Undone by the Referee Again

Australia have been robbed again by a bad refereeing decision. Grosso dived over the top of Lucas Neill, who was lying on the ground not hindering the Italian at all, inside the Australian penalty area and the referee called it a penalty! What a complete load of garbage.

There's no way that should have been a penalty. Totti took the spot kick very well under enormous pressure but it was a penalty that just should never have been. To make matters worse it was right on the 93 minute mark after the full 3 minutes of injury time had been played with the score still 0-0; it was literally just a few seconds before the full time whistle.

Australia had dominated possession from the very start, dictating the flow of the game pretty much all the way. Granted, the Italian defense was rock solid and Australia just couldn't do enough with the ball near the Italian 18-yard box, but it was Australia's game all the way. The Italians were tiring and Australia was looking very strong passing the ball around, while Italy just whacked the ball way up to their forwards at every chance. Australia's play was very disappointing in the second half (from a goal opportunity perspective), having a great numerical advantage after Materazzi was controversially sent off just 5 minutes after the half-time restart; the Australians just didn't do enough with the ball. It was very frustrating from a spectator's perspective.

For my money, however, the 12 Australians out there on the pitch are heros to football in Australia today, and Lucas Neill should be proud of his efforts and those of his team mates. To go out like that was very cruel indeed. Italy go through to the quarter finals but certainly don't deserve to. It was a complete travesty.

I'll put together a more complete review from my notes after some sleep (it's 3:30am now).