tarih: 26 haziran 2006 pazartesi, kaiserslautern / fritz walter stadyumu hakemler: luis medina cantalejo (ispanya), victoriano giraldez carrasco (ispanya), pedro medina hernandez (ispanya)
italya: gianluigi buffon, gianluca zambrotta, marco materazzi, fabio cannavaro (kaptan), fabio grosso, simone perrotta, andrea pirlo, gennaro gattuso, alessandro del piero (francesco totti 75), luca toni (andrea barzagli 56), alberto gilardino (vincenzo iaquinta 46). teknik direktör: marcello lippi (italya)
avustralya: mark schwarzer, marco bresciano, lucas neill, craig moore, scott chipperfield, vince grella, jason culina, tim cahill, mile sterjovski (john aloisi 81), luke wilkshire, mark viduka (kaptan). teknik direktör: guus hiddink (hollanda)
australia: mark schwarzer (gk), lucas neill, craig moore, tim cahill, jason culina, mark viduka (c), vince grella, scott chipperfield, luke wilkshire, mile sterjovski (dk. 81 john aloisi), marco bresciano
yedekler: ante covic (gk), zeljko kalac (gk), tony popovic, brett emerton, josip skoko, harry kewell, stan lazaridis, michael beauchamp, archie thompson, joshua kennedy, mark milligan
teknik direktör: guus hiddink (ned)
gol: 1-0 francesco totti (ita) 90'+5 penalty goal
sarı kartlar: vince grella (aus) 23', fabio grosso (ita) 29', tim cahill (aus) 49', luke wilkshire (aus) 61', gennaro gattuso (ita) 89', gianluca zambrotta (ita) 90'+1
still feeling terrible today after what could at best be described as a "debateable" penalty sent us out but i guess there are some good points.
it was australia's first world cup for 32 years and i think the rest of the world was surprised at how we played and our never say die attitude. we only just lost to brazil and came back well against japan and croatia.
getting guus hiddink as coach was a masterstroke but now he is off to russia. time to sign up another big name, but please, not sven.
i also guess we have seen the last of mark viduka who given his age must surely retire from international football.
no ticker-tape parade for the socceroos but still i reckon they did us proud. i've been watching world cups for quite a long time now but for me this was truely the most exciting.
now that australia are in the asian confederation we should be seeing more of the socceroos at world cups in the future. there is also talk of australia bidding to host the world cup. given how we ran the olympics i reckon we would have a good chance.
now... onto the start of the turkish super league.
