Brilliant Socceroos Restore the Faith of a Nation

The wonderful effort tonight by the national soccer team (or 'football' team if you must call it that) was a joy to watch, and for the first time probably since the 4-0 drubbing we received at the hands of Germany in the first match of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, you could feel everyone who watched the game actually believing that this campaign is not a lost cause after all.

Holger Osiek reacted to the dreadful performance against Oman, and named a team that looked 100% better in all areas. But none of this would have mattered if they didn't perform. Facing Japan in Japan, who only needed a draw to qualify for the playoffs in Brazil, Australia needed to win, or draw at the very least. They had to make a statement, that they were a team that was to be reckoned with, and if Japan tore them apart, then the fact that they could practically kiss the World Cup goodbye would be irrelevant. If they couldn't compete with Japan, they could not hope to achieve anything on the world stage.

But they were quite magnificent. The defence was not perfect, but it was a mile in front of recent efforts. And the attack on the rebound was terrific, even though they were unable to take the chances they had.
Even halfway through the second half, when a 0-0 draw looked almost a formality, it was just a pleasure to see that our guys were in the game, and were fighting hard.
And then Tommy Oar fluked a cross that squeezed past the keeper's hand and inside the crossbar corner to amazingly have Australia up 1-0, and suddenly an amazing win was in sight, and three crucial and unexpected points. Though it was an unfortunate handball in the penalty area with four minutes remaining that levelled the scores for a final scoreline of 1-1, Australia could hold their heads high. With two home games remaining against Jordan and Iraq, and needing to win both the qualify, this task doesn't seem such a tough ask as it may have a couple of days ago.

But the real winner was the game of football. Isn't it a pleasure to watch a game of soccer that is not dogged by repeated dives and players rolling in "agony" on the ground holding up the flow of the game, then being stretchered off, only to immediately jump to their feet and run back into the game. Against Oman this is all that happened and it ruined the game. Here, there was not one stretcher, and only a couple of times where a player was down for anything more than a couple of seconds. It was refreshing and wonderful, and a testament to both teams for their sportsmanship and their toughness.