Kruse performance earns rave reviews

Robbie Kruse was described as Australia's most important player after the winger's performance in Australia's crucial 4-0 win over Jordan.

Dual A-League championship-winning coach Ange Postecoglou has described Robbie Kruse as Australia's most important player after the talented winger's breakout performance in Australia's crucial 4-0 win over Jordan.

Kruse scored a goal and laid on the final passes for two others as the Socceroos dismantled Jordan and put themselves in pole position for the second qualifying spot in Group B ahead of their final match against Iraq in Sydney next Tuesday.

It was undoubtedly the most impressive performance of Kruse's 25-match international career and it was appropriate that the 24-year-old put on a star turn at the same ground where he made his name as a Melbourne Victory player.

Postecoglou, the current Melbourne Victory coach, who never oversaw Kruse's development at either Brisbane or Melbourne, said the emerging star had proven himself extremely valuable to Australia and was now the team's most important attacking weapon heading into a likely World Cup finals appearance in Brazil.

"When we needed quality tonight he delivered and he is the one player who can deliver," Postecolgou told Fox Sports.

"His cross for Timmy Cahiil was absolutely superb. That for me is the biggest thing which came out of this game is the emergence of Robbie Kruse as an international player."

Socceroos skipper Lucas Neill said the team had always had confidence in Kruse's ability to be a match winner and was delighted that the Bayer Leverkusen-bound winger was able to put his best foot forward on such a big stage.

"Robbie was very, very good. We knew if we could get good possession and play some combination passing, we can get him and Tommy Oar down the wings. Robbie was great down the right getting in behind and set up a few cutbacks and crosses including the early goal," Neill said.

"You could see that his confidence grew as the game went on and the more tired they got, the better he got."

The player himself was typically humble in the appraisal of his efforts.

"I was thrilled with the way we played but it boils down to next week and we have to recover and prepare for that. It's half the job done and hopefully we can do that next week," he said in reference to the Iraq game.

"Everyone has to work well together and I think tonight we did that. The defensive structure laid the platform for the attacking to come into play. I think we played some wonderful football and we created numerous chances where we could have got more goals."

Kruse said the foundations for a dominant showing against Jordan were put down with the gritty 1-1 draw against Japan in Saitama last week.

"We try to prepare as well as we can every match. We set out with the same intentions to go out and play with that intensity and that performance and we gained a lot of confidence from our performance last week," he said.

"Tonight the attacking part of our play just clicked and hopefully we can translate that into next week.

"If we can get it done in Sydney, we are in the World Cup."

The Socceroos face Iraq in their final World Cup qualifier in Sydney next week. Click here to buy tickets.