Then Aussie magic happened. At minute 84, Cahill blasted the soccerball past Japan's keeper to level the scoreboard 1-1.

At the 89th minute, Cahill scored his second and Mr Blue began to breathe again.

At 90 minutes plus two, Aloisi kicked another for Australia and the Socceroo's 3-1 victory over Japan in the World Cup Series was history.

It was a massive moment in soccer, Mr Blue said.

"I was getting a bit perturbed with eight minutes to go," Mr Blue said.

"That was a game we had to win - it's just a huge game for Australian football."

Mr Blue was one of a nation of sleep-deprived, proud supporters yesterday morning, but he held a special stake in the match.

He was on the first team to ever wear the Socceroo uniform.

The 1965 Socceroos were the first team to try to qualify for the World Cup.

They played two matches against North Korea held in Cambodia.

It was a time when professional soccer players in Australia didn't exist; players did it for pride, Mr Blue said.

"We were all part-timers," he said. "We all worked back here. We never got any reward for playing in the World Cup, [and] we didn't expect it, we were playing for Australia."

Mr Blue and his team-mates were paid a 27-pound-a-week allowance to play for Australia.

"I was making 30 pounds a week, so I was losing three pound a week," he said.

Mr Blue knows of many fine players from his era who couldn't play for Australia because they couldn't afford the time off work.

North Korea progressed to the World Cup and the 1965 Socceroos played several other matches on tour.

Mr Blue remembered one match in Hong Kong against Taiwan, not just because he won the match with a hat trick, but because the crowd took such an exception to the result the Socceroos were sped from the stadium by police under a hail of stones and bottles.

Mr Blue played competitive soccer for 25 years; he began at home in Scotland in 1958 and finished before packed stadiums in Australia at the age of 41.

"It's always been good. People used to say, 'do you get nervous?'. It's always easier to play with a big crowd than a little crowd, it does lift you," he said.

These days, Mr Blue is a children's coach.

"It was always fun. And I want to give the kids the chance to have the fun," he said.

"For all those kids who think they are the next Harry Kewell, well there aren't that many, but they should be given the opportunity."

Mr Blue insists though, he never dreamed of soccer when he was a youngster, in fact, his headmaster once told him he'd make the Scottish Rugby team.

Once, he and his rugby mates sat on the sidelines and jibed the soccer boys. The soccer coach quickly chided Mr Blue with: "What would you know about it, you're a rugby player!"

Mr Blue replied: "If I couldn't play better than that, I'd shoot myself", and the coach signed him up as punishment.

"I played for that team and that was the last game of rugby I played," he grinned.