World Cup – Day 10
June 21, 2006 by Dave Earley
Filed under Uncategorized
Japan 0 – 0 Croatia
Brazil 2 – 0 Australia
France 1 – 1 Korea Republic
The most important match here is of course Australia v Brazil. I was absolutely gutted to see us lose. Not because I had gone into the game expecting we would win, but because we played so well we could have – should have – won.
It was 0-0 at halftime, and Australia had dominated much of the half, putting five shots on goal to Brazil’s four. Unfortunatley for Australia, Brazil scored within a few minutes of the second half kicking off. Instead of putting their heads down and conceding defeat (as Serbia had done against Argentina), Australia fought back, creating scoring opportunities throughout the half. It was a source of pride to see Australia making Brazil uncomfortable and pushing for a goal all the way to the end.
In pushing for a result, however, they left themselves exposed in defence and another Brazilian goal was scored late. So I was devastated. The referee was pretty bad. That’s no excuse for Australia losing – they made the chances and had opportunities to score – but the free kicks were something like 23-5 in Brazil’s favour. Kewell gave the ref an earful at the end of the match. You can read more about that later.
In the other match, Croatia and Japan each took a point out of their goalless draw. I was grateful to the Japanese ‘keeper who saved a Croatian penalty and denied three points to Croatia. Australia only need a draw against Croatia to go to the second round, but I’m not entirely convinced the Japanese can’t beat Brazil, so am hoping we get a win against the Croats.
France to my mind are decidedly crap. Having won the World Cup in 1998, they’ve since gone goalless in World Cup finals competition until this goal against Korea. Yes, as defending champions they didn’t score a single goal in 2002 and so obviously didn’t go through to the second round. They’ll like their chances against Togo in their next match, but should they make it through to the second round won’t beat Spain and would find it tough against the Ukraine.
