Ozzies go through

[finlma]

Just beat Uruguay 4-2 on penalties.

[jockser]

congratulations austrailia!!!

[joeSoap]

Schwarzer penalty saves send Aussies into World Cup
16/11/2005 - 12:05:15

Australia 1 Uruguay 0 (1-1 AET, Australia win 4-2 on penalties)
Australia secured their place at next year’s World Cup after Middlesbrough goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer performed heroics in a penalty shoot-out against Uruguay in Sydney.

Trailing 1-0 from the first leg at the weekend in Montevideo, Australia levelled the tie on aggregate through Scott Bresciano’s first-half strike in a fiery match dominated by the hosts at Telstra Stadium.

After a wait of 32 years since their only appearance at football’s biggest tournament, Australia held on in front of 82,698 fans and took the game to penalties.

Schwarzer saved twice, from Fabian Estoyonoff and Dario Rodriguez, before John Aloisi tucked away Australia’s fifth spot-kick to secure a famous win.

Socceroos coach Guus Hiddink, who is also in charge of Dutch side PSV Eindhoven, now has the opportunity to enhance his World Cup pedigree after taking joint hosts South Korea to the semi-finals in 2002.

In a repeat of the play-off four years ago, which Uruguay won comfortably, the enterprise of Merseyside duo Tim Cahill and Harry Kewell gave Australia the upper hand.

Without injured Villarreal striker Diego Forlan, Uruguay relied on Alvaro Recoba to lead their counter-attacks, with the hosts intent on taking the game to their opponents.

Despite an early header from Diego Lugano flashing wide, it was Australia who dictated the pace of the game as they looked for the goal to level the tie.

Jason Culina tried his luck from long range in the 19th minute and forced a save from Fabian Carini, while Blackburn winger Brett Emerton had an effort fly over the bar.

But Hiddink’s side were not made to wait long for the opener with Bresciano forcing the ball home 10 minutes from the interval. Cahill initiated the goal with a sharp turn before heading towards the penalty area and slipping the ball to Mark Viduka.

Middlesbrough striker Viduka – who later missed a penalty in the shoot-out - instinctively flicked towards Kewell who missed his shot before the ball fell invitingly for Bresciano to lash into the top corner past Carini.

The goal vindicated Hiddink’s decision to bring on Kewell for Tony Popovic, with the Crystal Palace centre-back already cautioned for elbowing Recoba.

Recoba, the Inter Milan forward, had tricked Tony Vidmar and shot wide earlier in the first half, but his efforts tended to be limited by to set-pieces and moments of skill in wide areas.

Vidmar struggled to contain Recoba, nicknamed “El Chino“, and was booked for a foul, although nothing came of the free-kick.

Carlos Diogo was also cautioned, for a foul on Kewell just before the break, while Culina was yellow carded after the interval after tugging on Mario Regueiro’s shirt.

Both teams continued to attack as they looked to find the winning goal. Bresciano twice had shots which were off target, and Richard Morales should have done better when Recoba’s corner found him free in front of goal.

Kewell saw plenty of the ball on the left flank, the Liverpool winger showing the form absent in his last year at Anfield. With Kewell and Cahill busy in midfield, Australia looked likely to nick the goal they needed, Cahill going wide with a diving header with 13 minutes remaining.

Kewell was behind the Uruguay defence three minutes later but was on his unfavoured right foot, forcing Carini into a comfortable save.

The hosts were helped by uncompromising defender Paolo Montero getting taken off with an injury, while Marcelo Zalayeta – who played with Montero at Juventus - was brought on for Recoba.

Zalayeta caused problems in extra-time with Gustavo Varela, Guillermo Rodriguez and Morales off target with efforts as time ran out.

[Gerrit]

Feck. Now I'll have to listen to the nagging of those arrogant cangaroosh*ggers on bigsoccer.com Argh, not fair! This is like a reward for looking down on their fellow Oceanian nations and betraying them all... Well, hopefully it's their last WC qualification for a few decades. Maybe Japan or Iran can give them a taste at the WC of what will be waiting them

[Green Tribe]

It's gonna be mighty craic with all the aussie fans around europe and germany.

[Snoop Drog]

Feck. Now I'll have to listen to the nagging of those arrogant cangaroosh*ggers on bigsoccer.com Argh, not fair! This is like a reward for looking down on their fellow Oceanian nations and betraying them all... Well, hopefully it's their last WC qualification for a few decades. Maybe Japan or Iran can give them a taste at the WC of what will be waiting them

Get over yourself Gerrit. Bit of jealousy there since Norwegians will be sitting in their fjord-side homes while the Aussies are in Germany

I was at the game last night at Telstra Stadium- brilliant athmosphere- 82,000 screaming Aussies willing on their team for 120 minutes and through the penalties.

After a 30 year break I think Australia are a worthy addition to The World Cup.

Sydney FC's Dwight Yorke will be there too with Trinidad & Tobago. Happy days for footy fans down under.

[M@ttitude]

Its official, im up for the down unders, where can i get a jersey in Dublin?

[Snoop Drog]

Its official, im up for the down unders, where can i get a jersey in Dublin?

There Nike so I reckon they will turn up in the shops soon (not a bad jersey either). Or on the net.

[Gerrit]

Get over yourself Gerrit. Bit of jealousy there since Norwegians will be sitting in their fjord-side homes while the Aussies are in Germany

I was at the game last night at Telstra Stadium- brilliant athmosphere- 82,000 screaming Aussies willing on their team for 120 minutes and through the penalties.

After a 30 year break I think Australia are a worthy addition to The World Cup.

Sydney FC's Dwight Yorke will be there too with Trinidad & Tobago. Happy days for footy fans down under.

Some things are not to be forgiven. Looking down on smaller more amateuristic sides for examples. Sorry, if Australia feel too good to play American Samoa, they are not worth a single fan. Respect for the opponents is essential, no matter how amateuristic. They feel so much better, while because of this attitude they are in fact much worse than any of their Pacific counterparts.

[Snoop Drog]

Gerrit, we've been though this before on a previous thread and your view differs from that of the Asian and the Oceanic federations, from Football Fed Aus and from FIFA (although disagreeing with FIFA isn't always a bad thing...). I differs form my view too and that of the vest majority of football fans down under.

In order for football to develop in Aus they had to leave Oceania. No disrespect to the 70,000 inhabitanats to the atholl known as American Samoa, but neither Australia nor its opponent benefit if Aus beat them by a cricket score.

Ironically this will open up more opportunity for the region as Australia will no longer dominate all intra federation competition.

[Gerrit]

We'll let's hope Oceania benefits from it. Still doesn't justify that some Aussie fans call the federation a joke and feel themselves so much better than Samoa and Tonga. That attitude actually makes them so much lower. I don't mind Australia wanting to play in Asia, it's their choice, but looking down on the OFC and acting like the pacific nations should not even play because they're not professional ; don't ask me to ever justify such a behaviour.

If you don't believe me that some Australians are like that: just check the bigsoccer.com forum (actually all the Aussies there dislike me because I dare to out my disgust to their attitude)

[Snoop Drog]

Yeah, whatever...

[superfrank]

I could be going to the World Cup to see the Aussies as my ma's boyfriend is an Oz and he's suddenly developed an interest in "soccer" since they qualified.