Viduka has not played for Australia since the 2007 Asian Cup and ruled himself out of the final three qualification matches because he wanted to sort out his club future in Europe after Newcastle United was relegated from the EPL.

It is widely expected that having not played a minute of this qualification campaign that Viduka won't be part of the squad for next year's showpiece tournament, but Cahill, who confirmed his status as Australia's most important player with two goals against Japan on Wednesday night, wants him involved regardless.

"I think even if Viduka chooses not to play for family reasons, for injury reasons or club reasons, just having him the camp would be brilliant. A player of his stature and what he brings, his experience his knowledge, his goals," Cahill said.

"Playing off Dukes in the last World Cup, people question that he doesn't get his goals, but he does all the ugly work, holds the ball up, makes us look good, makes me look good. John Aloisi plays like that. We miss that and it's crazy because we'll take any experience."

National coach Pim Verbeek faces some very tough decisions over the next 12 months as he looks to whittle his squad down to 23, with only 20 spots for outfield players. Cahill said the competition in the camp is fierce and nobody could take their spot for granted.

"The thing is we have to deal with what we've got and what we've got is really, really good. We had 29 players in camp from Qatar, and these youngsters are flying, they re playing well overseas. The A-League boys are very impressive as well. It's up to Pim. He's got to pick 23 players, Thank God it's not my job. They are going to have a headache," he said.

"Honestly, I'm gonna do all I can for Everton and from where I am to be in this squad, because I definitely won't take my place for granted."

Australia finished the final group stage of qualification unbeaten with six wins and two draws from eight matches. Cahill said that while the end results may look easy, the Socceroos' maiden qualification path through Asia was anything but.

"It's hard, the Asian group is hard. You see Spain play Iraq last night, which was perfect example. I watched that. Spain with all their superstars, only won one-nil against Iraq and Iraq were unlucky not to get something from it. It just goes to show that football's caught up all over the world," he said.

Having overcome that hurdle, Cahill said the next obstacle is the massive public expectation of the team after its effort to reach the second round in Germany three years ago. He said there is no lack of determination to improve from within the team, but that there was much more pressure on them this time around.

"The World Cup's a lot of pressure on us, because not only you guys, but ourselves expect to do better. We will be putting a lot of pressure on ourselves to emulate what we did in Germany," he said.

"We've got a long time to prepare now. We have lost a lot of experience, defenders and players who have stamped their authority on the Australian national team. I still feel young myself, as a senior player now. But we're leaders, we're ambassadors, we're examples."