AUSTRALIA had a light training session in Melbourne yesterday ahead of their bid to claim belated revenge against the team which stunned them at the 2007 Asian Cup.
Only an injury-time equaliser from Tim Cahill allowed the Australians to escape with a 1-1 draw against Oman in their first match of the 2007 finals in Bangkok.
The Socceroos never recovered from that setback, just scraping through to the quarter-finals before losing on penalties to Japan at a tournament they had been expected to win.
Fast-forward two years and Australia face two vital 2011 Asian Cup qualifying matches against the Omanis - the first tomorrow at Etihad Stadium. The Middle Eastern nation tops the standings in group B with four points from two matches, with Australia in last spot after second-string sides could do no better than a scoreless draw away to Indonesia and a 1-0 loss to Kuwait in Canberra earlier this year.
This time, Pim Verbeek will be fielding a full-strength line-up, with few changes expected from the side that drew 0-0 with the Netherlands in Sydney at the weekend.
Vince Grella, who was withdrawn early in that game with an injury, did not train yesterday. There were doubts about Carl Valeri, but he went through his paces with the rest of the squad.
Verbeek did not stage a practice match in the session, at Monash University, and the bulk of the players did five-a-side drills. A handful of players who had played the full 90 minutes against the Netherlands - including Harry Kewell, David Carney and Lucas Neill - didn't take part in these games.
''It's going to be difficult and I think we all got taught a lesson in the last Asian Cup, where we thought we were going to go out there and stroll through it,'' Kewell said yesterday. ''It's something to put the record straight.
''We had a chance to go through, but we lost out that time in a penalty shoot-out and it was hard to swallow. It's important we win on Wednesday. Our next two games are against Oman so if we win them, we're ahead of them by three points.''
Kewell said it was important for Australia to perform well in the Asian Cup - even though the tournament's public profile was still dwarfed by that of the World Cup.
''It's a competition that we're favourites in,'' he said. ''You look at the World Cup and we're not favourites in that - but in an Asian Cup, we're up there with the best teams of Asia.
''That's where pressure comes in. Pressure comes on us, pressure comes on the whole nation to perform. We didn't perform that well in the last one so we've got to set the record straight this time.''
Australia have been criticised for their performance against the Netherlands, where they were outplayed for much of the night at the Sydney Football Stadium despite the visitors not really coming close to scoring.
Defender Luke Wilkshire said it was a totally different scenario against Oman, where nothing less than a win would be acceptable.
''We need to score so I'm sure they're going to be sitting back and defending and we've got to break them down and get the goals,'' he said. ''Of course it's difficult [playing against a team which is expected to defend deeply and in numbers]. We've experienced it before, so we know what to expect.
''These teams can sometimes be unpredictable but we know they're going to defend and look to break on us. It's up to us to create and to make the goals.''
Grella is likely to be replaced in the starting line-up by Valeri, but if the man from Italy's Serie B fails to prove his fitness, Mile Jedinak is next in line. The return match against Oman is in Muscat on November 14.
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