Pim loves his Tim

Pim Verbeek has lavished praise on star midfielder Tim Cahill after his two-goal effort guided Australia to a 2-1 World Cup qualification win over Japan at the MCG, with the Qantas Socceroos coach saying he was a fantastic example to the every Australian footballer.

Pim Verbeek has lavished praise on star midfielder Tim Cahill after his two-goal effort guided Australia to a 2-1 World Cup qualification win over Japan at the MCG, with the Qantas Socceroos coach saying he was a fantastic example to the every Australian footballer.

Australia looked in trouble at 1-0 down with a little over half an hour left and its unbeaten status in the final group stage under serious threat, before Cahill stepped up with two sublime goals, one with the head and one with the foot to guide Australia to a memorable victory.

It is the second time Cahill has netted a brace against the Japanese, repeating his feat from the World Cup game in Kaiserslautern in 2006, and Verbeek couldn-t have been more proud of his star man.

"Yeah Timmy is a great player. If you see the work he is doing for the team, defensively, and always supporting the strikers. He is so dangerous in the penalty box. The first goal was of course fantastic, what a great goal that was," Verbeek said.

"So it-s fantastic for a team to have a player like that. You know that he can always do what he has to do and that's scoring goals. I'm very pleased with Timmy. It's his 47th or 48th game of the season, so that says enough about his mentality. He's a great example for every Australian football player."

The man himself was apparently too emotional to speak to the waiting media after the game according to an FFA official, but his deeds on the field spoke volumes.

Japanese coach Takeshi Okada admitted that his men had no answers to the aerial power of Cahill from corners.

"We know that we have to stop those types of key players, but tonight we were unable to do it," he said. "It's happened before and it happened again."

Verbeek was delighted with the performance of his whole team during an overwhelmingly successful qualification campaign.

"I'm very proud of the players at the end of a very long and tough season. But we still have the power and courage to fight back. From a 1-0 first half result. Great goals of course from Timmy, the players did very well until the last second," he said.

Verbeek started with one of the most inexperienced defences of his 16 months in charge of the team, but was delighted with how his full backs, in Rhys Williams and Shane Stefanutto, performed.

"They showed themselves, it makes even more interesting for me," he said. "Before the game I already said that this is not a final test for any of the players, because so many things can happen in a year's time."

"Rhys did very well for a 20-year-old player who is with the Socceroos for the first time. It-s good for us and it's good for him again. I'm very pleased for him. It's the first step for him and now he has to make the next step and he has a lot of competition for that position as well which is very good for us."