3 goals in 8 minutes

What a game and what a comeback.

I will not bore about the details because most of you will know what happened. But what a way to registers Australia's first win. Now bring on BRAZIL!!! :-P

After reliving the experience today and absorbing the media coverage, it is obvious that football is on the rise here. I just hope that this momentum is carried forward in years ahead. The big test is the aforementioned Brazil match. We play the world champs and if people are thinking we can beat them.....well I am not that sure. A good result would be a draw but a 1-0 loss will suffice.

We have the momentum and the thing now is to move onwards in the tournament.

The match exemplified the Aussie spirit. The team battled to victory and did not give up. Here are some points I need to make regarding the match:

1. Reffing

We were shafted by the referee. He even admitted he made a mistake. Football watches know that 99 out of 100 times, that would not have been a goal. But the problem here as was shown in 2002 is that the standard of reffing in parts of the world do not correspond and are not on the same level.

Kudos for FIFA to try to bring more expereience to the nations of Africa and Asia, but the majority of players ply their trade in Europe. They are used to the standard or reffing in those leagues. But the referres in Europe are use to the higher pace and technically advanced nature of play and therefore are able to umpire the game much more adequately.

From the match last night the Egyptina referee made a range of blunders. Some of the fouls he called were not fouls and conversely, he missed the occassions where a fould of occurred.

So this results in inconsistencies. That is the pet hate of players. If a ref is poor, better he be poor to both sides so players can adjust their play.

I could go on and use plenty of examples from the league I am involved in.

2. Japan's South American influence

This was clearly evident but not in the technical aspects. Just the way some of their players were falling over like drunks and an open bar night. I hate that style of play. Got enough of that against Uruguay.

3. Timmy Cahill for PM

What a player to come on and score 2 goals. He goes into the history books in being the first Australian player to score in the World Cup finals. Now add multi scorer and winning goal scorer.

But what a masterstroke Guus is. He fired Cahill up by starting him on the bench. I would have started him. Bu no, Guus kept him on and when he came on he was creating havoc in the attacking midfield role.

Guus did the same thing with Harry Kewell in the qualifier vs Uruguay. Kewell came on the pitch after 30 minutes and changed the course of the match.

Talking about Guus. English FA made a bad mistake!! Your loss is Russia's windfall and you only have yourselves to blame in you do not win an Euro or WC in the next 4 years.

Overall, a fantastic effort and we deserved a win. We dominated play and were far superior when attacking.

One down, 2 more to go.

Bring on BRAZIL!!!