A heavy opening defeat has echoes of 12 years ago but belief remains in the Australian camp ahead of a crunch game against Tunisia
at the hands of France in Qatar on Wednesday stirs up a sentiment similarly portentous to that of 12 years ago, when Australia started their campaign with a 4-0 drubbing by Germany in Durban.
The team, under the tutelage of the late Pim Verbeek, recovered via a 1-1 draw with Ghana – despite Harry Kewell’s early red card – and went on to beat Serbia 2-1. But the damage had been done in the first match. Too many goals had been shipped, and they finished third in their group on goal difference.
The Socceroos of today find themselves in a comparable position, and now face the daunting task of climbing back up the hill France tossed them down to stop history repeating itself.“Of course now the stakes are higher for the second game,” midfielder Jackson Irvine said the day after the opener. “But at the end of the day you know you’re going to have to get two positive results to progress, and we’ve still got full belief that that’s achievable.
Graham Arnold’s side are in a marginally more promising position than the class of 2010, with one goal in their favour courtesy of that Craig Goodwin scorcher that had the country believing –What it means is they must beat Tunisia in their second match on Saturday and also pray that France score another hatful against Denmark, who were held to a 0-0 draw by the less-fancied Tunisia in their opening fixture. That would putQatar: beyond the footballThis is a World Cup like no other.
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