This match started just after the full time whistle of the first leg. Both teams flew out the day after the Melbourne match, on the same flights to Buenos Aires. Since Australia had made the bookings a lot earlier than their opponents it was the Socceroos almost exclusively occupying First and Business Class while the bulk of the Uruguay team was sitting in economy.
Once at Buenos Aires Uruguay had a government chartered flight to Montevideo while the Socceroos had to wait for a connection and once at the airport in Montevideo they had to contend with a small group of overenthusiastic Uruguay supporters who jostled and spat at the Aussies. That incident was probably met with as much disgust in Uruguay as it was in Australia and amid threats of moving to neutral venues and demands for more security I suspect the players were glad to be out of the focus of the media for a while.
Interesting too that Dario Silva, initially thought to be out for months after injuring his shoulder in the final group match against Argentina, was now looking like a certain starter.
8 years ago Frank Farina came to the River Plate Stadium as a player looking to make something of the 1-1 draw in Sydney against Argentina. This time, as coach, he has a 1-0 win behind him and the site of the first ever World Cup final as the venue.
Inside the first minute Brett Emerton skewed an acute shot at goal off the side of his foot. It would have been asking too much for it to go in but it was grossly mistimed. Sicty seconds later Rodriguez volleyed a shot from outside the penalty area which came much closer (sailed over the bar). So inside those first minutes you got a pretty good idea of how the match went. Australia butchered what chances they made and Uruguay eventually made theirs pay.
The referee too needs mention. I, and others I spoke with, seemed unsure of how he would fare basing our assumptions on the fact he comes from the UAE. I needn't have worried. He was firm, fair and though I would like to doubt it on occasion usually correct. An early example was a tackle involving Tais. Tais was shouldered off the ball, fell and clutched the ball wriggled a little and wanted to see a yellow card for his opponent. The referee gave Australia a free kick for handball. There are examples in the other direction but I don't want to talk about those :-).
Dario Silva, despite his injury, was probably the difference. His mere presence seemed to lift the team in the same way a Maradona or a Chilavert might. After about 7 minutes he was fashioning a chance for himself, heard a whistle and stopped. Sadly for him the whistle hadn't come from the referee and Dario raised his hands at the crowd as if to say "you want to make that any harder for me?". He and Recoba seemed to test the Aussie goal at every opportunity in what reflected their attacking lineup. Recoba even hit the near post from a corner. Skoko was standing guard there so it wasn't really a serious chance at goal.
However soon after another Australia pass went astray as they were trying to build a road to goal and after the Uruguayans kicked around a little a long ball forward found Silva perfectly and with Murphy right there trying to stop him Silva managed to squeeze a shot across the goal, just wide of Schwarzers outstretched hand and just inside the far post. A clinical goal fashioned from nothing very much but executed by a team who had been playing pressure games for most of the past 6 months as opposed to Australia who were not very battlehardened at all. Echoes of 1997? Who knows but for now Uruguay had only effectively drawn level. There were still 76 minutes left.
Stung into action Australia managed a good chance thanks to a trademark Lazaridis raid down the left and a cross which found Kewell's head. Australia might have equalised then but a combination of an alert keeper diving to save the shot and possibly a lack of enough power and direction of the header itself contrived to keep Uruguay ahead. Australia really only needed one goal and Uruguay would need three to win though. As it turned out Uruguay got their 3 in the end anyway.
A rare free kick for Australia a quarter of the way through the match was taken by Kewell and went narrowly over. If the rarity of the kicks was due to Uruguayan discipline or an inability of Australia to get near the Uruguay goal isn't clear to me. Straight after Uruguay got the benefit of an offside decision and eventually scrambled the ball towards goal but just as it was about to cross the line (about a metre above ground level) it was cleared with a spectacular bicycle kick by Shaun Murphy. Replays showed he had saved Tony Vidmar's blushes who had miskicked the ball towards his own goal. Uruguay briefly claimed the ball had crossed the line but since the clearance went out for a corner it seems unlikely.
The cheer from the crowd as the goal was scored by Silva was almost repeated when Muscat was given a yellow card for a tackle from behind as Regueiro was about to turn him. The would have been surpassed as a fiendishly quick Silva ran the ball to the goal line and pulled it back across the penalty box where Magallanes was running onto the ball only to be thwarted by Schwarzer coming out and spreading himself at Magallanes' feet as the latter took his shot. If I hadn't been desperatly hoping for Australia to win might have enjoyed the game.
Just before the half was out Kewell managed to get a run at the defence and got through out wide, then crossed the ball back to Viduka whose shot clattered into a defender. It doesn't sound like much but it was a decent enough chance, oddly Viduka is often accused of getting cute when he should just thump it. In this intstance I think he should have tried a little cuteness. Of course that's easy for me to say. Kewell himself could do little better deep into injury time in the first half as a shot from just outside the area caught a defenders foot and dribbled harmlessly into the arms of the goalkeeper.
The second half was starting to get sleepy when Guigou got the all and as he came to goal the Australian defenders backed off. Accepting the invitation he launched the ball goalwards but wasn't accurate enough to cause and change in the scoreline. Josip Skoko returned the favour from a little further out and missed by a little less. Still I was getting the uneasy feeling that I would have to make room for another half hour of football in my life. In retrospect such sentiments are foolish when there is still half an hour to play and Australia are involved.
Kewell almost managed to score on 63 minutes after chesting (though there was evidence to say arming) the ball down and volleying the shot over the bar. Less than a minute later Viduka couldn't adjust quickly enough and was forced the head a long throw after it had looped over the defenders and bounced on the ground. The ball glanced off Viduka's head and flew over the bar.
In response Uruguay made some changes and in what seemed like a flurry of activity Schwarzer started to complain about missiles coming onto the pitch (whatever it was they were small) and Garcia got a yellow card after a messy passage of play with commentators suggesting something went on in backplay.
In the 70th minute Uruguay broke free and created a 3 on 3 opportunity with Recoba on the ball. Mindful of his talents Murphy and Moore tackled him and conceded a free kick a few metres outside the corner of the Australian penalty area. Recoba planted the ball sent it into the vicinity of the 6 yard box where the recent (and tall) substitute Morales headed the ball into goal, all Schwarzer could do was parry the ball into the roof of the net. Suddenly Uruguay were going to the World Cup and knowing this Morales took off his shirt and more or less completed a lap of the stadium. The referee waited for him with a yellow card. It didn't look like he cared.
Farina now put on Agostino to relpace Muscat in a goal hunting exercise and Pua put in de los Santos in an effort to close any options Australia might have thought of creating. In amongst all this Uruguay almost got a third goal but could not repeat the angle which Silva had found in the first half.
Carini then saved Uruguay's bacon 10 minutes from time as an Australian corner came to Shaun Murphy who headed it perfectly but was intercepted just before it crossed the goalline by Carini who palmed it over the bar.
In the flurry which followed de los Santos was booked for kicking the ball away and Silva, intriguingly, for refusing to be replaced. I guess it counts as time wasting. While Uruguay was bringing defenders on, Australia were taking them off. You can pretty much guess what happened. Australia tried valiantly, got a few half decent chances and had they got a bit of luck could well have changed the outcome of the tie.
As it was Uruguay got Australia on a suckerpunch and Recoba danced his way around the defence on a break, picked out Morales in front of the goal who simply tapped it into the net to settle the matter. Carini got a yellow for timewasting eventhough Australia would need to score twice for anything to change. In the end I craved the final whistle so it could all be over....again....oh well, at least my family didn't emigrate to Canada.
Well done Uruguay, they played like a team who knew what was required and simply did it. The single minded determination which Australia has but is never really tested until a match like this needs to be bred over time and aside from a direct Oceania spot very little hope can be held for Australia to return to the World Cup finals if they are faced with New Zealand and then the likes of Uruguay, Argentina, Iran, Scotland, Israel, Rhodesia (as they were at the time), North Korea, South Korea and Canada. The opponents themselves are not neccessarily the problem but the fact that they are usually coming off a tough campaign and have built an understanding in the team which Australia cannot match.