By Sid Astbury Jun 23, 2006, 4:49 GMT
Sydney - Football showed its magical power to heal conflicted souls when Australia scrambled a draw with Croatia to get into the second round of the World Cup in Germany.
Stephen Kenesovic, born in Sydney to a Serbian father and a Croatian mother, said patriotism welled in him when Darijo Srna found the Australian goal in only the third minute of the match in Stuttgart.
'If you watch the countries play, they play like their nation's psyche,' Kenesovic said. 'The Croats thought a goal ahead was enough - they underestimated the Aussie spirit.'
Kenesovic said that first goal reaffirmed loyalty to the country of his birth. And Harry Kewell's equalizer in the 79th minute to see the sides finish 2-2 left him in a paroxysm of delight.
'I haven't shaved,' he said. 'I'm shaking so much I'd cut myself with the razor.'
In Australia, which has world champion teams in rugby, cricket and netball, football has long been derided as 'wogball' - a game for the weedy riff-raff that emigrated from the cheaper end of Europe after World War II.
In the team that took on Croatia there were six Australians of Croatian descent and three with an Italian pedigree.
But unaccustomed success in the World Cup - it's the country's first appearance since 1974, the first time it's scored a goal or won a match - has fired up those who believe is with the world game.
More Australians play football than rugby and cricket combined and its best-paid sportsmen are football players signed to European clubs.
Ron Walker, a board member of the Australian Football Federation and the man who ran the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne earlier this year, is over the moon about the Socceroos' success and the impact it will have on the money side of the game.
'Australians are going to be very proud that we've advanced this far,' he said. 'It was very hard to get sponsors. But it's paid off for all those sponsors who grudgingly came on board just to support football.'
The celebrations around the continent when Australia won through to the last 16 provided proof of a breakthrough for the round-ball game.
Football is a great leveler in Australia. People of all sizes can play. It's the top game in Asia. It draws crowds that reflect the fact that a quarter of the population was born elsewhere. And it's power to instill a sense of belonging has never been more evident.
In Darwin, in the far north, Australians of Italian descent watched the early-morning game at the Italian Club, where club president Eugene Scaturchio recounted his feelings when the final whistle blew. 'I'm a'shaking all over, my stomach's got knots in it, I couldn't be able to eat all night,' he told national broadcaster ABC.
At the Croatian Club in the Melbourne suburb of Moonee Ponds, 43-year-old Julie Milicevic didn't know whether cheer or tear was most in keeping.
'We're happy and we're sad,' she said. 'Our emotions are counter-balanced. When you feel both, it's very hard. We cheered for both, so now there's no one to cheer for.'
For lots of football fans, Australia's last appearance in the World Cup was from their parents' memory bank rather than their own.
Donnie Cabalo, aboard a Fiat painted in the red, white and blue of Italy, is 23 and unsure who he'll cheer for when Australia meets Italy in Kaiserslautern next week.
'I'm a bit patriotic now,' he told the ABC when rejoicing with other football fanatics on Norton Street in Sydney's Little Italy neighbourhood. 'I'll go for both teams. It's the only way to go. For me, it's Australia's first time in the World Cup.'
Prime Minister John Howard, avowed rugby and cricket supporter, has watched all three Socceroos games and was gushing like the most avid football fan.
'To score that goal within two-and-a-half minutes, and then that almost-dribble in the second-half that put them ahead in the 58th minute,' Howard blubbered. 'It was a fantastic fight back and Harry (Kewell), well, he is King Harry for all of us now.'
Howard, leader for 10 years and an astute reader of the public mood, has seen the graffiti on the wall. Football is the new rugby. The beautiful game has come of age in Australia and it pays politicians to embrace the top winter game.
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