Bugger. What a way to get eliminated - by a penalty kick in stoppage time. I didn't get to see the match at all as I started work on Monday - when I left my hotel here in LA it hadn't started yet. I didn't even find out who won for the entire day until my mate in Germany texted me the result. Oh well, it was great while it lasted and the fact that we made the 2nd round is going to be huge for the game back home. Football came of age in Australia this year - it united the country in a way that I can't remember it being united in my lifetime. We're a country of immigrants, and so often people will cheer for their countries of origin (eg the Italian immigrants will cheer for Italy, the Greeks for Greece, the Croats for Croatia, etc.) but in this case everyone was cheering for Australia.
Realistically I felt we were at long odds to win this game. We were always going to do it tough against Italy and our inability to finish our opportunities (and create genuine chances out of midfield and via the wings) came back to haunt us. I can't comment on the penalty as I saw a highlight replay out of context, or on the red card to Italy, but the bottom line is that we played most of the 2nd half with an extra man but couldn't take advantage. We just didn't have the depth in quality players that the Italians did, they can bring off Del Piero and bring on Totti - when we lose Kewell or Emerton the quality isn't quite as good. I think we played as well as we could play with the players we had and we probably punched above our weight, but we need to build more depth to be a consistent threat.
Full credit to Italy, they're probably the best team in the world at defending with 10 men. To the victor go the spoils, and they were able to take advantage of the opportunity. The bottom line is that Neill should have been cognizant of the fact that if you try and slide tackle in the penalty box someone is going to try and milk a penalty, particularly at that point of the game. He shouldn't have done it, it was a lapse in judgment. Rule #1 they teach you in the under-9s is that when defending you stay on your feet. But you can't criticise their effort, they did everything they could for their country.
Now it will be time to rebuild, as a number of these blokes will now retire - Viduka, Moore, etc. But the fact that we're now in Asia will be huge for us as we'll get much more competitive qualifying games now.
Well played Aussies, you made us all proud of your performances. We showed that we're not out of place on the world stage. Watch out for us in four years' time.
