I don’t know how to describe what happened to Australia this morning any better than that because the Socceroos were robbed. I thought waiting six hours before composing this entry would make it easier, but it’s actually harder to explain how I’m feeling now than it was directly after the match. 10 seconds before the end of injury time and the game, referee Luis Medina Cantalejo, called a penalty after Italian player Fabio Grosso dove after he ran into Lucas Neill. Neill did not initiate any contact with Grosso, and the Italian certainly acted his way to a penalty that cost Australia a chance to make it through to the Quarter Finals. Readers of si.com also believe that this was a bad call to award the penalty.

Schwarzer unsuccessfully dives to stop Totti’s free kick

Mark Schwarzer was brilliant throughout the match, making some beautiful saves and making Guus Hiddink look foolish for dropping him in their previous match against Croatia. After Italy was reduced to 10 men early in the second half, Australia dominated the run of play, but they can only be left to wonder ‘what if?’ after failing to convert their man advantage into goals. The Aussies definitely played in a conservative manner and really didn’t try to push the tempo, even in the late stages when Italy were clearly sufferring from fatigue. If the match had have gone to extra time, I don’t believe the Italians would have been able to withstand the Australian attack. Unfortunately, due to another awful refereeing decision, Australia will never know just how far they could have gone in the tournament. Their next match would have been against Ukraine, and I don’t think anyone can say that they would have troubled the Aussies, especially considering they outplayed both Brazil and Italy, two of the soccer powerhouses, in their respective matches.

One thing is for sure though - Australian soccer has definitely arrived on the world scene. This performance in the World Cup is only going to do wonderful things for the game back home, and many a young child will have drawn inspiration from the performance. The Aussies have proven that they deserved to be in the World Cup, and despite the comment that comments US coach, Bruce Arena, made before the start of the tournament, Australia will never be considered an easy game again.

Although the events that transpired earlier were heartbreaking for all Australian soccer supporters, the Socceroos can hold their heads up high and know that they have impressed the global soccer community with their play over the past two weeks. I know they’ll be in South Africa for the 2010 World Cup, and hopefully now that Australia is part of the Asian Confederation, they will have more frequent meaningful games and their support base will only grow larger. I know this much - they didn’t embarass themselves and I’m even prouder to be an Australian.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 26th, 2006 at 3:51 pm and is filed under Soccer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.