"I told you so"

To quote the religious-ized Johnny Warren phrase, in my case referring to my last post below, I told you so. I celebrated when my predicted scoreline did, in fact, come about: 3-1 Australia. The way in which we got to that scoreline completely surprised me. Goals in the 84th, 89th and 92nd minute to Australia sealed the win after we looked for the majority of the match down the barrel of a 1-0 defeat or, at best (it seemed) a 1-1 draw.

Beanpole Josh Kennedy was utilised, as I thought, against the generally shorter Japanese. I believe he was only in the squad for last night's game alone and I doubt we will see more of him this tournament, except perhaps a late substitution against Croatia.

The win was marvellous not only to further cement the rise of football in Australia, but also to give us a very realistic chance of reaching the next stage. Japan are now, in my view, out of the tournament. It is down to Brazil, Croatia and Australia to fight for the last two slots. I hope Brazil thrash Croatia tonight as they then ought to go into our game complacent, and that will also dent Croatia's goal difference if it comes down to that. I think nonetheless that Aloisi's goal will be the key to advancing to the second round. I see us getting through on equal points with Croatia but one goal better off.

Before moving on to Brazil, I want to whine about Wilkshire. Why? Hiddink is a master and perhaps he saw something in Wilkshire that I don't. However, I think of him as a defensive midfielder or defender, not as the forward-pressing player the Dutch coach tried to make him last night. That was Cahill's spot or maybe even Sterjovski's, not Wilkshire's. We can now say, I guess, that the move didnt kill us, and Wilkshire will be a much better player for the experience. Nonetheless, I was sitting there in the first half calling for his substitution.