Socceroo shockeroo! Australia moves on to round of 16 By TERRY JONES -- Edmonton Sun Fri, June 23, 2006

STUTTGART, Germany -- It was a Socceroo shockeroo.

And somewhere in Australia's 2-2 draw with Croatia at the World Cup here yesterday to get through to the round of 16, there was both inspiration and damnation for Canada.

There are hundreds of thousands of people going crazy for soccer in Australia as a result of what happened here last night as their Socceroos made a match the world will definitely watch now -- against super power Italy. Canada, meanwhile sits 84th in the FIFA rankings and just watched a homegrown coach walk away from the program.

Think of Australia this way.

They used to be Canada.

In fact, they were Canada until they showed up here and beat Japan 3-1 in the opener.

Like Canada, Australia had been to a World Cup once before. Right here. In Germany. Thirty-two years ago in 1974.

And, like Canada, they never won a game and never scored a goal.

They had to score two larger than life ones here last night.

AMAZING MATCH

It was a dramatic dust-up, a good ol' fashioned guts and glory game featuring a penalty kick goal, a free kick goal, a ghastly goaltender goof goal, a keeper turtled on top of a ball on the goal line and a defender booting another off the line, not to mention eight yellow and three red cards and a whole bunch of other stuff.

It was one terrific tilt. And so much for the theory that this World Cup wasn't going to really begin until the round of 16. The World Cup was on this day and with this game.

Not only did Australia get through, so did Ghana, leaving the USA and Czech Republic to share the sidelines with Croatia.

But the Aussies were forced to come back twice.

Down 1-0 two minutes into the game on a brilliant Darijo Srna free kick. Craig Moore managed that on a penalty kick in the 38th minute.

Down again when Miko Kovak's one-hopper was fumbled and bumbled into the twine behind him by keeper Zeljko Zalak, the team from Down Under had to come from down under again to gain the draw in a game in which at times they damn near dominated.

It was Harry Kewell tied the game in the 78th minute to become the Man of the Match.

"We did it! It just goes to show our fighting spirit," he said.

"We won't be afraid," he said of the Italians Monday in Kaiserslautern.

The Aussies were going against a group which wrote this same sort of story two World Cups ago. The Croatians made this same kind of impact, wowing the world by finishing third in their first World Cup appearance in France '98 wearing their distinctive red checkerboard shirts.

They were the flavour of the tournament in France. But by making it to Germany 2006 they became only the third country to qualify on their first three attempts, the others being Sweden and Switzerland. They proved they were the real deal.

Australia is enjoying this great moment in their sports history because they decided to get serious and went out and got Guus.

You remember Guus Hiddink?

He's the guy who takes small teams and turns them into big teams.

"There's no secret to making little teams match up well with big, big teams. If you have some special players you just organize them to know what to do," said Hiddink.

Guus is the Dutch coach who took the Netherlands to the semifinals in France'98 then led Korea to a shocking fourth-place finish four years ago and plans to take over Russia when this is over.

"I found a team which underestimated their own power," he said of the Aussies.

"They were very frustrated they hadn't made it in previous tries to get to the World Cup. They were willing to work hard and train hard and proved to be very coachable.

"This was a terrific game and represented what football is all about.

"It was beautiful, yet a difficult game to analyze. It was very hectic. It was a game which showed this team has heart and an enormous mental capacity to come back.

"The big thing when it comes to this team is that it has an enormous heart. Whatever happens, they never give up. They have hearts of lions."

ENVY OF CANADA

And they have today, what Canada can only envy.

"I know Australia is going crazy for the results and the way the players performed. The country is crazy for football all of a sudden," said Hiddink.

If the Russian deal goes south, what would it take to take on the Great White North, Guus?