Socceroos chasing a rare double for Australia

Australian football has a glorious opportunity to rewrite history and usher in a golden era of the game.

Socceroos players celebrate one of the team's 10 goals in the tournament (AAP)

Less than three months after Western Sydney Wanderers completed a true fairytale by beating Saudi Arabia's Al Hilal to win the AFC Champions League, Australia is nicely poised to win the AFC Asian Cup.

The Socceroos are in the last four of the competition and will face United Arab Emirates in the semi-finals in Newcastle on Tuesday.

Victory over the Gulf team would earn Ange Postecoglou's men a glamour date with Korea Republic or Iraq in the final in Sydney on Saturday.

Australia has every reason to be proud of its 'golden generation' that reached its peak of achievement by storming into the last 16 of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.

If Australia manages to win the first men's trophy in Asia since Football Federation Australia joined the Asian Football Confederation in 2006 and score a memorable Wanderers-Socceroos double, we would be entitled to regard this as the highest point of our football history.

And let's not forget that the Matildas played in the final of the AFC Women's Asian Cup in May.

The Socceroos have been the most consistent team in the competition and are rightly seen as warm favourites to snare the title now that holder Japan and Asia's highest ranked team, Iran, is out.

After dismissing the feeble challenges of Kuwait and Oman, the Socceroos lost 1-0 to Korea Republic in the Group A 'playoff for top spot' but played strongly enough to suggest that the team was on track to be there at the business end of the tournament with a style of fast, attacking football to match.

These qualities were in evidence in the quarter-final against China and enabled Tim Cahill to score two stupendous goals that gave the Socceroos a deserved 2-0 victory.

The Australians were not expecting to face UAE in the semi-finals but the Gulf team's shock win over Japan changed the complexion of the tournament.

The Socceroos players probably did not go as far as doing cartwheels at their hotel in Newcastle as they watched the technically gifted if wasteful Samurai Blue crash out of the event.

But they surely would be the first to admit that he Gulf team will pose a less formidable threat than that of Keisuke Honda's team even though in Omar Abdulrahman UAE has a playmaker who can change the course of a game with an inventive 40-metre pass out of nothing.

Australia is favourite to reach its second Asian Cup final in four years after falling 1-0 to Japan in Doha, Qatar, in January 2011.

The team is fit and buzzing and in Cahill it has a supreme goalscorer who is the most feared striker in the tournament.

The only factor that could undo all the good work Postecoglou and his staff have done in the last six months is excessive exuberance.

With the team on the cusp of achieving something special for our game and the fans beginning to get excited about this team, there is a chance that some of the younger and less experienced players might get carried away by the occasion and forget that nothing short of complete concentration is needed for the team to win the match.

This UAE game has 'banana skin' written all over it: one little mistake and it could be all over.

Postecoglou no doubt will drum into his players the need to retain their focus at all times.

I'm sure that elder statesmen Mile Jedinak, Mark Bresciano and Cahill will keep the rest of the team on their toes.

Follow @MicallefPhilip