I’ve been engrossed in the World Cup over the last two weeks, deciding that, since Ireland didn’t qualify and I’m in the process of applying for residency, I’d support Australia. I went out and bought myself an official jersey and got used to staying up late, or rising early, to watch games live from Germany.

As Australia have progressed through the tournament the general public has been getting more and more involved, which is a good sign in a country in which cricket, rugby union, rugby league and Aussie rules dominate the sporting landscape. We played Japan off the pitch, contained Brazil quite well, and managed a well-deserved draw against Croatia to see us through to the knockout stages.

That game was last night against Italy. Well, 1am this morning here! It was a disaster. Went to bed early, got up at 12:30am and settled in front of the TV. We started well, playing good football and dealing with the Italian threats in an efficient manner. Luca Toni had a couple of snapped shots on goal, but he wasn’t given the time or the space to get organised and Schwarzer was able to save. At half-time it was 0-0 and things were looking good. The ref was playing well, allowing the game to flow and restricting his use of the whistle to when it was really warranted.

A few minutes into the second half, he made his first mistake, sending Materazzi off when he should probably only have received a yellow. Italy immediately switched into defensive mode and looked to a few counter-attacks to seal the game, but nothing came of it. We were constantly pressuring them, but with Kewell injured on the bench, we lacked the necessary incisiveness to slot one home. 3 minutes of injury time were indicated and it looked like we were heading for extra time and probably then to penalties.

Then, it was all over. Grasso brushed off a challenge from Bresciano outside our penalty area, then Lucas Neill tackled him inside the box, playing the ball and not touching Grasso at all. However, he ended up prostrate in front of him, whereupon Grasso prompty tripped over him and the ref blew for a penalty with 20 seconds remaining. Totti fired past Schwarzer and the dream was over. What a shit way to exit the World Cup!

No-one would have minded if Neill had screwed up, but the guy was far and away our best player of the tournament and he was spot on with this challenge too. It should never have been a penalty. With the score level, and only 20 seconds to play, the referee should be absolutely certain that a penalty is warranted, and there’s no way he could have been last night.

Out of the four games played in this tournament, Australia have been the recipient of some shocking refereeing decisions. Japan were awarded their only goal after their defender took out Schwarzer, preventing him from making the save, a fact later acknowledged when the referee apologised for his error. Croatia got away with two deliberate handballs in the penalty area, and one of their players received THREE yellow cards! Even the least controversial game against Brazil saw the fouls stacked 25-9 in their favour although it didn’t appear to be a physical game at all. Then to top it off we get last night!

Sure, it all sounds like sour grapes and there’s certainly an element of disappointment tinging my analysis, but I’ve watched enough games of football in my time to be able to distinguish clear screw-ups from grey areas and there were definitely more of the former than the latter. Still, for a team who were labelled as “easy beats”, we did pretty well, and certainly far better than most, including the average Australian, expected. For that, the team can be proud.