By
Ross Stapleton

Earlier
this morning in Frankfurt, the Socceroos gave Confederations Cup host Germany a
real contest when Australia went down 4-3 in a pulsating match.

The Socceroos delivered an absolute belter of a performance that
rained goals from early in the game and left a German victory only
absolutely certain at the very end. However, the seven goal result also
had a
lot to do with two leaky defences that said more about the inadequacies
of both
sides in their back half than the free scoring ways of their sides
going
forward.

In the competitive first half German fans must have feared an upset was
on the cards, but normal transmission was resumed after the break.
Goalkeeper Mark
Schwarzer kept us in the game with some tremendous saves, before
inevitably the
man the German press had pinned their hopes on, Michael Ballack, scored
from the
penalty spot. Then Lukas Podolski struck what
would be the winner on the 88th minute to put the game beyond the
Socceroos’ grasp.

Yet
there was one final twist in injury time when John Aloisi
pulled one back to leave the vanquished Socceroos departing the game with heads
held high, but now probably needing at least a win and possibly also a draw in
their next two games to have a realistic chance of making the semi-finals in
this dress rehearsal for next year’s World Cup in Germany.

Australia’s next match is against Argentina in Nuremberg on Sunday morning our time when it
can be seen live on SBS at 4:45am.