It was probably the last time, that Tim Cahill represented Australia at the World Cup. The 38-year-old who had not featured in the first two games was the last throw of the dice for Australian coach, Bert van Marwijk.
Had he scored againt Peru, he would have become the fifth man in World Cup history to score in four World Cups after Brazil’s Pele, German duo Uwe Seeler and Miroslav Klose, and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo. But there was no fairytale this time as he failed to connect with an inviting cross from Aziz Behich.
Their failure to keep a clean-sheet in any of their 3 matches extended it to 13 matches since the 2006 World Cup. Despite the effort, Australia tired as the game progressed and with their exit confirmed they attained another unenviable statistic of failing to win a match at a World Cup tournament for the third time in their five participations. In fact, this was the second consecutive tournament that they failed to win.