Ghana 1 Australia 1: match report

One of of football’s enduring one-man soap operas offered another dramatic episode in Rustenburg when Harry Kewell’s brief World Cup odyssey ended with a desperately unfortunate red card and plenty of red mist.
A nation which has never truly taken its most talented soccer son to its bosom had to rub along without Kewell once again before just about salvaging their World Cup hopes with 10 men, while also regaining the pride they had squandered with their quite un-Australian capitulation to Germany.

For Ghana , in the 100th World Cup finals game played by an African nation, there was nothing but frustration that they could not take advantage of Kewell’s 25th-minute sending-off for handball on the line nor of the subsequent penalty they converted through Asamoah Gyan to home in on a place in the last 16.
Instead, perhaps paying the penalty for being a little too conservative, they will be left with a daunting last-match task against Germany at Soccer City on Wednesday, while Australia play Serbia in Nelspruit, with all four teams still in the qualification hunt.
So should England qualify – and, of course, you wouldn’t wager a farthing on that – it is still impossible to gauge which one of those Group D teams are likely to be their opponent in the last 16.
In all likelihood, the Socceroos will not make it with only one point but the fact they are still in the hunt is astonishing after the drama which enveloped the most enigmatic and talented player they have ever produced.
“It’s a shocker; we’re all devastated,” Kewell said afterwards. “It was a harsh refereeing decision. Was it a penalty? Maybe. Was it deliberate and did it deserve a red card? Of course not.”
Australia had been leading 1-0, through an 11th-minute Brett Holman goal, which had been gifted to him on the rebound after yet another error from a goalkeeper who found the Jabulani ball as slippery as a bar of soap. Marco Bresciano’s free-kick bounced up into Richard Kingson’s arms and out again.
But after 23 minutes, calamity struck for the Australians, when Jonathan Mensah smashed the ball from eight yards into Kewell’s upper arm and chest as he stood on the line. There was really no time for him to react but the experienced Italian referee, Roberto Rosetti, felt he had no alternative but to both award the penalty and give the former Liverpool star a straight red.
For Kewell, it was too much. He has battled for months to get fit for one last World Cup assault only for this desperate conclusion and he was still complaining vigorously for several minutes, while the Ghanaians celebrated Gyan’s perfectly executed penalty conversion with a perfectly executed dance routine.
Pim Verbeek, Australia’s coach, thought the referee had made a mistake, too because Kewell’s handball had not been deliberate. “He will be devastated,” said the Dutchman, who had answered a nation’s call to reintroduce the Galatasaray striker into the fray even though he was desperately rusty after a season in Turkey largely spent fighting injury.
In the build-up to the game, Kewell had lambasted the Australian press about their panning of the team after the Germany defeat, during which Verbek had been labelled “Pimbecile”. After Kewell’s exit, though, the Aussies certainly regained the respect of a nation as they fought tooth and nail to keep the Black Stars at bay, with the brilliant Gyan coming close on several occasions to finishing the job.
“Yeah, we all know the Australian spirit. The players told me about it – they said 'we’ll show everybody’ and they did,” Verbeek reckoned. “Great spirit was shown.” So great that there were moments, against all the odds in the Royal Bafokeng Stadium which had been turned green and gold for the afternoon, when they almost came close to snatching victory with chances squandered by Scott Chipperfield, Luke Wilkshire and Joshua Kennedy.
After surviving one final Ghanaian assault, they are still alive, just, which is astonishing considering how unlucky they have been to play 100 minutes over two games with just 10 men, following Tim Cahill’s harsh sending off against Germany. “We’ll have to go for it against Serbia,” Verbeek said. “All’s not lost yet.”