To see World Cup fans out and about in Sydney overnight...

   

  

Verbeek was also forced post-match to explain other controversial selections, primarily the axing of regular starters Mark Bresciano and Josh Kennedy.

That forced Jason Culina to move from his normal position in the centre of midfield to the left side, while also forcing Tim Cahill to play as the lone striker, as inexperienced pair Carl Valeri and Richard Garcia instead came into the team.

As a result of the surprise changes Australia looked disjointed from the outset and apart from an early chance for Garcia rarely threatened the German goal.

Verbeek said he took full responsibility for changing the side and the resultant outcome but did not believe it played a part in what was the Socceroos' worst ever defeat at the World Cup finals.

"As a coach you are always responsible (for team selections) and I am the one that picked the final XI," he said.

"I am the one who prepares the strategy for the way we play and I never blame my players (for a loss).

"That is why you are the coach to take those decisions and to be responsible."

Verbeek said Bresciano and Kennedy were dropped because they were out of form.

"If you lose 4-0 you can always say that (dropping Bresciano and Kennedy) didn't help but no-one can prove we would have won if we had those players on the field," he said.

"They didn't do well in the last two games, they didn't do well in the training or not well enough and at this moment the players (that started) on the field are better players (than Bresciano and Kennedy) so that is the reality.

"But now we have six days to find out what the best starting XI is to beat Ghana."

With Australia to be without Cahill, their most prolific scorer in recent years, for the must-win Ghana game following his straight red card against Germany, the pressure will be on Kewell to return and rescue the Socceroos.

But doubts as to the extent to which Kewell has recovered from the groin injury - that has kept him to just a few minutes of playing time since January - have re-surfaced after Verbeek refused to bring him on even as a substitute in the second half when the Socceroos badly needed a goal at a time when they were already trailing badly.

Instead he went with the lightly-regarded pair of Brett Holman and Nikita Rukavytsya as attacking options off the bench in the second half.

Verbeek said the sending off of Cahill early in the second half was the reason Kewell did not come on but significantly he refused to guarantee the veteran striker would play against Ghana in Rustenberg on Saturday.

"The plan was to bring him in and you saw he was warming up," said Verbeek.

"But the moment we started playing with 10 players you need different players on the field to Harry Kewell and that was the only reason I didn't bring him in.

"We were playing with 10 players against a team that was already better than us so you have to make different decisions so I tried to save him maybe for the next game."

To see World Cup fans out and about in Sydney overnight...