There were more positives than negatives in Australia's 2-1 loss to France in their World Cup opener in Kazan, but let's not forget one thing; it was still a loss.

The Socceroos have become masters of the brave defeat at World Cups, but if they want to advance from the group stage for the first time in 12 years, they have used up their one and only brave-defeat card for this tournament.

On the field, they showed everything Bert van Marwijk has been drilling into them about shape and discipline has been sinking in. They played very well against an excellent side, largely (but not entirely) containing the danger men.

Off the field, nobody except for Australians will remember that. The rest of the world has moved on to the next games. France beat Australia, as expected.

Gallant losses to Denmark and Peru won't be enough this time. It was forgivable to go out in 2014, all guns blazing, and lose all three games against Chile, the Netherlands and Spain. But that won't cut the mustard against two teams who are only marginally better on paper than Australia.

Mile Jedinak and his Australians are perfectly aware of that and will be gutted by Paul Pogba's late goal, which ensured they fell just short of a priceless draw.

Over and over, van Marwijk has said he has been focused on nothing else but the France game. So now it's time to rapidly switch focus.

I mentioned positives. Here were a few observations from up in the stands:

Van Marwijk's cautious system works because of Mat Ryan

Mat Ryan's game is suited to Bert van Marwijk's cautious approach. ( AP: Darko Bandic )

The Aussie number one is one of the best keepers around when it comes to distributing the ball.

With Australia sitting so deep against France he acted as an extra man in the backline, always there as an extra outlet when the opposition were pressing.

Each time he had it he would pause, assess, and distribute with hand or feet, to the right guy in the right place to begin Australia's next phase of build-up.

For an inexperienced side, Australia was very Zen

There was a sharp contrast to the match between Morocco and Iran the night before, in which every man on the pitch was trying to play out of his skin and losing composure in the process.

The Australians must have been mighty nervous, but they didn't show it, aside from perhaps the first 10 minutes or so.

Having a spine made up of older players like Ryan, Trent Sainsbury and Mile Jedinak is probably key, but the Socceroos never looked to be rushing, or diving into tackles when it wasn't necessary, or trying to be the hero with a shot from long distance.

Australia could have gone at France more, but chose not to

Aaron Mooy was vital in screening the defence as well as launching Australian attacks against France. ( Reuters: Toru Hanai )

When Aaron Mooy and Jedinak were distributing the ball from deep in the centre of the field, there were often opportunities for them to try for a risky pass through to one of the more advanced men, or skip forward themselves into small spaces.

But they didn't. More often than not they knocked it around sideways, cautiously.

And when Australia got some forward momentum, opportunities presented themselves to spray the ball in front of Robbie Kruse or Mat Leckie and see if they could burn the French for pace.

Instead of that speculative pass, a foot was usually put on the ball to create a pause, before more sideways movement. The tactic was clear: don't throw everything at France, remain compact.

With at least one win needed in the final two games, that is likely to change.

Sainsbury makes mistakes, but usually makes up for them

Trent Sainsbury was a rock in the heart of the Socceroos defence in their 2-1 loss to France. ( Reuters: John Sibley )

People often equate last-ditch sliding tackles with good defending, but the absolute best defenders rarely have to pull them off.

They rarely even have to make a tackle, so good is their positioning and reading of the game.

Sainsbury is an odd case as he reads the game well, and often snuffs out danger before it has a chance to develop.

But he does occasionally lose his discipline and go wandering, as happened several times against France.

On each occasion, though, he desperately got back and cleared the danger, in very impressive fashion.

Perhaps he's just thinking about future YouTube highlights reels?

Little teams don't get the decisions against bigger teams

This is a fact of life and must simply be dealt with.

France may have got into the referee's head with their comments in the build up about the Aussies being "rough", but the Socceroos were getting very frustrated with the way all the foul calls were going against them, especially in the first half.

But it's always going to be the way and not worth complaining about. Win a couple of World Cups and we won't be a small team anymore, right?

Jedinak's head is very hard

Socceroos skipper Mile Jedinak forms a key part of the team's spine … and he has a hard head. ( AP: David Vincent )

When a French player kicked the ball as hard as he possibly could and it thundered into Mile's head, it felt like the whole stadium shook.

Most players would have collapsed in a heap.

Mile just shook his head a couple of times, bent down and touched his toes, then got back to business.

He must be made of granite.