next World Cup qualifier in Brisbane on Wednesday night and Japan wins its home match against Uzbekistan on the same night, the two giants of Asian football will have already established a clear lead at the top of Group 1 - which also includes unfancied Bahrain.

However FFA chief executive Ben Buckley, in announcing that Melbourne had won the right to stage the match between the Socceroos and their greatest rivals, believes a huge crowd will flock to the MCG even if both teams have already qualified.

"Melburnians love their sport, they love their football and if it is the crunch game I'm sure we will have in excess of 90,000 people here," he said in announcing the match at the MCG on Monday.

"You don't know what will happen over the course of the next seven games and I don't think we could sit here today and say we will be well and truly qualified by that stage."

"But even if it is a match where we have already qualified it will be the final (qualifying) match for the Qantas Socceroos prior to the World Cup and we would still expect the Melbourne crowd to come out in big numbers to support the team."

Buckley said the fact the MCG attracted a crowd of 90,000 for Australia's friendly match against Greece in the Socceroos' last friendly match prior to leaving for the 2006 World Cup, showed Melburnians would still come out in support of the team even if nothing was at stake.

While Sydney has been awarded two of the four home qualifiers - against Uzbekistan on April 1 and Bahrain on June 10 and with Brisbane to host the first home game in the final stage on Wednesday night - it means that just like in the first phase of qualifying all the Socceroos' home matches have been played on the east coast.

However Buckley denied that Perth and Adelaide had been snubbed saying simply the two cities as yet don't have the stadiums capable of hosting World Cup qualifiers.

"We want to promote the Qantas Socceroos as a national team, not just (a team) playing in Sydney and Melbourne," Buckley said.

"But it (assigning the home matches) is based in part of where we get the most support."

"We would expect to get in excess of 80,000 people here at the MCG and in Sydney we can host 80,000 people and in Brisbane we can host 55,000 people and Perth and Adelaide just don't have the stadia at this point in time to maximise the crowd."

But Buckley said there was a chance that Perth and Adelaide could host some of Australia's three home qualifying matches for the 2011 Asian Cup against Kuwait, Indonesia and Oman with the venues for those matches - the first of which will be played in January - yet to be decided.