The blunders continue

Another day, another refereeing howler. Italy, down to ten men and under seige from Australia, got one of the softest penalty calls you are ever likely to see, right at the end of the game. Fabio Grosso made no attempt whatsoever to get past Lucas Neill, once the opportunity to go down presented itself. The referee seemed to be placed well enough to make the right call, but instead he pointed at the spot and Francesco Totti scored with the final kick of the game. Four years ago the Italians complained of poor refereeing, but you're not likely to hear a peep out of them now. A fantastic World Cup is now in danger of being ruined by controversial incidents such as this.

Australia will feel hard done by, and so they should. They played their hearts out for ninety minutes and were the more enterprising of the two teams in the second half. There should be no regrets for them after this World Cup. They have exceeded expectations and given a bit of luck could have gone much further. Now all they can do is go home and plan for the next qualifying campaign, which sees them take on Asia's best. If anything, the change of confederation has improved their chances of qualifying for South Africa 2010, as I cannot see too many Asian teams stopping them from taking an automatic qualifying spot. Guus Hiddink moves on to coach Russia, and it remains to be seen who Soccer Australia will choose to succeed him. Whoever it is, he will have a tough job emulating the Dutchman.