It has been talked about for some time but now we are really about to see just how much the Australian team will be lacking when they compete in a World Cup without Mark Viduka.
Sure, Viduka's goalscoring record at international level was far inferior to his club output, but what he brought to the team was priceless with his bullocking, lay-offs, strength and ability to create something out of nothing.
The Socceroos have struggled to replace the former Celtic, Leeds, Middlesbrough and Newcastle star and ex-goalkeeper Zeljko Kalac believes they may miss him in South Africa this year.
"Even Stevie Wonder can see that without Mark we are not anywhere near the team we were four years ago," said Kalac.
"We simply haven't replaced him and with Harry Kewell struggling once again for fitness we are really going to be digging deep for inspiration.
"Josh Kennedy is no Mark Viduka, not to be disrespectful to him. Anybody who really thinks we are anywhere near as strong as 2006 is kidding themselves because Viduka was in a league of his own and in a different class, especially playing in tandem with Harry Kewell.
"When Mark was there it gave Harry the room to express himself and then we had Timmy Cahill and Mark Bresciano coming from deeper positions.
"We just don't have the depth of four years ago when you have to remember that Tim Cahill came off the bench to score twice against Japan in our opening game.
"Four years on he's the player everybody is banking on to get the goals which will get us through to the knockout stages."
Kalac was honest in his appraisal of the current-day Socceroos and said they would need a lot of luck to get past the initial phase of the tournament.
"I just don't think we're going to be strong enough to get anything out of our first game against Germany and that will leave us needing to beat Ghana next up and hope that by the time we play Serbia they have somehow self-destructed," he added.
"Another difference between now and four years ago is that we really knew how good we were back then. We knew we could beat Japan and could get something from our last group game against Croatia."
