"I am not putting any limits on it," he said. "If you had said 14 months ago we would have been sitting in this position people would probably not have believed me.

"We go into a four-year cycle of World Cup  qualification. We want to go to the next World Cup to make an impact, not just to be there.

"I am not going to put any limits on this group of players. It's all about leaving watermarks along the way and we have left a pretty high one.

"The goal should be for this [Asian] Confederation to break the South American and European monopoly on the World Cup. We should not rest on our laurels just because we have won this tournament here.

"This is not the end of the journey, in many respects for us it's the beginning. I think we have given this game a kick along in this country."

What the coach has achieved in just 15 short months, when he revitalised and revamped the team in a massive overhaul, has been extraordinary.

But wonderful as winning the Asian Cup is, it is not an end in itself. The World Cup remains the gold standard of global football and that is now where Australia must target their sights.

Postecoglou essentially used the last competition in Brazil as a sighter, part of the preparation for the Asian Cup.

The next time round, with the big show due to be staged in Russia in 2018, he will be determined that the Socceroos travel not as cannon fodder, as they were largely seen in 2014, but as dangerous opponents good enough to give anyone a bloody nose should they be pitched against them in the group phase or knockout stage.

Postecoglou will not have much time to bask in the reflected glory of this success.

There is the small matter of a friendly match against world champions Germany in March, and then the qualifiers for Russia begin in the winter.

The squad that Postecoglou took to the Asian Cup differed significantly to that which travelled to Brazil, and the one certainty for the next few years is that there will be continual change.

Some of the men in this squad cannot be expected to be around much longer.

Mark Bresciano, used sparingly in the Asian Cup, has surely, at the age of 35, played out his international career.

Matt McKay, a utility who so often comes on to plug holes, will be in his mid-30s by 2018.

Even the evergreen Tim Cahill, 35 now and desperate to carry on, cannot be seen as a long-term prospect, although there is every chance that he will be used at least in the early stages of qualifying, if not beyond.

Alex Wilkinson has had a marvellous late blooming to a steady career, but with the younger Trent Sainsbury and Matt Spiranovic established as first-choice centre-backs and younger players coming through, it is difficult to see him being anything other than a bit-part player in four years.

But the core of Postecoglou's team is young and can be expected to grow into their games at club and international level.

Revelation of the tournament, Massimo Luongo, is only 22, as is goalkeeper Mat Ryan. Sainsbury has just turned 23, while left-back Jason Davidson, forward Mathew Leckie, Tomi Juric, Robbie Kruse and the little used Tommy Oar are all early to mid-20s.

While no one was arguing that this crop of players yet had the individual runs on the board that the so-called Golden Generation of 2005-2011 had, they did something that their illustrious predecessors could not, and that is win the Asian Cup. Teams featuring Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka, much younger versions of Bresciano and Cahill, as well as luminaries such as Lucas Neill, Vince Grella and Mark Schwarzer could not do so in 2007 or 2011.

The coach is ambitious not just for himself, but for the game. He knows that winning the Asian Cup is a huge achievement, but nothing will make a statement about Australian soccer like doing well at the World Cup.

Postecoglou now has the core of a team that is unrecognisable to that which Holger Osieck fielded in the last qualifier for Brazil 2014, a narrow win over Iraq in Sydney in June 2013. Of the starting line-up that night, when Josh Kennedy's late header secured a World Cup berth, only three players - Mark Milligan, Kruse and Cahill - started on Saturday night.

Ryan, Sainsbury and Spiranovic, the two centre-backs, form a defensive triumvirate that has blossomed under the new regime.

The irrepressible Luongo, whose talent, Postecoglou mused mischievously on Saturday night, might take him all the way to Real Madrid or Barcelona, is a box to box midfielder with an eye for goal who can provide the heartbeat of the team in the middle of the park, complemented by the energetic Milligan and the physically imposing defensive hardman Mile Jedinak, the team captain.

Juric has shown in cameos off the bench that he has talent. He now needs to grow and lead the line, score more goals and become stronger, tougher and better in the air if he is to emulate an ambition he revealed a couple of years ago to become the Socceroos successor to Mark Viduka.

Leckie fits the Postecoglou template, which calls for relentless pressing and a high-tempo workrate from the forwards, perfectly. He needs, at international level at any rate, to have more composure in front of goal to capitalise on the chances he gets. One goal for all his appearances and promise is not enough.

In fact at this point goals, as ever, are the question mark. Australia had 10 different goalscorers in this tournament, which is a heartening statistic. But Cahill aside, there is no one who consistently hits the target.

Those present now will have to discover a nose for goal when the day comes that Tim the Talisman is no longer available  or Postecoglou will have to develop another rough diamond. Don't put it past him, he's done it before, just ask Luongo ...