Watched Australia beat Uruguay last night at the Beach Road, to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1974. Being 1-0 down from the first leg, they had to win last night to have any chance, and if Urugauy scored they’d be in real trouble. The game took about 10 minutes to settle down and Australia were on the back foot initially. Uruguay had one or two shots which came close enough but weren’t on target. Kewell was brought on after 30mins and he changed the game as the Uruguayans couldn’t cope with him down the wing. He fluffed a shot on goal, but it fell to Bresciano who knocked it in.

The second half was pretty tense, but the Aussies maintained the upper hand and spent most of the time trying to break down the Uruguayan defence to no avail. It stayed 1-0 at full time, and the same after extra time so it was all down to the penalty shootout. Kewell fired home the first, followed by a save from Schwarzer and the Aussies had the upper hand. The advantage was squandered by Mark Viduka of all people when he dragged his penalty wide, but Schwarzer came to the rescue again with a second excellent save and it was all over.

Now that Ireland didn’t make it, and since I’ll have my residency by the time the World Cup comes around, I’ll have a team to support after all ;-)