The clash against the underrated Middle Eastern team appeared headed for a goalless stalemate - a result which would have placed Australia's hopes of qualifying for Asia's showpiece tournament in severe doubt - before Cahill scored a superb winner to yet again bail the Socceroos out of trouble as he has done so many times before.

The goal - Cahill's 19th in just 36 appearances for Australia - maintains his incredible record of scoring in better than one in every two games for the Socceroos and gave Pim Verbeek's team a barely deserved 1-0 win in front of just 20,595 fans.

The Asian Cup may yet to have captured the imagination of Australia's sporting public but it remains the third biggest tournament in world football behind the World Cup and the European Championships and along with the World Cup is the only other major tournament that Australia is eligible to compete in.

And after making a hash of their first appearance in the Asian Cup Finals in 2007 when Australia - which began the tournament as hot favourites - bombed out in the quarter-finals, the Socceroos began this game desperately needing a win.

With just one point from their first two qualifying matches, after being forced to play a team made up of solely A-League players away to Indonesia (draw) in January and during a home loss against Kuwait in Canberra in March, failure to get three points in this game would have left Australia needing to win their last three qualifying games to make it to the 2011 tournament in Qatar.

But thanks to Cahill's priceless 74th minute winner - which came following a great run by Scott Chipperfield down the left with his dangerous cross going through Josh Kennedy's legs before being smashed home by Cahill at the near post as his shot actually went in off the far post - Australia is now equal top of the group with Oman on four points with matches against Oman (away), Kuwait (away) and Indonesia (home) still to come.

However, with only the top two teams to progress and Kuwait (three points) and Indonesia (two points) still having a game in hand on both Oman and Australia, the Socceroos still have much work to do to qualify particularly as their international stars will only be available for the return game against Oman in Muscat on November 14.

Cahill's winner on Wednesday night was just the latest in a long line of crucial goals for Australia such as his late equaliser in the 1-1 draw against Oman in the opening game of the 2007 Asian Cup Finals in Bangkok and of course his famous match-winning late double in that now legendary 3-1 win over Japan in the opening game of the 2006 World Cup Finals in Germany.

But incredibly it was the 74th ranked visitors that had the better chances in the first half even though Australia dominated possession with 57 percent compared to Oman's 43 percent.

But although Australia - which is ranked 60 places higher than Oman on FIFA's official rankings - had five first half corners to three it was Oman that had more shots at goal and more shots on target in the first half and Claude Le Roy's team was unlucky not to go into the break with a shock lead.

Australia began brightly and it wasn't until the 18th minute that Australia's veteran keeper Mark Schwarzer was even called into action but incredibly Oman almost scored twice in the next eight minutes as the visitors began to trouble Australia with their quick breaks out of defence and pace down the right hand side of the park in particular.

Schwarzer was almost caught out in the 23rd minute by a freak shot from a tight angle by Fawzi Basheer, which he managed to knock against his near post with the ball then luckily rebounding to safety.

And then in the 26th minute Oman got in behind the Australian defence as Hassam Al Hosni blazed over when he should have at least forced a save out of Schwarzer after being put through by the impressive Basheer.

A hush descended over the small crowd as it became clear Oman was on top but Harry Kewell finally bought the crowd to life when his fierce long range shot only just went wide in first half injury time.

Australia finally increased the pressure after half-time as Cahill yet again came to the rescue of the Socceroos, who also had the remarkable Schwarzer to thank yet again as Pim Verbeek's team kept a 17th clean sheet in their past 25 matches.