speechless

Well, what can be said for the end of the Aus vs Italy match? I sat in Ronnie's loungeroom in stunned silence as the end of that match unfolded, and with everything that has been said in the media about it, not much more needs to be said either.

Now that the initial reaction to the match has dissipated, the ref (who was quite good as far as the referreeing standard at this cup has been) made two crucial decisions which changed the game itself and were probably his only flaws. The red card to Materazzi and the penalty were both 50-50 decisions that could have gone either way. The red did seem a bit harsh and a yellow was probably more deserved. In turn, that penalty was probably given because as Neill went to ground, his left elbow came out and may have looked like he tripped the player. Anyway, whats done is done and its good to reflect upon how the boys went in this campaign. They surely did Australia proud and never have I been more happy about the state of sport in this country.

Anyways, that was just a quick two cents about the football, I'll blog more about the Cup and Hillsong Conference next week.

-d

what colour is it?

Well, the goals have gone in, penalties not given and 3 yellow cards to one player. Did we see one of the most remarkable matches of the tournament? I think so. Its amazing to see how, even if you subtract the media hype and coverage that our Socceroos are receiving here at home, the 3 Group F matches that Australia played were all ones that ranked up there as the best of the tournament. 3 goals in 8 minutes, frustrating Brazil and almost shutting down Ronaldinho's involvement and getting through a match which was, by all intents and purposes, unbelievable. I realise there were lots of commas in that sentence, but meh.

The Brazil match was a great performance, despite the lack of goals and the conceded goals to some world class strikers. Theres been a lot said about the German ref, and I really wonder how he managed to be World Ref of the year for 2004 and 2005. I'm not discounting the fact that he's a competent official, I know that it must be really difficult to officiate any game on this stage. But I think he must have been influenced by the (misplaced) reputation Australia have as a dirty side. I mean, nearly 3 times the foul count of Brazil? 2 in 3 fouls were borderline dives. Bluntly put, its true. The amount of fouls given for an accidental collision, or the slightest touch were ridiculous! Yet when we had the ball, was there consistent protection for the ball carrier? No. I know Brazil are streaks ahead of Australia in terms of everything football, but anyone watching the game could see how easily they went to ground.

Henri Michel, the coach of the Ivory Coast (who I was very impressed with, they were oen of my favourite teams to watch), stated something that many Australians were feeling after the Group F match: "I am under the impression there is a favouritism for larger countries over smaller ones when it comes to refereeing." The performance of the said ref was quite costly for the USA as well. If he referees like that, I don't know if he'll be the best choice for the World Cup Final.

The Croatian match. Maaan, where do I start? I made the claim that this match was simultaneously both our best and worst refereeing performance of this tournament. Why am I praising the ref when so many are bagging him? Well, in true English style, Mr Poll let a lot of the play flow back and forth between the two teams: not stopping it unnecessarily and allowing advantage; not being swayed by dodgy opinion in thinking Australia were dirty; and being quite consistent in his foul giving. That was for most of the match however. His definition of "denying a scoring opportunity" needs a bit of work I imagine. Simunic's rugby tackle on Viduka in the 6 yard box was so blatantly a penalty it was ridiculous. Tomas's handball right in front of Josh Kennedy's face? Isn't that deliberately denying a scoring chance? If Emerton gets his 2nd yellow for "deliberate" handball (which by the way, was like 10-20 metres away from the box and in a relatively neutral position of the field), how come Tomas didn't even get a yellow for his first? We got the penalty yes, but that was as deliberate as they come.

Back to Simunic. Lots has been written about the defender's 3 yellow cards, so I don't need to repeat too much. It is disappointing that England's best official could make such a schoolboy error, and it seemed as the match got more tense, he made some judgement errors in trying to control it. Some have said that Simunic refused or didn't leave the field. I say that if the ref doesn't tell you to go off, then why bother. I can understand why he'd stay, his country was on the brink of elimination. There were 5 officials in charge of that match and all missed the error. It was an extremely disappointing error which marred the result. The decisions about the penalties happen in every match, but the card one was one that should not happen.

Kalac. My gosh, I feel sorry for the poor guy. He finally gets a run on in what is perhaps the biggest game of his career, and he falls apart nearly. He must have trained well for Guus to choose him, but I think the lack of big game (and even first team) experience must have played a big factor in his nervousness throughout the match. Its unlikely he'll get another chance in this World Cup (and the next, as he's getting 34 in December) but I hope that he can bounce back from this.

On the whole it was an exciting game, and despite the decisions (and I'm not saying this because we're through, I'd be the same if we missed out), I still think Poll is one of the best referees on the planet. He will probably be sent home due to his error and not take part in the later stages of the cup, but if England are chosen to send another ref to the 2010 cup in South Africa, I'd hope Poll is at the top of the list.

Much of this blog has been rather one-eyed Aussie I must say, but I felt the need to rant about some of the flak that the Aussies have been copping. The Aussies have made some mistakes and their finishing on the whole hasn't been that great (lots of squandered chances), but I'm so happy that the boys have proved their character by responding to the criticism, media scrutiny and reputation by mixing it with the best. Good luck against the Azzurri, no matter what happens you've made the nation proud.

-d

winner!

It is a very good day to be a long-suffering Aussie football fan today. Finally, after so long of telling other people that football really does have a chance in Australia, and countering claims of "Australia is crap" with my own claim that "we have heaps of good European based players", the roos have finally broken through. And how good a feeling it is!

Last night my dad saw the match before I did, as a group of us watched it on delay from a recording. He told my mum to expect 3 screams from the group of us, as each of the goals went in. Funny as. I'm so glad I didn't see my dad's reaction when he asked us whether we wanted to know the score, as that probably would have given the game away for me. He's done that to me when the team I'm cheering has lost as well, so I wanted to be surprised either way.

Anyways, back to study, hopefully this is the re-opening of blogging regularity, but I doubt it, seeing as I said that last time, hehe.

My decision to get Cahill on my jersey, best ever. :)

-d