First Ever Goal in a World Cup Finals

With 26 minutes gone in the Australia vs. Japan World Cup game, every Australian watching the game, either in Kaiserslautern or in front of a big screen (or not so big screen as in my case), which would translate to millions (in a country of < 20 million that's a fair whack of the population), were devastated and fuming. I think Egypt was our new national enemy (the ref being Egyptian). The Japanese chipped a cross into a group of 2 attackers & 2 defenders. Schwarzer came out for it (that close to his own goal he should have owned it) but was barged out of the way by one of the attackers and watched the ball trickle into his own net. And the ref let the goal stand.

It was a complete travesty! Mark Viduka was penalised in the Japanese 18-yard box for a similar thing shortly before where he clearly went for the ball (and almost got a head on it) but just bumped up against the keeper, who got a free kick from the encounter. So why not the same decision at the other end of the field??? I had images of the Arsenal/Barcelona Champion's League finals going through my head suddenly. What an appalling call. By the ref's own later admission he shouldn't have let the goal count but should have given a free kick to Australia for the challenge. I was crushed - the game was clearly ours with the Aussie's dominating the game in every way (except for goal count) and yet it was looking like that would be the end of our 2006 World Cup campaign right then and there.

But in true Aussie style we battled on and Harry Kewell showed the world what he thought of the recent debarcle with a stinging shot that grased the top of the bar as it whistled over. I've always thought Viduka was over-rated. He's so often depicted as one of Australia's best ever goal scorers but every time I see him play he can't find the net and once again he had a couple great chances at very close range that were well parried by the Japanese keeper. OK, the keeper did very well stopping the shots, but that's why Viduka gets paid the big bucks - to get the ball past good keepers. However, even though he still didn't score, I have to credit him with a good game. His physical fitness, like all the Aussies', really gave the Japanese problems and pyschologically, I think, he was very effective, harrying the Japanese tirelessly despite the 35 degree heat.

Chance after chance came and went and Japan was just hanging in by the skin of their teeth. A Viduka free kick blasted through the wall, well stopped by the keeper. A Bresciano free kick curled around the wall brushed the outside of the post and buried itself in the side netting. Corner after corner, set play after set play and with 15 minutes left to go it was looking very doubtful if we'd be still be in this tournament in a week's time. But Guus had figured out how to rectify the problem and he brought on Cahill, Kennedy & Aloisi throughout the 2nd half and stirred up the attack considerably.

Kennedy was involved in just about every play around the Japanese 18-yard box from the instant he stepped on the field. But it was Cahill and Aloisi who are national heroes today. A long Lucas Neill throw saw the Japanese keeper come out to punch the ball away - mistake. There was a little scramble around the edge of the 6-yard box and the ball fell for Cahill, who doesn't often waste goal scoring opportunities (unlike some other Australian forwards...ahem) and with only a defender on the line filling in for his woefully misplaced keeper, Cahill struck gold! Australia's first ever goal in a World Cup final stages game!!! He'll go into our history books forever. Suddenly Australia had some hope again - with only 7 minutes left we might be able to hang on for a draw and 1 point from the first game in the group stage.

But Cahill wasn't finished there. With only 2 minutes of normal time left the ball fell for Aloisi who, with his back to the goal, played the ball into space a few metres away where Cahill was waiting. Poor defense. They gave his waaaay too much time, watched him trap the ball, push it forward a couple feet, have a look to see where he wanted to put it and brilliantly curl the ball past the keeper and against the inside of the post where it bounced virtually straight across the goal line into the inside-side netting on the other side of the goal. Australia had a 2-1 lead with only 2 minutes left to go - every yellow shirt in the stadium errupted. It was brilliant, and it was almost all Cahill. What a legend!

But we still weren't finished! Aloisi, who I think by comparison to Viduka, is under-rated, had one last statement to make. This is the man who calmly slotted home the last penalty in the shoot-out with Uruguay in the last qualifer to get us to the final stages. Off came the shirt and he sprinted the length of the field in celebration - it took that long for his team mates to catch up with him. Well, once again, Aloisi showed a clean pair of heels, sprinting through the weak defense, knocking the ball into a good position for a left-footed shot and blasting his shot across the goal, past a keeper who was too slow coming off his line, into the same inside-side netting where Cahill had put it a few minutes before. 3-1 and just seconds of extra time left to play.

Over the last 6 or 7 minutes (this was after midnight local Sydney time) I'd stood up and been edging closer and closer to the TV. By the time Aloisi earned his keep I was about 2 feet away and jumping up and down - lucky my wife had fallen asleep and gone to bed about an hour earlier, she would have thought I was nuts (I don't think she quite gets it). So there I was in my yellow Australian jersey, jumping up and down about 2 feet in front of the TV in our family room at almost 1am. Not only had Timmy Cahill put Australia on the scoreboard for the first ever time in the World Cup final stages, but he and John Aloisi had given us 3 points from our first World Cup game in 3 decades!! It ought to be a national holiday! And if we can destroy the Japanese side like that then surely our last game against Croatia in a week, while certainly not in the bag, is looking very promising indeed. We might even give the legendary Brasilians a good run for their money (we've done that before). Second place in group F is looking more and more likely with the form we've been in lately - this may be the start of things to come (although I may be getting a little carried away in post-win euphoria; I even forgave the ref's first half blindness and decided not to single-handedly declare war on Egypt). Johnny Warren would be proud.

It's going to be very hard indeed to wipe the smile off my face today (and concentrate on work), even given the fact that I only got about 4 hours sleep and I've got a big Data Warehousing/Reporting demo with the boss at 10am today. Yawn...