Australia's Brett Holman after scoring a goal against Serbia.
Well, they’ve been called everything from the “Suckeroos” to the “Shockeroos”. They’ve been lambasted and roiled over in the Australian press – Harry Kewell went head to head with a veteran newspaper reporter because he’d said the lean, mean Kewell machine was now a myth. They’ve had a pathetic run against Germany (do we really want to relive all four of those goals?) and a so-so appearance against Ghana, but my Aussies finally got back up and showed just what they were capable of in this last gasp against Serbia.
The Serbs seemed to give out after the first half. They were lively enough in the first 45 minutes, which ended without a goal for either side. But in the second half they seemed to play in slow motion. One commentator even went so far as to describe the team as “sleepwalking.”
Australian midfielder Tim Cahill set hearts racing in the 69th minute when he finished a drive from Luke Wilshire, and a goal four minutes later from Brett Holman almost had us all believing we could actually get that last crucial score and make it through to the next round. But Serbia’s Marko Pantelic’s goal in the 84th minute seemed to recharge the Serbs, who spent the rest of the waning seconds of the match throwing everything they could at us — they were offside seven times.
I got a high-pitched phone call from a sister traveling in England, and a giddy one from a sister visiting here in DC. Those at home in Sydney were shrieking nervous wrecks.
For a blissful moment the Australian team had all of us around the world believing that the improbable (did you see that sea of yellow at Mbombela Stadium?) the impossible even, could happen.
And for that we’re very proud.
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