Who would have
thought that Uruguay’s most dangerous player Alvaro Recoba, would suggest his
team will qualify for next year’s World Cup finals in Germany because they have a divine right to go to
Germany?

Recoba’s claim is clearly simpatico with the notion of
intelligent design, where apparently divine intervention will be
Uruguay’s most powerful contributor as his team protects its precious
1-0 lead in the second leg. And thus, Recoba asserts that Australia is
no chance to take their rightful place in Germany, which is both
arrogant and errant nonsense given how delicately this play-off is
poised.

So much then
for our date with destiny that’s
become the Socceroos’ mantra going into these final qualifying games. Yet Australia has the talent and the self-belief
that can see the Socceroos turn us all into a nation of true believers when
the final whistle blows at Telstra Stadium on Wednesday. And if they can win
by any aggregate margin that determines we go forward to Germany, we can also
enjoy seeing the righteous Recoba’s discomfort at trying to make sense of such
unfathomable failure, which will cast Uruguayan football into the World
Cup abyss.

When it comes
to sport at the highest level, Australia has always punched well beyond its
weight and and innately believes virtually any contest to be winnable no matter the
odds or the opposition. Undoubtedly the odds
are still stacked against us when push comes to shove on such a monumental
sporting stage, but the Socceroos and their coach will take
genuine comfort from knowing Uruguay’s best player in Montevideo feels
compelled to resort to mumbo jumbo to talk up his team’s cause – perhaps
it’s himself he’s trying hardest to convince?