Aaron Mooy's appearance in a friendly against Jordan may yet prove to be the golden hour for Australian football's World Cup qualification chances.
With fellow midfielder Tom Rogic having withdrawn from the Socceroos squad for Tuesday's (Wednesday AEST) must-win play-off against the United Arab Emirates in Qatar, Mooy's importance has been underpinned.
Wednesday's (Thursday AEST) 2-1 win over Jordan was Mooy's first competitive football since a 2-2 draw with Oman in February, giving the 31-year-old 61 precious minutes of match practice leading into next week's do-or-die game.
The former English Premier League midfielder showed his class in his 50th appearance for the national team, cracking a second-half free-kick off a post shortly before being substituted.
With Rogic unavailable for personal reasons, ex-Socceroos captain Mark Milligan says the chance for Mooy to blow off the cobwebs before taking on the UAE cannot be underestimated.
"When you have a fit Aaron Mooy, he can do a number of things," Milligan told AAP.
"He can control the tempo of the game, obviously his name and his aura on the pitch creates a lot of attention as well.
"Most importantly, with Aaron, he has that final pass and I really have this feeling with the UAE they're very much going to try and bunker-in.
"It's a one-off game so you just feel like they're going to try and bunker-in and try and catch you on the counter attack. You need someone who can sort of unlock that defence, especially when they sit quite compact and quite deep.
"You can train as much as you like, but there's nothing that can replicate those match minutes that he got."
One of only two Australians to be in four World Cup squads along with Tim Cahill, Milligan believes the Socceroos have enough talent to qualify for a fifth-straight tournament.
A win over the UAE would send Australia into another one-legged play-off against Peru for a spot in November's World Cup.
He says while veterans like Mooy, captain Mat Ryan and forward Mathew Leckie are crucial players to steer Graham Arnold's team through such big matches, emerging talent such as Ajdin Hrustic and Denis Genreau are more than ready to become national team heroes.
"They've been exposed to a lot of international football over the last couple of years and that's been under Arnie as well," said Milligan.
"The understanding and the expectation that they carry on themselves is clear in terms of the way that Arnie wants to do things.
"These one off-games are very, very tough to approach, especially against Middle Eastern teams because we got a little bit of a taste of it with Jordan even though it was just a friendly.
"They go ahead then they make the most of every challenge, every incident and it's just important you don't get frustrated and you continue to play the game on your terms.
"There's more than enough experience now in that team, whether that's in the starting level or coming off the bench to tell our players like Hrustic, or even Genreau if needed, to be confident enough to come in and start or to play some sort of role."
