It's your wedding night. After two and a half years of being engaged, your bride reveals to you she's just cut her hair, had Botox, silicon implants, a tattoo sleeve and a sex change.

A very bad night to experiment. So too, Pim Verbeek, is the opening match of a World Cup.

After 90 minutes of abject humiliation by a Germany team which produced the finest football seen at this tournament and one of the most comprehensive performances at a World Cup finals in recent memory, Australia now deserves some answers.

The Germans were a joy to watch. They deserved to win 4-0, and probably by more. They could win this tournament. That will be answered in a month's time.

The questions now are all for Australia - and specifically for Verbeek, who took one night to throw away the predictability which has been his trademark for the past two-and-a-half years.

For all his versatility, Jason Culina has not played on the left side of the midfield three at any point in Verbeek's reign. Why in this game? Against Mesut Ozil, who could well turn out to be the star of this tournament?

Richard Garcia has not been deployed as a lone striker for his country - ever. Why this night?

Verbeek has stuck rigidly to a 4-2-3-1 formation to get through a successful 14-match qualification campaign. So much so, it's joked that the table soccer at the team's hotel has been changed to fit the formation.

Why then attempt a two-striker system when we go a goal down? With two players in Garcia and Cahill who are not recognised strikers?

Verbeek's answer? He wanted to exploit Germany with pace up front, then the goalposts shifted when Australia conceded an early goal.

Funny, because that's exactly how Germany exploited Australia.

Lightning quick cut-and-move in the front third, killing Australia down its left-hand-side.

Ozil could have gone and bought breakfast for himself and the thousands of Aussie fans watching in the cold at home, then still had time to unlock the Socceroos' slowpoke defence.

Verbeek has done a great job getting Australia to the World Cup despite sundry critics.

But on the night they'd been practising their lines for the past four years, Australia were made to ad-lib.

And they stuttered, stammered and eventually left the stage with their shorts around their ankles. Trust me, Pim, we'd have taken one of your 1-0 wins.

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