The sleep-deprived green and gold army that cheered Australia on through the early hours in their homeland on Monday were disappointed but not dejected at the Socceroos’ battling 2-0 loss to Brazil.
While a fairytale win over the world champions did not materialise, Australians consoled themselves with their unfancied team’s gritty display and remained confident of qualifying for the round of 16 for the first time ever.
More than 12 000 people braved a bitterly cold night in Melbourne’s Federation Square to watch a big-screen telecast of the match, which kicked off at 2am local time on Monday.
The boisterous crowd gave the Australians an ovation at the final whistle, expressing pride that football’s minnows had stretched the five-time world champions in a hotly-contested tie.
”We definitely rattled them, they knew they’d been in a game,” said Socceroos fan Fabian Camerino. ”It was great to see us in the World Cup against Brazil — the world champions — and we weren’t intimidated.”
The match was hugely anticipated in Australia, which has been in the grip of football fever since the Socceroos opened their first World Cup campaign in 32 years with a come-from-behind 3-1 win over Japan.
Authorities in Sydney gave pubs and clubs special dispensation to stay open for the match and thousands of fans thronged to big screens at venues across the city, including Circular Quay, alongside the Sydney Opera House.
The World Cup’s Australian broadcaster, SBS television, was hopeful viewer figures would exceed the 3,35-million recorded for Australia’s win in the opening match.
In Melbourne’s Federation Square, crowd numbers exceeded those seen at New Year celebrations, as fans scrambled onto chairs, tables and even the window sills of nearby office buildings to gain a big screen vantage point.
They crammed into the square hoping for a giant-killing victory, many draped in Australian flags or yellow Socceroos’ jerseys, pounding drums and chanting ”ole, ole, ole”.
With mounted police on standby in case of trouble, they lit flares when the match kicked off, roaring ”Socceroos” and cheering Australia’s every touch in the early stages of the contest.
Even going behind to Brazil courtesy of an Adriano goal on the 49th minute did not silence a crowd ever hopeful the comeback heroics of the Japan match could be repeated.
Fan Troy Brown said the final scoreline flattered Brazil.
”That was cruel,” he said with a wince as substitute Fred’s tap-in crossed the line to make it 2-0 on fulltime.
The game ended too late for newspaper deadlines but news websites praised Australia’s display. ”Socceroos go down fighting” said The Australian, while Sydney’s Daily Telegraph declared ”Socceroos down but not out”.
The Sydney Morning Herald said: ”Losing to Brazil is no great shame. Certainly, there was no shame in this Australian performance.
”Some might argue the Socceroos were even the moral victors. Brave, adventurous and attacking. Qualities normally associated with Brazil.”
Despite the loss, bookmaker Centrebet backed the Socceroos to stay in the tournament, making them favourites to become the second team after Brazil to advance from Group F ahead of Croatia and Japan.
Australia will go through if it secures a draw against Croatia later this week and Japan does not beat Brazil by more than two goals.
The showdown between a Socceroos team ranked 42 in the world and mighty Brazil caught the imagination of an Australian public more accustomed to cricket than football, generating saturation newspaper and television coverage.
Ahead of the game, a major sportswear company ran an advertising campaign featuring archive footage of Brazilian star Ronaldo’s footballing wizardry along with the slogan ”history’s against us… stuff history”.
Melbourne’s Age newspaper published a list on its front page of 10 reasons why Brazil should lose, citing everything from its decision to shelter train robber Ronnie Biggs to the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
It also concluded that after Brazil’s five world cup triumphs ”it’s time they shared the glory around”.
However, that was an argument that Adriano and Fred in Munich were having none of as their goals broke Australian hearts. – AFP
