a true nail biter - Australia 2: Croatia 2

My heart was in my mouth the entire game. In the end Australia did all it had to do and is through to the second round of the World Cup. An incredible achievement!

For what it's worth, following is the samizdat version of an expert commentary on the game.

Australia was by far the more aggressive team and was the better team on the day, although at times the Croatians' superior level of international experience was apparent. From 2 minutes in when Croatia scored its first goal, it appeared to be playing for a 1:0 win. A poor strategy against an aggressive team like Australia, and one which showed insufficient self-belief as to their chances of scoring further. Given their lack of scoring power, perhaps the Croatian lack of self-belief was well-founded.

Australia clearly had the worse of the refereeing. A number of very poor decisions which went against Australia:
- a penalty on Viduka at 6 minutes
- numerous infringements against Viduka (and other Aussies) missed by the referee
- numerous half-there infringements against Australians found by the referee
- the clear hand-ball by the Croatians in the box at about 72 minutes
- Simonic (sp?) getting 2 yellow cards but not being sent off!!

Overall a very very poor refereeing effort. And not a great showing by the Socceroo goalkeeper either. Bring back Schwarzer!

Who knows whether Australia can produce the goods against Italy. But in any event, it has been a very exciting world cup so far for Australia. Hopefully the run will continue ...