Friday, June 16 2006 15:41 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Ohringen: Midfielder Jason Culina was asked Thursday what special way Australia had in store to stop Brazil's magic strikers in their marquee World Cup game this weekend.

"Special way? aw, kick 'em', Culina joked with reporters as Australia attempted to come up with a way to get something out of the Munich match between the two unbeaten teams in Group F Sunday.

The quip wasn't meant to be taken seriously, but Culina believes Australia must put a spoke in the famous Brazilian playing rhythm, much like Croatia did in unluckily going down to a superb Kaka strike in Berlin last Tuesday.

Very few give the 42nd-ranked Australians much hope of getting a result against the five-times champions, but there is a steely self-belief among the crew from Down Under, hanging onto every word from their shrewd Dutch mentor Guus Hiddink.

In Hiddink's 11 months with the Australians they have overcome Uruguay to reach the World Cup, beaten European champions Greece, drawn 1-1 with Holland in Rotterdam and scored three times in the last eight minutes to sink Asian champions Japan in their World Cup opener.

It may be Australia's first finals' appearance since 1974, but Hiddink has the Aussie players believing in themselves and in his meticulous game plans.

Culina, a silky passer who played 23 games for Hiddink's Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven last season, is one player who has revelled under Hiddink's influence and is not giving up hope of achieving something special against the Brazilian giants.

"They're number one, but we've already played number three in the world, Netherlands, and we did well against them, so anything's possible," Culina said Thursday.

"There's no awe in playing against Brazil, a lot of our players have played against some of the biggest players in the world in the past so we're not going to be starstruck, we're going out to do our best," he said.

"We've always got something to prove. We're not going to be happy with one good result (against Japan)," he said.

"We've got two more games to go in the group stage and we want to get to the second round and we want to prove to all the doubters how good we really are," he said. To achieve that the performance against Brazil could shape how they fare against 1998 semi-finalists Croatia in their final group game in Stuttgart on June 22.

"We got into the Dutch faces a few times and they didn't like it," he said.

"The teams that like to play pretty football, they get frustrated by our tactics so we're going to try to do a bit of the same and see how it goes," he said.

"We have to go out there and not show Brazil too much respect, otherwise we are going to be on the back foot, but hopefully if we can get a few more good results here we are going to get a lot more respect," he said.

Central defender Lucas Neill hasn't been sleeping too well since the euphoric victory over Japan last Sunday.

"It's hard to get a good sleep because you keep running through the memories of the other day, but there's so much to need sleep for, because it's going to be a busy night on Sunday and we have to really equipped for it," he said.

"There's a few positives to come out of the Croatia-Brazil game and there's also the fear that Brazil haven't started up the way they would like to do," he said.

"They're a team that can easily start to cook and we just have to make sure that they don't boil against us, they didn't really turn on the same style the other night, so we've got to fear the backlash," he said.

"We've got the attitude that we're not going to let that happen," he said.