It took place in four of Southeast Asia’s most vibrant cities, the amazing atmosphere in Jakarta, there was a fairytale win from Iraq, and the success of Vietnam.
And then there was Australia’s major debut as an Asian team and they were a breath of fresh air.
The Socceroos had joined the Asian Football Confederation in 2006 of course and in June of that same year, defeated Japan at the World Cup as a member of the AFC.
Yet, they had qualified through Oceania and were that confederation’s representative in Germany.
A year later, Asia awaited with an air of, it seemed to me, excitement mixed with annoyance.
Some felt that Australia shouldn’t be there at all.
It is hard to say but some of this was likely down to the fact that the Socceroos were expected to lift the trophy.
And this was why there was excitement: a team full of European-based stars would give the tournament a big league glamour that it had never had before.
And there was something else. At the time, I had already been covering Asian football for the best part of a decade.
The continent is bursting with fascinating stories but here was a team that actually came out with controversial things. It was a novel experience.
Captain Lucas Neill said - before it started - that he expected Australia to win and go through the tournament undefeated.
This was golden and not the kind of comment you get much in Asian football and certainly wasn’t at the time.
The Aussies were seen as arrogant before they arrived and anyone who came into contact with them at the tournament quickly realised, as Mark Viduka told ESPN recently - that some did not want to be there at all.
As a journalist, it was all good. Asian football had never really had a ‘bad guy’ that the whole continent could dislike.
There were plenty of regional, and even some continental rivalries, but there had rarely been a team that annoyed all.
Australia were looking like they could have been that team, a talented winning machine that was efficient and remorseless on the pitch and sullen and arrogant off it.
This could have been a theme for years and years.
Yet, it was the wrong kind of arrogance that played a part in the golden generation's swift downfall.
It is fine knowing that you are strong, or should be, but underestimating the opposition is always going to bite on the backside sooner or later.
It was a given in the Socceroo camp that the opener with Oman would bring three points.
Yet, only a last-gasp Tim Cahill goal brought a point. Not to worry, that was just the traditional opening game wobble.
However, the next game saw Australia outplayed and losing to Iraq.
The group stage may have ended with a 4-0 win over co-hosts Thailand but for much of that Bangkok clash, the Thais were on top only to fail in the final third and then tire in the final stages.
The quarter-final defeat on penalties to Japan was not quite the epic rematch that all were hoping for, but there was general satisfaction as the Samurai Blue got some revenge in Hanoi for that devastating Kaiserslautern defeat 13 months earlier.
Australia never got going, never settled and never looked happy.
A team that had been desperate to go to to a first World Cup for 32 years did not have the same feeling about a first ever Asian Cup appearance.
The belief that the tournament would be a cakewalk was soon destroyed and there was nothing to replace it.
The subsequent decision to hire Pim Verbeek, an old Asian coaching hand, meant there would be a lot more understanding and a lot less underestimating the football scene on the giant continent.
It did mean however, that Australia lost their chance to become the team that everyone in Asia loved to hate.
