Well, after the late comeback against Japan I was quietly confident ahead of the match against Brazil. I went to Friedensplatz with some friends of mine and took in the atmosphere. There were heaps of Brazilian fans there, and also plenty of Germans with Brazilian shirts. While there were not that many Australians, there were thousands of swiss fans in town for the match against Togo, with many of them supporting the underdog against Brazil. Realistically, I was hoping we wouldn't get humiliated, but as the match wore on, and Australia kept Brazil scoreless, I began thinking more and more about getting an unlikely draw to send us through. The biggest cheer of the day came when Ronaldinho did about 3 stepovers in the box before treading on the ball and falling over. However, as soon as I started thinking we might get something out of the match, Brazil scored. As Australia pressed for an equaliser, Kewell hit the ball over the open goal from 5 metres out, and Viduka lobbed the ball onto the roof of the net. However, right at the end, we got sucker punched to leave it at 2-0. While I was a bit disappointed, Croatia's draw with Japan meant that we needed a draw in our last match to progress.
On the day of the match with Croatia, I was horrified to find out that every place in town would be showing the Brazil Japan game, even though it was a dead rubber. Luckily, the Australian Pub 'Boomerang' was showing the game, so I had some vodka with Jonathan and Louis to calm the nerves, before heading in to the pub with a motley crew of Bulgarians, Cameroonians, et al, hoping for a result. Unfortunately Croatia scored in the second minute from a free kick, and it looked very bad for Australia. Luckily, Croatia seemed to go into their shell after the early goal, and Australia pressed forward. Viduka was thrown to the ground in the box, with no penalty being given. Minutes later, a Croatian defender handled and the ref pointed to the spot. Moore stepped up and scored from the penalty, and we were back in the game. The second half began much like the first, after only a few minutes, Croatia scored again, this time from a horrible error by the keeper Kalac. This was followed by another blatant handball in the box by the Croatians, which was missed by the ref. Just as I thought we were going to be sent home, Kewell took a cross on his chest, and slotted home from close range. This triggered amazing scenes in Boomerang. The sight and sound of a pub full of drunken fans singing 'Harry, Harry Kewell' to the tune of Boney M's Daddy Cool was quite the highlight.
As if to prove that he was the worst match official ever, the ref then proceeded to give a Croatian player 3 yellow cards before sending him off, and blew the full time whistle as what would have been the Australian winner was rolling over he line. But it didn't matter, Australia was through to the second round for the first time, setting up a knockout tie with Italy. Needless to say, we got quite boistrous that night, knocking back a few celebratory beers and attracting a few strange looks in the U-Bahn on the way home with our singing.
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