Brett Holman may not know it but he created a little piece of Socceroos history this week.

His early goal against Ghana in Rustenburg marked the first time Australia had ever scored first in a World Cup finals game.

It's a pity the lead didn't last a little longer.

Fourteen minutes was all it took for Ghana to equalise from the penalty spot.

Which raises another curious fact about Australia's involvement in World Cups.

Despite reaching the round of 16 in Germany four years ago, and still being mathematically in the hunt to do so again in South Africa, Australia has only held the lead in World Cup finals matches for a combined total of 15 minutes of normal time.

That's the 14 minutes against Ghana and one minute of normal time at the whirlwind finish against Japan in 2006 when they stormed home with three goals at the death.

Another curiosity is that it has taken only World Cup-winning nations to beat Australia at the finals (if you ignore the fact that Germany was divided the first time the Socceroos qualified).

Both Germanys beat Australia in 1974.

The unified Germany beat the Socceroos this time.

And four years ago only Brazil and Italy beat them.

Which raises another intriguing question.

If the part-time Socceroos of 1974 could limit West Germany to three goals, how come the highly-paid pros of 2010 let the Germans score four?

Statistics can certainly be misleading.

For surely the Germans have not outstripped Australia even further in the past 36 years, despite the surge by Australian players to full-time professionalism not only at home but in the top leagues of Europe?

Yet Peter Wilson's part-timers fared better or, to be more accurate, less badly.

Wilson was a coal miner who worked down the pits in Wollongong, surfacing mainly to train three or four nights a week in Sydney.

His teammates earned their livings as plumbers, electricians, teachers and the like.

Names like Johnny Warren, Ray Richards, Jim Mackay, Jimmy Rooney and Manfred Schaeffer have entered Australian football folklore.

But football paid them a pittance.

Maybe that thought is enough to galvanise the Cahills, Neills, Schwarzers and Emertons in their do-or-die tussle against Serbia on Wednesday (Thursday AEST).

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