The 29-year-old journeyman, who plays for Norwegian club Lyn Oslo, won just his second Australian cap during Wednesday's night World Cup qualifier against Japan and performed well at left-back at the MCG.

It was his first call-up for the national team in over two years ago - after debuting in a friendly against China in March 2007 - and although he performed well on the big stage as Australia ended its qualifying campaign in style with a 2-1 win over its great rivals, Stefanutto knows he faces a tough battle to be part of Pim Verbeek's eventual squad to go to South Africa.

"There are two good players in front of me (for the left-back position) in Scott Chipperfield and David Carney and I know that," Stefanutto said.

"They have been setting the standards high so I knew I had to perform well against Japan and I was happy with how I went."

Stefanutto said he was delighted to finally be able to answer claims that he was a one-cap wonder by playing for Australia for the second time.

"It was good to get off that No.1 and (having) two (caps) is much better than one," he said."It was fantastic to play in Australia and good to know that I can play at this level."

Now Stefanutto is just hoping he gets another opportunity to stake his claim before next year's World Cup with Australia to play away friendlies against Ireland and South Korea in August and September before a home friendly against the highly-rated Dutch in Sydney in October.

There are also four Asian Cup qualifiers still to be negotiated before the trip to South Africa - including two against Oman in October and November.

"Now I have to keep playing well for my club and hope I get another chance between now and Christmas in some of those friendly matches," Stefanutto said.

But at least he knows that at last he is part of Verbeek's thinking after having spent so long away from the national team before his surprise call-up against Japan.

"Pim shook my hand after the game and said 'well done' and that is enough for me," Stefanutto said. "Pim is a man of few words but he has done a great job for us."