TIM CAHILL to save Australia? If anyone can, ''Timmay'' can. Fit, focused and desperate. Hurting from having to sit out the redemption game against Ghana and determined to make someone pay in tomorrow's deciding game against Serbia. The Socceroos are not a one-man band, but for a match in which they simply must score goals, Cahill is as close as there is to indispensable.

Forced into the role of spectator in Rustenburg, it wasn't an experience he particularly enjoyed. ''I'm not the best watcher, I couldn't sit still,'' he says. Let's hope all that pent-up energy manifests itself on the pitch in Nelspruit. Cahill will either play alongside Josh Kennedy in a 4-4-2, or just behind him if Verbeek goes again with a 4-2-3-1. Either way, he won't be wasted in the battering-ram role. Verbeek has learnt that lesson from Yokohama last year, when Cahill admitted the towelling he copped from the Japanese defenders tested his discipline to the limit. Code for: ''I wanted to smash them, but I knew I couldn't.''

Tim Cahill trains with the Socceroos. Credit:Vince Caligiuri

The red card didn't come in Yokohama, but it did come against the Germans in Durban and that's been punishment enough. ''It's about how you react, isn't it?'' he says. ''Since the red card I've done nothing but try and train hard, be around the lads, be there every second of the way. Now my dream's still alive because I get a crack at the last game.''

Last? Maybe not. Much as the odds are stacked against the Socceroos, belief has flooded through the squad after the spirited effort against Ghana. Enough to believe they can get the win they need and, assuming Germany beat Ghana, reach the minimum benchmark of winning by a two-goal margin in the process. In that sense, especially with Harry Kewell absent, Cahill's return could hardly be more timely. Verbeek likes to point out that Australia's scoring record in the qualifiers proves his team can score goals. Truth is, a large percentage of those goals came against one, timid, opponent. Qatar.