The 24-year-old Bundesliga player was a standout on the wing for the home side during Tuesday’s 4-0 hammering of Jordan, chipping in with two assists and scoring Australia’s third.

And the pacey winger admitted it was something special to run out onto his old home ground in front of 44,000 plus fans.

Kruse’s well documented off field problems looked set to derail his promising career until a move from Brisbane Roar to Melbourne Victory in 2009 put his game back on track.

Putting in a man of the match performance during a World Cup qualifier at Etihad Stadium in front of the fans who had stuck by him was nothing short of “wonderful”.

“Obviously I moved down to Melbourne and it definitely helped me set a great platform for me and my career,” Kruse said.

“I’m forever grateful to Melbourne for that and the fans have always treated me wonderful and it was great for the atmosphere that they came out.

“And bringing the stands in truly set up a wonderful atmosphere and I think we buzzed off that.

“Hopefully now Sydney can come out in their droves and we can really get a good performance and get the three points next week.”

The pacey winger made 39 appearances and scored 16 goals for Victory before signing with Fortuna Dusseldorf in 2011.

After a breakthrough season in the German topflight, the Aussie recently signed a three-year deal with Bayer Leverkusen.

But for now, he said, all the focus is on next Tuesday’s “massive” game against Iraq in Sydney.

“It all boils down to this – the last two to three years qualifying it all comes down to this one game,” he said.

“If we can win this, we’re in Brazil so it’s a massive occasion but first and foremost we must recover and repair our bodies for the challenge next week.”