First post on this thread.
Al raised an important question if it was... with his hypothetically question.
Anyway, that penalty call was very very harsh for us and it shouldn't be the way to finish an important game. It was a 50/50 call. I've seen many have been turned down during this year's English Premier League so it depends on the day.
In saying that, I also think that straight red card on Materazzi was another harsh call as well; at most, a yellow card should be given. It wasn't like he was the last man or was it a two footed tackle with his stud up, so in all fairness, that red card was not right and that was the turning point of the game, so we can't really say that the ref was biased on us because he gifted us the opportunity to score for 40+ minutes with our opposition having a man down, which we couldn't fulfil our chances, when we should have.
The Italians defense was strong all game and imagine if we had to play them with 11 man on the field for the whole game. We may even have lost the game because their forwards were playing soundly during the first half, even if we did match their performance, they had the better chances.
And yes, officiating has been quite dismal on this year's World Cup. I couldn't disagree more. Biased, no. Horrible calls, yes.
Just something off-topic, does anyone else thought that ref that who officiated the game between Netherlands / Portugal game, actually did a good job? He got heavily criticised for his calls but I think he controlled the game quite well. Most if not all of those 16 yellow cards was respectively deserved and had a reason(s) to be pulled out. I couldn't believe Figo escaped punishment for his headbutt.
Keep your heads up Socceroos. I hope we'll do well again in the future.
Cheers~