Date: 24/11/2001
By Paul Okon
We're 90 minutes from qualifying for the World Cup finals and although it means so much to me, the team and the country, there is one person I keep thinking about - my brother Klaus.If we make it through, I will be dedicating our success to him.
What he's done in the past five years has been remarkable. He gave up his NSL career and a chance to start in real estate to come to Europe and live with me. He has dedicated his life to helping me. He came to Italy in 1996 and followed me to England. We've been inseparable since.
He's the one who got me through the bad days when things weren't working out with my knee. As far as I'm concerned, he's part of this team.
It's hard to imagine, qualifying for the World Cup. The last time Australia did it was in 1974 and I was two years old. I know what it means to qualify for the World Youth Cup and the Olympic Games, but the World Cup is a different story. You just have to look at what happened when we arrived at the airport in Uruguay to see what it means.
When you come to South America you don't expect to be welcomed with handshakes and kisses. It wasn't nice what happened but we had a good laugh about it once we got on the bus. We've come to a part of the world where the public are extremely passionate about their soccer. Add to that the fact we beat them 1-0 in Melbourne and you're bound to see a reaction. Losing to Australia obviously hasn't gone down too well, but that just makes us more determined to go out there and qualify.
Regardless of the airport incident, nothing's changed inside the team. If anything, it has brought us closer together. We know it's going to be hard. We know we have our backs against the wall in a lot of ways. But we're all looking forward to it. To come here and qualify in these circumstances will make it even sweeter.
Obviously you don't come to South America and dominate the game. It would be crazy to think that. They'll come at us straight away, because the public has geed them up. They'll want to score as early as possible but the game in Melbourne proved how well we can defend. And that gives us a lot of confidence.
In the past, lessons have had to be learned. But I think we showed on Tuesday night that we have learnt them pretty well.
We're on the verge of making history, and we don't intend to throw it away now.