Longing for the day ...

Oh, well ...

Darn ... ripped off at the last gasp! Still, so close!

But I gotta say, I thought we didn't play well enough to win. With all that possession and all those opportunities, the Italians down to 10 men for most of the second half and we still couldn't score? Guus Hiddink said as much after the match when he talked about missed opportunities. And Ned Zelic thought we were too slow to counter - chipping the ball around in the back field when the defence was stretched instead of pressing forward quickly.

I also noticed that too often the last pass was wayward and/or picked off by the Italians' defence. They seemed to be a little more ... precise ... in that aspect, and hence generated more opportunities with the limited ball they got. If we'd been better they would never have had the chance to win at the death. Give credit to their defence, it was awesome!

Still, the boys have now been there and know what it takes. If we can build and develop from there, we'll be more of a force next time. However, I won't be involved much in that. The Socceroos did well and I'm proud of them but I just don't get the game and I can't support a game that allows arbitrary refereeing decisions to dominate results the way we have seen in the World Cup. It doesn't make sense to me.

Next week, back to the State of Origin and Tri Nations Rugby. I'll see the Socceroos in four years.