Thank You, John Safran

Tonight, the Australian Socceroos take on Uruguay at the Telstra Stadium for a spot in next year's FIFA World Cup in Germany. Just to give you an idea of how important the game is, Australia hasn't seen action at the World Cup finals since 1974. To win a place, the Socceroos need to win by two clear goals in this second leg of the qualifier.

Watching the game (on SBS), one can see that Uruguay is definitely better than the Aussie team, who kept passing the ball around. Things started to pick up when Harry Kewell came in. All of a sudden, there was renewed spirit and a sense of direction. By half-time, it's 1-0 Australia, courtesy of Marco Bresciano. The Aussies never let off the pressure, but the Uruguay defense is tight as a drum. So at the end of the 90-min. regulation time, it's still 1-0 Australia (1-1 aggregate), forcing a 30-min. extra time.

Lots of tries and misses and saves, but no solid goals, and so the match goes into a penalty shootout. After the smoke has cleared, Australia beats Uruguay 4-2 on penalties with Harry Kewell, Lucas Neil, Tony Vidmar and Jon Aloisi scoring successful goals. Special mention goes to Mark Schwarzer for pulling off two spectacular saves.

But let's not forget John Safran. Rumors has it that the Socceroos had a curse placed on them when they were playing Zimbabwe in 1969. They got a witchdoctor to put a curse on the opposing team, so the Aussies won the match. They left without paying for the witchdoctor's services, so he then placed a curse on the team. Since then, it's all downhill for the Socceroos. In John Safran vs. God, Safran tracked down the same witchdoctor in Mozambique, and offered to pay the fee (plus interest???) in order to lift the curse. Aside from that, he had to undergo a ritual, where he is sprayed with chicken blood.

Australia, say thank you to John Safran!