Waiting to go over the top

Nerves a-jingle-jangling before the Socceroos biggest ever match. Tension is mounting before the battle in Stuttgart where the boys will take on Croatia.

Pretty much a draw will do it for Australia tonight (as long as Brazil don't stuff it up and let Japan win by a couple of goals) but Aussie Guus is saying he is going all out for the win. A loss will see Croatia through to the next round and I'll just cry into my beer.

It could well be a grudge match thanks to six of the Australian squad having Croatian background, while three of the Croatians were actually born in Australia. The police in Croatia have even put armed guards at Aussie striker Mark Viduka's house just in case he nets the winner and Zagreb Kanka gets out the hot tub and tries to torch the place.

While quite a few of the Australian players are on yellow cards thanks to some very dodgy refereeing decisions in the previous two matches, we don't have anyone red carded yet.

Kewell is also clear to play after being let off by Fifa who decided that telling a ref that he was "f.....g s..t" is okay as long as the referee then pre-empts Fifa by saying "that's it matey, your World Cup is over". One good point for tonight is that the referee is Graham Poll, an Englishman who many of the Aussie players know well due to playing in the premiership.

I'm feeling quietly confident but by kick-off time I'll probably be a wreck.

Expect something on the blog tonight. Just don't expect it to be coherent.