Australia Are Through!

5:00am and the alarm goes off beside my bed - quick, quick, get up! Australia v Croatia starting now! I grabbed a jumper, some trackie dacks, headed downstairs to the TV & made myself a wake-up cup of tea. The tele goes on and there's 1:30 already on the clock and...what's going on? A free kick already?!?? OK, come on guys, keep it out. Srna takes a lovely curling kick from just outside the area, over the wall and into the top left corner - 1 nil to Croatia. There was nothing Kalac could have done to stop that. Hang on a sec...Kalac? Where's Schwarzer? I missed the first 90 seconds and the whole game is wrong already!

OK, only 2 minutes gone. Still a full 88 left to go, plenty of time to pull that goal back and, if nothing else can be said for Australia, we're fighters who put in 110% right to the final whistle. Now, time to assess the situation - Cahill and Kewell are both on the pitch, excellent; Bresciano's not, Schwarzer's not - hmmm...OK; Viduka and Sterjovski up front - good. (Sterjovski, by the way, is very under-rated in my opinion. I'd barely heard of him before this world cup and he's had a great tournament down the right wing so far.) Time to concentrate on the action again and no sooner than I turn my brain back on I see Josip Simunic with his whole arm right around Viduka's waist pull him over in the penalty area - clear penalty, no doubt about it. But the ref didn't see it that way and let the play go on for a goal kick.

What's the deal with the refereeing this world cup? The half dozen games I've watched in their entirety have been nothing short atrocious. FIFA have a lot to answer for in their refs this year. There has been a fair bit of talk about Australia being harshly done by as far as the ref decisions have gone this world cup, and while I try not to complain I have to say I think it's fairly true. We've had many fouls called against us for very minimal, if any, contact and refs seem to turn a blind eye in many situations where we've been wronged (like Viduka getting clearly pulled down in the 18-yard box for example or Schwarzer getting barged out of the way in his own 6-yard box).

But the game goes on. Pushing down into the Croatian area Cahill is pulled out of the way by one defender and the other Croatian (Tomas) with the pair must have thought he was the keeper judging by the use of his hands. Penalty. Given. Finally. Craig Moore steps up to take the kick. Even though it's early on in the game, the pressure on him must be enormous - this kick could be the difference between Australia going through to the second round or not. I was a little surprised it wasn't Cahill or Kewell to take the kick actually, but Moore is a good cool player so I was comfortable with him. The whistle blows, Craig takes the run up while the keeper is dancing around and, not distracted, he calmly slots the ball to the keeper's right (when Pletikosa dived left) - GOAL! Australia 1 - Croatia 1. After all that pressure Australia applied, we final get an equaliser. We're back and only getting stronger (plus we should already have had a second penalty). And so it was a drawn game when we went to the break at half time (time for another cup of tea and a quick breakie).

But it was not to last. Croatia pushed back and, with a mess of players in front of him, Kovac fired it through from the edge of the 18-yard box and wished for the best, which was exactly what he got as Kalac, who must have felt like committing suicide after this incident, got his tall frame down in front of the shot but somehow managed to knock it up over himself to trickle into the net! Given the number of legs in front of him I'm guessing he didn't see the shot clearly until it cleared the bodies, which would have been just outside the 6-yard box but still, the question has to be asked: would Schwarzer have saved it? It wasn't the first time during the game that Kalac looked a little shaky having fumbled a ball earlier (just a few minutes before the half-time break) - luckily no Croatians were close enough to take advantage and he had recovered quickly.

So once again Australia was on the back foot, fighting to stay in the World Cup - but never count us out until the very end. Hiddink was applying copious amounts of pressure to the Croatian defence with Aloisi & Bresciano coming on in an all-out assault on the Croatian goal. But Pletikosa, full credit to him, came up with some very brave keeping to deny Aloisi and Cahill together as all three have a big pile up right on the line and Pletikosa manages to hang onto the ball. Several replays later it's clear the ball did not actually cross the line - so close and yet so far. And, once again, Guus was the master of strategy, bringing on Kennedy in a do or die effort. Almost immediately after the substitution, Kennedy made his presence felt using his height to win a header which is then hand balled! Another penalty!! At least it should be - what's going on with this ref? He doesn't give it. What a farce! Graham Poll must have had something in his eye. One of the most important games in Australian football history and we get a blind ref! But then a Bresciano cross falls to Kewell who, when the pressure was on, came up with the goods, chesting it down for a powerful volley past the keeper into the net. 2-2 and tied again with 10 minutes left. Nail-biting stuff! Could we hold on?

The commentator at this time was saying they should just play possession and hang on for the draw, but I don't think that was enough. Australia are an attacking team and needed to keep pushing forward to keep Croatia on the back foot. The last 10 minutes must have been the weirdest of the game with a host of yellow cards and some really strange refereeing in the last few seconds. Simic was given his 2nd yellow for bringing down Kewell, or perhaps it was for handling the ref, which is much more important in my book - the #1 golden rule: never touch the ref. Whatever reason, he was off with about 5 minutes to go - looking good for Australia.

Australia has a great defence, their best area in my opinion, but in every game they seem to fall asleep for anywhere up to 15 minutes and this time, even given the importance of these last 5 minutes, it was immediately after Simic's send off. Craig Moore, our 1st goal scorer and veteran defender managed to clear off the line as Kalac was beaten by Tudor. This was real heart-stopping action and I've read similar opinions from people who have no vested interest in either country. The game is almost all being played within striking distance of both goals - this is not boring midfield possession play. The ball went back into Croatia's half and as they brought it up the line Emerton moved to stop them and handled the ball (quite deliberately by the looks of it) - dumb! That's his 2nd yellow and he's off too. So back to 10 men a piece.

With only a minute or 2 of normal time left just about every yellow shirt was behind the ball, the whole Australian team defending, as Croatia seemed to be making one last ditch effort to score. But it was not to be for Croatia as Australia made some good blocks & clearances (from such unlikely defenders as Viduka, Kennedy, Kewell, etc.) cleared the ball and moved up in their own counter-attack. Then probably the most incredible refereeing event of the whole world cup - Simunic, disgrace that he is, receives his 2nd yellow card and should have been off, but he stayed on the field! Had Poll gone crazy? Two yellows = 1 red; you're gone. What?!?!

Two minutes into injury time the 4th official shows 3 minutes of injury time to be played, so just one more minute and we would be going though to the knock-out stages. Once again I was off the edge of my seat. The ball gets played up to Aloisi who takes it up to the corner flag and is harshly tackled to put the ball out for a throw in (should have been another yellow card against Croatia in my opinion). But the weirdness wasn't over yet, not by a long stretch. Croatia take the throw and somehow manage to get 2 balls on the field. How did that happen? The ref stops play and brings the ball back to the corner flag for an Australian throw - why? Was it a foul throw? Whatever the reason, Bresciano throws it in, it gets taken over towards the goal and there is a foul AND Viduka puts the ball in the net (finally!) AND the ref blows his whistle. What's it going to be? Goal or penalty? Wait a sec, there was a 3rd option that I hadn't even considered - the ref blew for full time! With the ball less than a metre from the Croatian goal, a definite penalty claim and the ball finding the net less than a second later, the ref decides he's had enough and calls the game to a close.

But, even though the full-time whistle had blown, the spectacle hadn't finished. Simunic gets his THIRD yellow card!!! (for dissent I think) and is finally off, although by this stage it makes little difference - Croatia will progress no further and the game is over. The ref, I think, really lost control of the game at the end and was getting all confused. That was one of the weirdest ends to a game I've ever seen.

The final result: 2-2 and Australia are runners-up in Group F and, as such, will play Italy in next game in the knockout stages (at 1am Tuesday morning Sydney time). What should the score really have been? Your guess is as good as mine. I would think the last goal (or penalty) should have counted, plus I think there were another 2 definite penalties that should have gone Australia's way. In my mind the score should really have been about 4-2 or maybe 5-2 to Australia (but then it wouldn't have been as exciting). Australia, for my money, were by far the better team and were almost undone by some atrocious refereeing...again! I don't think Graham Poll will be presiding over anymore games this world cup and will most likely be under serious review by FIFA for, if nothing else, the 3 yellow cards to Simunic before sending him off. The German ref from the Australia/Brazil game (Markus Merk), so I believe, is also under investigation by FIFA for his post-game incident with Kewell when he essentially told Harry that was the end of his World Cup - was that pre-determined bias???

Well, what a jubilant, but WEIRD, start to the morning - it's going to be hard to keep the grin off my face yet again. And as I drive to the train station for my morning train to work, the sun's just starting to climb into the sky. It was still low enough (being only about an hour after sunrise) to cast a very golden glow over Sydney, and with the whole city blanketed in heavy mist it became an ethereal, other-worldly, golden fog adorning the heart of Australia (ie. Sydney). Very symbolic and apt considering the events of the previous couple hours on the other side of the world...