Letter From Australia:The general feeling among Australia soccer fans before this month's Asian Cup was that the Socceroos, as Australia's national team is unfortunately known, would win or go close to winning. Either way, the tournament would prove a useful tool in building towards the 2010 World Cup.

How complacent they were. On Friday, during Australia's second match in the group stage, Iraq thrashed the Socceroos 3-1 and threatened to end the favourites' tournament at the first hurdle.

The Socceroos play Thailand, the host country, in their final group match tonight. To win through to the quarter-finals, Australia must defeat Thailand and hope Oman fail to beat Iraq. If the Socceroos win tonight but Oman defeat Iraq, goal difference will decide which two of the group's four teams win through to the next stage, which begins on Saturday.

An early exit by Australia would not displease Asian soccer officials, some of whom believe the southern country has no place in their continent's most prestigious tournament. It's not just that Australia is in the continent of Oceania, not Asia, it's a resentment of the essentially European country's history of poor relations with its Asian neighbours.

It took the election of Labour Party leader Paul Keating as prime minister in 1993 before an Australia leader had ever spoken of embracing Asia, in preference to Europe, as a way of embracing the future. His words proved too much. The Labour Party was voted out in 1996, for Keating's controversial visions as much as anything, and the Labour leader was replaced as prime minister by his conservative counterpart, John Howard, who soothed worried minds by warning that Australia should not forsake its British heritage.

Eleven years later, with Howard still the prime minister, he continues to argue against severing constitutional ties with Britain and becoming a republic. Asian relations have gone back to being purely monetary ones, based on trade.

Against such a history, there seems little reason for Asian soccer officials to have welcomed Australia into their tournament. No doubt politics has played its part.

But the upshot is that Australia's only meaningful international matches are no longer just the farcical World Cup qualifiers to be crowned the winner of the Oceania group (Australia once beat the Solomon Islands 13-0), which earns two matches for the chance to earn the final place in either the Asian or South American group.

The Socceroos have qualified for the World Cup finals only twice, in 1974 and again last year, when they overcame Uruguay at the final stage of the qualifiers. During the finals in Germany, the Socceroos muscled past Saudi Arabia and Croatia during the group stage to qualify for the round of 16 alongside Brazil.

In that round, the Socceroos famously came within minutes of taking Italy to a penalty shoot-out. Australia's absorption with the Socceroos' thrilling quest reflected the madness that enveloped Ireland during the Jack Charlton years. When Italy won the World Cup, the more fanciful Australian fans claimed the Socceroos were robbed.

With Germany 2006 in mind, Australia seemed well placed to advance easily through the early stages of their first Asian Cup. The Socceroos would gain the international experience they craved as well as the confidence they needed to tackle the giant soccer nations. The Australian media promoted this sense of complacency.

It was instructive in the lead-up to the first match, against Oman, that the focus was on the usual storylines - whether injury would allow Harry Kewell and Tim Cahill to play - rather than anything to do with Australia's opponents.

I'm sure I was not alone in wondering about the Oman players and coaches and their backgrounds, but it seemed to strike no editor in the daily media as worthy of coverage.

The Asian players generally were underrated because few play in the English Premier League, or in other European competitions.

During previews, Oman was sarcastically called "the mighty Oman". When Tim Cahill came off the bench to score an equaliser in the 91st minute, bringing the score to 1-1, it was thought the Socceroos could be forgiven for a rusty start.

Such complacency was obliterated against Iraq when the Australians were lucky to hold their opponents to three goals. I watched the match in Melbourne's only dedicated soccer pub, the Keeper's Arms, in north Melbourne.

The first Iraqi goal earned derision for the Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer. The second goal earned muted shock and admiration. By the third goal, there was anger.

One punter, representing the slapstick element of the crowd (he was wearing a green-and-gold sunhat with a Bundaberg Rum crest), slammed his glass on the table and demanded the return of Guus Hiddink, the cuddly Dutch manager who oversaw Australia's heroics during the 2006 World Cup.

"Where's Guus?" the punter said. "We want Guus back."

Unfortunately, Hiddink is now coaching Russia. His replacement is yet to be decided. In the meantime, the former English Premier League journeyman Graham Arnold is the Socceroos' interim manager.

Arnold, it seems, does not have the confidence of the players. The sight of him chewing through his fingernails until he was down to the knuckles during the Iraq match did little to engender confidence in him from anyone, but he spoke for a nation when he said after the match that several Australian players looked like they would rather be on holidays.

The Australian captain, Mark Viduka, who recently signed with Newcastle United, scoffed at Arnold's claim, but his rebuttal was unconvincing.

The performance against Iraq was sulky and heartless. If the reaction in the Keeper's Arms was anything to go by, Australian sports fans believed Arnold rather than Viduka. Five minutes spent swearing at the television after the final whistle seemed time well spent.

Such passion is a good sign. Soccer is very much the fourth football code in Australia, behind Australian football, rugby league and rugby union. Before the 2006 World Cup, there had been little indication the Socceroos would stop the nation. Now, however, inept performances in the opening games of the Asian Cup have raised interest in tonight's match to levels unimaginable a week ago.

Eyes around Australia will be glued to the television tonight and thereafter. Asian Cup matches will be eagerly anticipated from now on.