Horse 3110 - ARRG! Aus...

Argentina 2 - Australia 1

Messi 35'

Álvarez 57'

Goodwin 76'

For sixteen glorious minutes Australia looked to be confident and ebullient as they not only were able to win balls but keep the ball for extended periods of time. Argentina, looking to play their way into the match, patiently pushed forward until this initial period of Australian competence subsided. At the 16th minute, Gomez finally took the first shot of the match from 45 yards out and it was equally rewarded by being 45 yards high and 45 yards wide of the goal. Nevertheless, then fact that he had simply walked in and stolen the ball from Behich, proved that this Argentina side saw Australia as a bug that needed to be crushed.

Again Australia were able regain control of the ball, but they were contained in their own half; being forced to tiki-taka the ball between the back four. By the time of Riley McGree's 22nd minute strike, Australia had managed to hold the ball for six uninterrupted minutes from the goal-kick and also gained an Australian national football record of 37 consecutive touches. His shot which was Australia's first reply in a match when strikes were rare, was also sprayed into the far reaches of Row K.

Argentina then decided to assert themselves, after finally waking up. Their ball skills are sharper and quicker than anything else that Australia has seen in this tournament, including France, but their tactics are mind-numblingly dim. Argentina's tactics must surely continue to be the most sophisticated in the history of football. Their innovative strategy of "getting the ball to Messi" and "having Messi do stuff once he has the ball" may prove revolutionary, if other nations learn to build their own Messi.

35 minutes in, their strategy of "getting the ball to Messi" and "having Messi do stuff once he has the ball", worked. Lionel Messi, self-proclaimed greatest player in the history of the world from all-past to all-future, wandered around the park like a small boy lost in a forest; then after receiving the ball, he took three touches and banged in a scorcher from 16 yards away; in his 1000th appearance as a professional football player.

Australia was stunned. 

They remained stunned going into half-time and the deficit looked insurmountable. The second half began the way that they first half ended; with Australia remaining scared and small in front of an Argentinian side that continued to play the game at not much more than walking pace.

It got worse.

57 minutes into the match and after Australia was playing the ball around the back four in an effort to play keep away, a pass back to goalkeeper Matty Ryan, led to an absolute horrorshow. Ryan, trying to play the ball short, had it stolen away from him by Julián Álvarez from inside the six yard box and he tapped home the easiest of goals, to try to kill off any remaining hope that Australia had. It was as if 26 million voices cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. We all feared that something terrible had happened.

From here, Australian hearts sank. It wasn't until Craig Goodwin who had come on as a late substitute for Mitchell Duke, took a shot which didn't deserve anything, took a wicked deflection off the back of Enzo Fernández, that any semblance of hope returned.

For 20 minutes, Argentina parked the bus; while Australia attempted to mount challenge after challenge; only to have them all fail. On the one occasion when Australia did break through the blue and white wall, Garang Kuol at the age of just 18 years and 79 days, very nearly wrote his name into immortality in the 90+7th minute of the match; only to have the very stretchy arms of Emiliano Martínez be a very very big barrier. The goal kick which followed was all that would be played and Argentina walk away with a routing victory, after proving that one goal is never enough.

Australia scored one goal in every match that they played, against sides ranked 4, 10, 30, and 3. If you'd asked me before the tournament who'd I thought would win, I'd have said France, Argentina or Brazil but all of them have proven to be leaky. Australia being knocked out at the Round of 16 is as about as good as they should have hoped for. 

This Australian squad tried and failed. They failed in the most glorious way; having fought in every match they played and having scored in every match they played. Better yet, as far as the long game of Australian football goes: fail, fail again, fail better. They have failed better than ever before and in doing so, they have made a nation happy.