Cahill quick to praise team mates

Tim Cahill never thought this day might come when he could play in the World Cup, when the wrangling over his international status was been discussed by FIFA.

Tim Cahill never thought this day might come when he could play in the World Cup, when the wrangling over his international status was been discussed by FIFA.

Thankfully his status was sorted out and the Sydney raised midfielder etched his name into the history pages of Australian football, with his two goals that sent Australia onto a 3-1 win in its opening match of the 2006 World Cup finals.

After coming on as a substitute in the 52nd minute, Cahill had been a rather innocuous figure until the arrival of John Aloisi with 15 minutes to play. From then on it was the Cahill show as he got his foot on the ball and helps lead a peppering of the Japanese goals.

Cahill since his debut in March 2004 against South Africa, has become an integral player in the Australian team and while some question why he did not start against Japan, make no mistake he is proving a very handy player coming off the bench.

Typically Cahill was quick to share his celebratory status.

"Just being a part of this World Cup means everything to all of us," he said after the game. "Just being here is unbelievable."

"The lads have worked ever so hard to be here and to get the goal is obviously icing on the cake."

"We look to moments like these as when we were kids of dreaming of this situation and we have got to thank each other and our families, so I am just happy to be a part of it."

Cahill was quick to praise the work of Kennedy, Aloisi, his two other second half substitutes, as well as Viduka and the rest of the team.

"A lot of credit goes to the defence and midfield, but big Josh and Dukes were holding the ball up and Johnny came on and as soon as he laid the ball back for the second goal I just thought to myself if everyone-s going to step back I am going to whack it and I am just pleased it went in."

"I did some work with Ron Smith and we noticed that Japan have a tendency to leave the midfielders unchecked and that-s where I came into it and it paid off."

"The feeling is we are going to fight to the end, even if we had lost the game 3-1, we still would have fought the way we did, so we are just happy to be on the winning side."

The towering midfielder also lavished praise on the Brazilian side.

"Brazil on Sunday, eleven superstars against eleven honest Australian lads who are just really looking forward to play. We have got a lot of respect for them, but everyone knows what they can do, but they will be aware of us now."