Dollev

When you nickname yourself as the “Socceroos”, it is highly unlikely that you will ever understand what football really is about. None the less i have much sympathy for the Australian team. And their match against Croatia was the best match i have seen so far in this world cup tournament.

Australia “won” that match with 2-2. And that is a small miracle since:

Viduka is a striker who hardly scores.
Kalac was yesterday the world worst keeper on the globe. Socceroo indeed!

Then you had Graham Poll, who was yesterday’s world’s worst referee. He denied Australia two 24 carat penalties. On top of off that, Poll was so fond of Croatia defender Simunic that it took not two, but three yellow cards before Poll finally sent him off the pitch.

It surprised me that the Australian team failed to notice that. Maybe “three yellow cards is a red card” is the standard rule in socceroo?

Luckily the Croatian’s were too cowardous to use their technical supremacy with dominant offensive football. Every time they leaded the score, Croatia went into ultra-defensive mode. On both occasions it turned out that they weren’t very good at that.

All in all it was a great match, especially during the periods where the score was tied. What both teams lacked in skill, they certainly made up for in passion, spirit and sometimes with simple brawn.

Australia goes to the next round, Croatia and referee Poll can all go on holiday. I wish them all the best of luck.

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