Some days are harder than others.
Australia started brightly, without actually being too threatening and then on Peru's first real chance they score and put Australia behind the eight ball. It's a story that isn't exactly uncommon but there's only so much heart you can take from a good performance and still end up on the losing side. It's as if the trophy for meritorious performance already has Australia's name on it. There's no such award of course. If there were, and Australia won, it would be just another slap in the face.
It was a very good goal, the Peruvians can be justifiably happy. The Australians at least got on with now having to score at least twice. At halftime being 1-0 down was not great... that France and Denmark were at 0-0 in the other match came as no huge surprise but you have to concentrate on the task that you can control and not worry about the one you cannot.
When early in the second half Peru scored their second goal it was pretty much all over. I mean you cling onto the hope that some sort of miracle will descend on the pitch at Sochi and somehow deliver the win Australia so desperately require but that the same kind of hope you harbour when you hand over your money for a lottery ticket.
Meanwhile France and Denmark were passing the ball about waiting for the clock to run out.
The introduction of Tim Cahill was about one match too late but his legend has obviously been heard by the Peruvians and his introduction had an effect. Still it wasn't enough and while the overwhelming majority of the crowd were cheering the win that their team was putting together ultimately both sides are on the plane home after this. Again though.. .a win is a win. Even a hollow one. If only Australia could enjoy the hollowness of a victory at the finals. It has been a while.
As the game progressed the Peruvians got more niggly in their tactics, Australia more desperate but still shots on target were at a premium for both sides and as Australia pressed for at least a goal they were repeatedly exposed on the counter-attack.
There was a lot of discussion about luck, obviously having it helps. There was an element of it in both Peru goals and you could argue in all goals. It's rare for Australia to get that kind of luck and they really need to find a way to get it. You can always say that the handball penalties that have been Australia's only source of goals at this event were lucky but on so many occasions the last pass, the unexpected turn, the first time shot all didn't come. Perhaps Graham Arnold, who will take over as coach at the end of this game, has a way to get those things but first he has to get Australia qualified for the Qatari World Cup.
As completely expected the France v Denmark game was a complete non-event and played out a 0-0 draw which drives home the point that probably we failed to qualify not so much for the loss to Peru but for the draw against Denmark that took away our chance to remain masters of our destiny.
Craig Foster philosophising after we go out of the world cup is full of worthy discussion points. Again.
France 7 points
Denmark 5 points
Peru 3 points
Australia 1 point
Sigh!
Argentina needed to beat Nigeria to advance (or at least hope to) to the knockout rounds and the one man team got off to the kind of start they needed thanks to that one man. Lionel Messi scoring a very clean goal to assuage the frayed nerves of the Argentine team.
He ight have cored another but for a flying save to turn his free kick to cannon off the post. Nigeria for their part did come back but had to wait for a Javier Mascerano hug to be rewarded with a penalty that was scored with a kind of swaggering indifference that makes me wonder if Victor Moses knew that he had just put his team into position to knock out Argentina and take a place in the round of 16.
And this is where competitive spirit, belief, confidence, history... whatever you call it, here is where great teams set themselves apart from good teams. Nigeria are a brilliantly talented side and there's no reason they couldn't have completed the task but for the weight of that task bearing on them. Just like North Korea started realising what was going on when they led Portugal 3-0 after 20 minutes in 1966 and then imploded and many more examples thereafter here too Nigeria allowed Argentina to beat them because that was what the world order expects.
Certainly that's clearly on FIFA's minds because when there was a handball (admittedly unintentional) by Argentina on a movement that should have seen Nigeria score anyway the penalty was declined. There was an inconsistency in that call that rankles more than the "correctness" of the decision. Had the game ended in a draw you might say it didn't make much of a difference.
It didn't end in a draw though.
With less than 5 minutes to go in the game Machado crossed the ball into the box and Rojo was on hand to tuck the ball away into the net and break Nigeria's hearts.
In the other match that might have mattered if Iceland could beat Croatia. That looked slightly more promising than it initially sounds because Iceland came up against the Croatia B team having decided that Modric and Perisic were the only players required from the side that had contested the "live" (for Croatia) group matches. Iceland had the better of what few chances there were in the game until halftime after which the Icelandic resistance melted away to give Badelj the lead for Croatia.
Croatia, who clearly like a fairytale, conceded another handball penalty to give Iceland hope of getting a win and maybe making things a bit uncomfortable for Argentina after all. But the kind of fairytale they seem to enjoy is a cruel one that ends with the heroine dying in vain. Right on full time they picked the pocket of some tiring player in the Icelandic half and pushed the ball forward for Perisic to calmly slot home for a 2-1 win, end the hopes of Iceland and secure a spot in the Quarter Finals against Denmark, relegating Argentina to a spot against France.
On form I would expect France and Croatia to progress, but you can't expect much when it gets to the knockout stages.
Croatia 9 points
Argentina 4 points
Nigeria 3 points
Iceland 1 point
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