After a cussed, defiant 0-0 draw in Japan on Wednesday night, the players believe a win against Uzbekistan in Sydney on 1 April will effectively secure their second successive appearance at World Cup finals.

Facing the speed and skill of Japan, and the roar of a throbbing crowd at the Yokohama International Stadium, Australia dug in for a hugely valuable point that leaves them top of the group and six points clear of third place. With the top two going through, the round of games on 27 March -- when Australia have a bye -- will leave Pim Verbeek’s men knowing how close a win five days later in Sydney will be to mathematically having them home.

Either way the players believe one more win will achieve the critical mass of points that ultimately will be enough.

“For me it was always the target to be qualified against Uzbekistan at home,” Mark Schwarzer revealed after another flawless display from the veteran goalkeeper.

“It was always my personal target and so far I think we’re well on track to doing so.

“We’re not there yet so we can’t be complacent and we can’t take our foot off the gas whatsoever. Uzbekistan are going to be a very difficult opponent to play at home on a good pitch, so hopefully we can use our dominance at home and put on a very good performance and hopefully win the game and almost be there”

Schwarzer admitted that after the point in Yokohama -- in the teeth of Japanese domination -- the prize of a place in South Africa was something they were now unable to put from their minds.

“We know what it means to play at a World Cup and we want to create more history by doing two in a row,” he said.

Captain Lucas Neill, half of a human shield with Craig Moore in front of Schwarzer, said the history of past failures was driving the team to seek qualification at the earliest possible moment.

“We don’t want to leave anything to chance,”he said.

“The Australian mentality is so used to playing easy games and then all of a sudden one really tough one where it’s do or die (such as Uruguay in 2005), so now we’d much rather have the scenario where we have the insurance and let the others fight out the do or die”

Neill admitted the performance had been stoic rather than stylish, but pointed to the minimal preparation -- and pledged that with a week in camp before facing Uzbekistan, there would be a return to the attack-minded philosophy the team prefers.