Cahill fired home the second of Australia's three goals as the Socceroos cruised to a comfortable 3-0 victory against Kyrgyzstan at Canberra Stadium in front of 19,412 fans.

Home-town hero Tom Rogic was given a massive ovation when he came on for a half-hour cameo off the bench.

Rogic was one of the last players to arrive in Canberra late on Tuesday night.

Chances flowed freely in the first half, but it took until the 40th minute when captain Mile Jedinak converted from the penalty spot after Nathan Burns was brought down to open the scoring.

Then it was the ultimate entertainer who took centre stage.

Cahill scored one of the easiest goals of his illustrious career to drill it past the keeper before celebrating by flipping the pages of a book, an apparent reference to his new autobiography, Legacy.

The roar only increased when Rogic was introduced on the hour.

A Tuggeranong United junior, Rogic got his big break when he won a Nike worldwide talent search while playing Canberra club football.

He lit up the A-League with the Central Coast Mariners and made his Socceroos debut in November 2012.

Rogic made a big-money transfer to Scottish giant Celtic in January 2013 but struggled with injuries.

Those seem a distant memory after his spectacular form with Celtic to start this season where he has fired in several cracking goals.

The only disappointment of an otherwise successful night was the state of the Canberra Stadium playing surface.

Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou was spot on in his pre-game assessment.

For whatever reason, it was a disgrace and simply not good enough for an international fixture, especially when Canberra is continually campaigning for a greater serving of elite sport.

It was patchy from one end to the other. No piece of grass was spared.

The biggest question was why was this the case?

Canberra Stadium had been dormant since the end of the NRL season in late August, apart from a junior rugby league finals day in September.

Postecoglou and FFA chief executive David Gallop both gave the ground their seal of approval when they came to Canberra to promote the game in October.

It was a far cry from the pristine conditions that welcomed teams to Canberra Stadium for the seven Asian Cup games in January.

Midfielder Massimo Luongo said of the surface: "It was alright. It was quite quick. There were a few stray passes where the ball kind of got away from us a little bit, which is fair enough, but compared to when we go away and the pitch is bumpy and slow and it slows the game down a lot. I prefer it like this so we can get the ball in play as soon as we can and we move quicker on the back, which helps. The pitch was fine."

The Socceroos did their best to make the most of their superior technical skills.

They continually worked the ball along the ground and pierced holes through the Kyrgyzstan defence.

A Kyrgyzstan own goal in the 67th minute killed off any remote chance the visitors had of snatching a result.

But this was always going to be Australia's night.

The Canberra public turned up in force despite the threat of rain to put their case forward — for the umpteenth time — for a bigger share in the football calendar.