I watched the game last night. It was almost as emotionally taxing as waiting for my BMW to arrive
It was a real epic game that went down to penalties. The whole of Australia is still celebrating.
Australia has deserved qualification for at least the last 2 if not 3 world cups - we have been very unlucky. In addition to that, our qualifiying group only has 1/2 a place, which means we first have to win our group (Oceania which is piss easy), and then play a sudden-death two-legged playoff against the bottom team of another confederation, usually South America. This is very unfair because "full" confederations have a series of at least 18 games to earn points to qualify. For us it comes down to one tie, against a really tough opposition - the worst bit is because we are not in a full group, we don't get enough "real-game" experience. That will change from 2009 onwards - we have been accepted into the Asian confederation.
Guus Hiddink was definitely the difference though - he brought it all together. The tactics, the substitutions at the right times, and the set pieces. The complete package, nothing short of football genius :rocks: