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In the end, it took one decent cross and a six-foot-four substitute to send the Socceroos to the World Cup. So does that make coach Holger Osieck a tactical genius or a millstone around our neck?
For Socceroos fans of a certain vintage, there must have been a four-letter word on the tip of collective tongues – Iran.
For 82 increasingly angst-ridden minutes, it was hard not to think back to a certain Melbourne night in 1997 when Team Melli knocked Australia out of the World Cup amidst unspeakable drama.
But then veteran Mark Bresciano did what Tommy Oar and Robbie Kruse had failed to do all night and finally clipped a decent ball into the box.
The fact Nagoya Grampus striker Kennedy was on the pitch to nod it home was thanks to Osieck.
His decision to replace Tim Cahill with a player who hadn’t featured for the national team for 19 months was met with vocal recriminations from Cahill himself.
But ultimately, the man nicknamed Jesus was indeed the Socceroos’ saviour and for all his prodigious talent in the air, it’s interesting to ponder whether Cahill would have conjured the leap necessary to head home Bresciano’s lofted cross.
The following morning’s headlines lauded Osieck as a “tactical genius” – not all that surprisingly given tight newspaper deadlines – though it’s hard to see what other options the Australia coach had.
He’d already sent on youngster Tom Rogic to little effect and, not for the first time this campaign, it was instead Melbourne Victory veteran Archie Thompson who seemed to produce a galvanising response when he entered the fray.
Short of deploying stopper Sasa Ognenovski as a makeshift striker, what else was Osieck supposed to do other than introduce Kennedy up front?
He waited until the 77th minute to do even that against a tiring Iraqi defence, although memories of that infamous MCG meltdown 16 years earlier mean it was probably wise to leave it late.
The irony is that if Kennedy had failed to put away Bresciano’s cross, it wouldn’t have even mattered.
A draw would have been enough to see the Socceroos progress as Group B runners-up, owing to Jordan’s 1-0 defeat of Oman.
Kennedy’s late goal may have added to the on-going Socceroos narrative – always valuable from a box-office perspective – but it also glossed over the fact Australia struggled to beat what was practically Iraq’s youth team.
There were plenty of Johnny Warren scarves in the stands and the great man once said that Australia should aim to win the World Cup, not just compete in it.
But how on earth can we possibly win a World Cup when we’re nowhere near the best team in Asia?
When Asian players train harder, are more disciplined, have access to better coaches and facilities and quite simply want it more, it’s hard to see Australia ever becoming the region’s dominant nation.
We don’t even bother hosting World Cup qualifiers on proper pitches – the surfaces at Etihad Stadium and ANZ Stadium were an absolute disgrace – so what right do we have to think we can ever match it with the big boys?
As it stands, the Socceroos are staring down the barrel of annihilation in Brazil.
Is that Holger Osieck’s fault? The German is a convenient scapegoat, but he’s not exactly responsible for the faltering production line of talent.
Nor has he made the same mistakes as his predecessor Pim Verbeek, who would arguably have snubbed domestic-based players such as Thompson and Mark Milligan.
Yet for all Osieck’s belated achievements – and seven points from nine in three high-pressure games is nothing to sniff at – is he suddenly the “tactical genius” required to take Australia to the next level?
Or has he merely got the Socceroos, like an annoying Irish band once sung, running to stand still?