Coaches proud of team's achievements

Socceroos departing coach Guus Hiddink has told Australia they should be proud of this team and what they achieved at the 2006 World Cup Finals in Germany.

Socceroos departing coach Guus Hiddink has told Australia they should be proud of this team and what they achieved at the 2006 World Cup Finals in Germany.

Hiddink, who will now take up a position with the Russian national team, also said the decision to award the penalty was wrong and a cruel way to go out of the competition that was all the better for Australia-s participation, both on and off the field.

"We should be proud of this team," said Hiddink. "We can take great pride in the way we fought against a powerhouse of Europe.

“We were very close and then we got caught in the last minute and of course if you see the replay I think there was not any doubt that it was not a penalty.

“It-s bitter to see that in the last seconds, but overall when the emotion is going down we can be very proud of this team, what they achieved in the last three group games and this game against a highly respected and rewarded team of Italy.”

The Dutchmen lamented his sides- lack of finishing power inside the penalty box. "If you analyse the game, you will see we tried to play attractive football. We were so close. Our only fault was the inability to score despite the number of chances that we created."

“I think the momentum has to be used,” he added.

“It has become the number one sport regarding attention and I think they have to use and they will use this momentum, to make a good structure and be there also in 2010, which is important for the country.”

Assistant Coach Graham Arnold, who takes over in a caretaker capacity from Hiddink, wanted to look at the positives from the game and the World Cup as a whole.

“Let-s put the positives forward and the players were absolutely brilliant again today,” said Arnold. “They-ve made the whole nation proud; it would have been nice to go that one step further, because the door could have really opened; we-ll just have to move on.

“I think we have won a huge amount of credit for the way we played. We have been tagged or labelled for a long while the way we play the game, which was more a late 80-s, early 90-s style, but it-s not the way these guys play football.

“They have won a lot of respect around the world, getting to the last 16 was a great achievement and we had the last eight hanging in the balance there and could have gone either way.

“We came up against two powerhouses in Brazil and Italy and played both of them off the field.”