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Another match I didn't get to see. Apparently we didn't play too badly, but we lost 0-1. The goal may have been a bit of a fluke, but we rode our luck in Brisbane last week so we can't complain too much.

Our first loss under Verbeek and our first conceded goal for the qualifiers. It had to happen sometime I suppose. In the other game, Qatar defeated China 1-0 away, to draw level with us on points. This all makes next week's game against Qatar very important.

Australia secured a very significant win over Iraq in Brisbane to move one step closer to qualifying for the next round. All up, we were pretty lucky to get away with the win, but the three points will be very valuable.

Work commitments prevented me from watching the match. Dang. But the news was good. By all accounts, it proved to be a fairly close, tense encounter. Mark Schwarzer saved the day with yet another penalty save with a few minutes to go. And we could have snatched it in the final minute. All in all, given our preparation, the difficult venue, the absences due to injury, we'll take an away draw.

The Socceroos began their long campaign for a spot at the 2010 World Cup finals with a very encouraging 3-0 win over Qatar last night in Melbourne. There was a lot of pre-match concern about how the Aussies would fair in this match. It was our new coach, Pim Verbeek's, first game in charge. Ten of the starting 11 had flown in from Europe just a day or two before the game. Qatar has been here for a week acclimatising. But in the end none of this mattered. Verbeek selected at an attacking formation and we got off to flying start, leading 3-0 after about 30 minutes, effectively ending the match as a contest. We should have probably been up 5- or 6-nil by the 60 minute mark before jetlag, tiredness and an understandable easing of the pressure saw Australia slow down. All in all a very good start to the campaign. Three points, a clean sheet, a big home crowd of over 50,000 and a team that played very well together despite limited preparation.

Germany defeated Brazil 2-0 in an entertaining final to retain their title as world champions. They also set an incredible record of going through the entire tournament without conceding a goal.

After going down 0-2 after 23", we fought back well to equalise at 2-2 after 68", before a quality goal saw us go out 3-2.

I didn't stay up and watch, which says something about my commitment to women's sport. 10pm on a Sunday evening is too late for the women, but 3am or 5am is no problem for the men.

By the look of the stats, Brazil dominated the match and probably deserved to win. However, we were the first team to score against Brazil in this tournament and clearly pushed them to the limit. Some of their players looked quite relieved at the final whistle.

In a thrilling match, that reminded me a lot of our men's third round game at the 2006 World Cup, the Matildas scored an injury-time goal to secure a 2-2 draw with Canada and passage through to the quarter-finals.

We are grouped with Norway, Ghana and Canada, with Norway tipped to win our group. We went down 0-1 quite early, but battled hard for the whole game and were rewarded with a 1-1 draw, following a wonderful goal from Lisa De Vanna with just a few minutes to go.

With none of the publicity that our men get, our women's national team has qualified for their fourth World Cup. Like our men going into the 2006 World Cup, our women were yet to win a game at the finals.

But that all changed tonight. We demolished Ghana 4-1. I didn't see a lot of the game, despite it being on free-to-air, but the highlights suggest we played quite well.

My mighty SUSFC Over 35s team played our Grand Final today. Sadly we weren't good enough on the day and lost 1-2. I was a bit surprised that I wasn't more disappointed. I think this is a reflection of the fact that we basically play for fun these days. Sure winning is more fun than losing, but the mood at our post-match dinner at our club pub suggests we weren't too fussed. We did have a very enjoyable season. And that's the important thing. Maturity at last :)