Chris the Human

It proves that he's an opportunist in a team full of drama queens and prima donnas.

God, Kewell's absence hurt us today. The opportunities we did create were snuffed out well by a very experienced Italian defensive line - but a player like Kewell would have better capitalised than the likes of Bresciano (although he was one of our best players) and Sterjovski. It was obvious that Hiddink expected it to go into extra time. We'd only used one substitution by the end of play, although only Thompson on the bench could really have offered a tremendous amount offensively.

Credit to Italy, we had all been commenting on how they hadn't been diving all game and such. And Australia don't dive - it's a weakness, perhaps, but I'm proud as hell that we've yet to adopt that cowardly tactic.

I guess it's a crazy idea to pick Ghana as my de facto team, given they're likely to go out in the first round as well. Maybe Portugal?

God, I'm bawling my eyes out, heh. I know I should be ecstatic that we made it this far, and I do respect that - but we deserved better than that. We played so brilliantly tonight and we were (and I hate to say it) robbed of our chance to claim a place in the final eight. It's doubly unfair to Lucas Neill and Mark Schwarzer, arguably our best players all tournament, that they are the ones who were at the centre of it. I don't hate the Italians for winning, nor do I hate the referee for missing a blatant dive. I'm just heart-broken. We had a chance to really shake this World Cup up, and we fell short at the last second. I have no doubt we had more to offer the tournament, and I know that a lot of people have stood up and taken notice of just how good the Socceroos can play. I guess now it's time to go back and start preparing for 2010, but fuck, it hurts like hell to make it this far and go out. As this is the first time Australia have been in the World Cup in my lifetime - it's always been a non-existent pain for me. I've seen friends cry or swear because their team went out and never cared. Now I know what it feels like and it fucking stings. Now I guess I'll take nominations for my de facto team for the remainder of the tournament, heh.

We keep getting ads for the Sante Fe car and Nike's Australian Joga Bonito ads

Just over an hour until Australia's footballing 'date with destiny' and I'm a nervous wreck, heh. I'm over the moon we made it this far, but now I'm just hungry for more. If Kewell is out (and rumours say he is) we'll really struggle to exert as much pressure as we needed to to beat Uruguay and Greece (two solid defensive sides). If he is fit, however, I think we're a chance as long as we keep attacking and don't try to protect an early lead. I honestly don't think Italy are infallible. And if we do go down, I hope we go down fighting. I think, from now on, we'll be a fairly regular fixture in the World Cup. The Asian qualification route will benefit our cohesiveness and competitiveness greatly.

Jesus, could this game be much more boring?

Thank God they lost. I didn't want to listen to Zaz ranting about how the Eagles are above the Knights

Since we went through anyway, I'm not as outraged as I would have been had they won or, somehow, he'd scored a match-winner.

Jesus, that last ten minutes total spoiled the feeling for me, y'know? I didn't even realise we were through until they started shaking hands. That kind of finish just sucked all of the elation out of the game. Still, feels fucking good to know that we've proved a lot of the nay-sayers wrong. People were saying we wouldn't make the round of sixteen, but make it we did. Really, today was the worst we've played all World Cup, but we did enough to get through. Lovin' it!

Well, we're through, but what an ugly game! Seriously, it devolved so far at the end there. Simunivic should have gone off with five to go, and even managed to get a third yellow card for the match. But who cares? We're through! Bring on Italy!

So you're all getting Brazil vs. Japan live? I'd kill SBS if they made us wait an additional two hours for Australia vs. Croatia. 1 all at halftime here. Australia have played better football (and I try to remain unbiased) but are behind after the very early concession from Kalac. I still think Schwarzer is leagues ahead of the AC Milan b-keeper.

About fucking time. When the ref ignored the penalty on Viduka, I feared the worst. Moore sinks it. Kalac is a waste of space. Schwarzer all the way.

Commiserations to the US fans, but I'm stoked for Ghana to be in the round of sixteen. Now it's time for Australia's moment of truth, come on boys!

Bleh, that scoreline is not really a fair representation of our performance - I'd say the best I've seen Australia play in a long, long time. The pressure to score an equaliser ultimately cost us that second goal - but a loss of any size means the same thing - a win or draw against Croatia next week will see us through (short of a Japanese victory over Brazil). So many missed opportunities, it seemed like nothing we tried wanted to work. So many near misses. I'm heart-broken