Courageous Socceroos no longer an embarrassment

A week after lambasting the Socceroos and coach Pim Verbeek for their opening 4-0 loss to Germany the Australian media changed tack Sunday, heaping praise on the team following their 1-1 draw with Ghana.

“They may have lost Harry (Kewell) but the Socceroos finished the Ghana game with a crucial point and the nation’s respect,” wrote the Melbourne Herald Sun.

Mike Cockerill, the Sydney Morning Herald journalist who had a very public slanging match with Kewell in the lead up to the game, said the Socceroos had earned redemption for the performance against the Germans.

“Whether they (qualify for the next stage) or not, they have at least redeemed themselves after their inept capitulation against the Germans,” he wrote.

“There was passion, genuine passion. There was leadership, real leadership, from Lucas Neill and Mark Schwarzer.

“There was encouragement for the future in the contributions of Carl Valeri and Brett Holman.

“Even Pim Verbeek got in on the act, throwing caution to the wind by going two up front for the last half an hour. It was exciting, exhilarating and, yes, entertaining.”

Most of the Australian media’s scorn Sunday was directed at Italian referee Roberto Rosetti, who sent Kewell off after ruling he deliberately thrust out an arm to stop a goal-bound shot from Jonathan Mensah.

Opinions were divided over whether it was red card offence or not, although most thought the act was not deliberate and should have been a yellow, rather than red card.

However, much of the anger aimed at Rosetti was for not sending off Lee Addy for a sliding tackle from behind on Australian midfielder Mark Bresciano, a tackle that looked far worse than the one that saw Tim Cahill red carded in the Germany game.

Writing on the popular theroar.com.au website, Mike Tuckerman said Australia, rightly or wrongly, had a reputation for rough play and referees went into matches with preconceived ideas.

“I?m generally the last person to point the finger at refereeing as a deciding factor in a match but perhaps I?ve reached my threshold regarding the sheer number of decisions that go against the Socceroos,” Tuckerman wrote.