mindless ramblings

Italy vs Australia
It was heartbreak for the Aussies as they went out to a 95th (!) penalty after Lucas Neill supposedly fouled Fabio Grosso. To me it looked more like Gross was looking for the penalty but whatever the reason, the referee pointed to the spot and Francesco Totti made no mistake from the spot to send the Aussies home. Other from the penalty, the Aussies looked pretty good throughout the whole game. They controlled the second half after Marco Materazzi was sent off but could not find a goal thanks to some resolute Italian defending. With the loss, Guus Hiddink resigns from the Australian national team and goes to Russia, who didn’t qualify this time. I wonder if the Aussies can keep this up for 2010 despite not having Hiddink (who reached the semis with South Korea 4 years ago). Still a good showing for a team that hasn’t been to the finals in over 30 years though… they can have no complaints.

Switzerland vs Ukraine
Ironic that the Swiss go home, especially since they did not concede a single goal in 390 minutes of open play. Both teams never looked like scoring and it came down to the first penalty shootout of the finals. Andriy Shevchenko missed his opener for the Ukrainians, but the Swiss managed to miss all 3 of their tries, while Ukraine converted theirs. The Swiss now leave as the first team to go home from the finals despite not conceding a goal. Ukraine will be pleased to have made it to the Quarter Finals at their first appearance at the World Cup finals.