Waking from the nightmare

OK, let's look for what positives there are. The main one I can think of is that both Ghana and Serbia will now under-rate us, and rightly so - hopefully to the point of contempt. They will have noted the defensive porosity and the tactical naivety; seen that the Socceroos appear never to have seen the one-two, give-and-go pass, with the original giver accelerating into space while the defenders ball-watched; and marked down that no-threat, no-names like Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose can move into scoring positions unwatched and unimpeded. Secondly, that the result against Germany puts the tactical considerations of "needing only a point" from any of the other games to bed: we need to win, we have to go for broke, which at least should concentrate the collective mind and bring some urgency and purpose to the table. Thirdly, and following from the previous point, that Australia will at least be able to rejig the line-up with some big names. Fourthly, that unlike some more dedicated (and brownie-point-rich) mates, I didn't fly across the Indian Ocean to see such an embarrassment (Joachim Loew certainly delivered on that threat) unfold in person.

Time out for Timmy

The look on Pim Verbeek's face said it all. Straight away the coach knew that Cahill's failure to heed his warning to watch his tackles would have the consequences it deserved. You simply can't go two-footed, lunging, when the ball is gone, at a World Cup, and stay on the pitch. Maybe it looked worse in real-time than it was; maybe referee Rodriguez was over-zealous; and the offended player Bastian Schweinsteiger did commiserate with Cahill. But it's the same as when Lucas Neill went sliding in to foul Fabio Grosso in that infamous split-second four years ago - don't give the ref the chance to misinterpret! Especially in a challenge as late as Cahill's was. It is the first round of matches in a World Cup and the referees will not want to be seen as erring on the side of leniency. The consequences are every bit as severe as Verbeek warned last month they would be, when cautioning Tim Cahill and Vince Grella for questionable tackles against New Zealand. It was a brain-snap and no amount of hand-wringing from Cahill or history-rewriting from Lucas Neill can ameliorate its effect. Speaking of brain snaps, special mention must go to Thierry Henry's appeal for handball against Uruguay: you're joking, you cheat.

Code Crossing at Craigieburn

Karmichael Hunt must have thought Australian Rules football was easy, with two goals in the first five minutes in his Gold Coast debut at a windswept Craigieburn in Melbourne's north on Saturday. But apart from getting into a position to benefit from some largesse - firstly from teammate Danny Stanley, and secondly from the umpire - the big dual-code star did not have much impact on the VFL contest against the Richmond-affiliated Coburg, although he did show some nice handling skills at some stages. Commentator David Rhys-Jones made a good point at half-time, that Hunt was constantly reacting to the game, because he didn't know enough about it to be proactive. Richmond assistant coach Justin Leppitsch thought him "tentative" for the same reasons. Clearly Hunt has the wrong body shape at the moment for the game - too big in the beam and the upper legs - but you would expect that to be redressed by round one of the step-up to the AFL next year. The aerobic fitness required is also a world away from where Hunt is now: he could not complete Saturday's game, which would have been the most running Hunt had ever done in a game of football. Hunt certainly brought to the game his natural tackling ability: only technical fine-tuning is needed there. The Gold Coast coaching staff has a lot of work to do on Hunt's game knowledge, as well as skills, and it will also be difficult to fit Hunt into the structure they want to take into the AFL, because he is not tall enough to play in a key position. But with all of these caveats, I think he showed enough to indicate that neither Hunt nor the club is mucking around here.

Wallabies' backs take team forward

It was a weird way to win a rugby Test in Perth on Saturday night, with your scrum going backwards and giving up two penalty tries. Horrible memories of Twickenham in 2005 and the 2007 World Cup quarter-final at Marseille resurfaced, but this time around, Australia had the backline weapons to more than redress the superiority of the English forwards; and even more importantly, the defensive steel to hold out phase after phase of English attacks. In attack, halfback Luke Burgess and five-eighth Quade Cooper were brilliant, and the often electric open-play of the Australian side augurs well for the Tri-Nations - if we can get some first-choice forwards back.

Better Lleyton than Never

Lleyton Hewitt must have wondered if he would ever again be in a position to beat Roger Federer, but his decision to pass up Queen's in favour of the German grass-court event in Halle paid big dividends. OK, it wasn't Wimbledon, and it was only three sets, but Federer was going for 30 straight wins at Halle (and 16 straight over Hewitt) and would not have lain down. Hewitt certainly showed guts to win the second-set tie-break, and then got on the kind of roll that is rare against the Swiss legend, and rode it to the end. I would love this to have happened at Wimbledon, but let's face it, it's not going to. Hewitt's problem in the Slams is not that he can't beat the big beasts of the tour, but that too often he needs five sets to overpower lower-ranked power-sluggers earlier in the draw, which means he's bodily compromised when he gets to the Round of 16 or further. Still it was nice to see Hewitt knock off big Rog for once.