Socceroos ousted - Player Quotes

The Socceroos have bowed out of the World Cup with a controversial 1-0 loss to Italy. Here's what some of the Australian players had to say after the match.

The Socceroos have bowed out of the World Cup with a controversial 1-0 loss to Italy. Here's what some of the Australian players had to say after the match.

Mark Viduka - captain - striker

I am very proud of the boys, but its disappointing the way we went out. It-s a massive moment for Australian football. Everybody has been so good. I am happy for our code in Australia, and that everyone has taken to us. I hope every kid has the dream of one day playing for the green and gold for Australia. Lucas Neill has got all the potential as a leader. He has done a great job as has Craig Moore. They have been outstanding every game.

Mile Sterjovski - midfielder

We had a great performance, we were just a bit unlucky not to score a couple of times. We never give up, we have the fighting spirit and I think we gained a lot of respect from all over the world. I think we have a good chance of qualifying through Asia for the next World Cup. We are looking forward to the future, anything is possible.

Luke Wilkshire - midfielder

The football in Australia has really kicked off on this and its important that we don't just put our heads down and go away. Its time to kick on, and make even more of a name of Australian football.

Jason Culina - midfielder

Lets just say the decisions haven't been going our way for this whole World Cup. In all four games the referees have been against us. We can't complain too much, we can be proud of our performance. We can hold our heads up high. We have done a good job, its just disappointing to go out. Even if that penalty was ten minutes earlier you wouldn't be so gutted. We dominated the game and hopefully in the future we can go a bit further. To make it into the second round is an achievement in itself. We showed a lot of people what we are capable of. The characters of our players is unbelievable, we never give up. When you have a whole nation behind you urging you on, you just want to keep playing.

Marco Bresciano - midfielder

We had our chance to score goals, and we should have maybe finished them earlier. Its always hard to break down an Italian defence. I think at the end of the game they were surprised at how well we had done. I think we showed the whole world we can compete against the big teams. I hope the majority of the team stays together. I have never seen the whole nation unite so much. It was unbelieveable seeing all the support we had. Seeing the gold colour out in the stadium is a great feeling.

Scott Chipperfield - defender

The last ten seconds, a penalty was a bit harsh. A lot of the players are saying it wasn't a penalty, so you can see it make your own decision if you thought it was a penalty or not. Obviously we are disappointed, we controlled the game for long periods, created a couple of half chances, but we just couldn't put them away.

Brett Emerton - defender

When they went down to ten men we thought we might nick it but unfortunately it didn't turn out that way. I think you would rather lose three or four nil than lose the way we did today. I think we can look back on the tournement as a success. Personally I am happy with the way I played and its nice to hear that other clubs are looking at me.

Graham Arnold - assistant coach

The players were absolutely brilliant again today. They have made the nation proud. I think for now FFA should start building for 2010. It is going to be a re-building program from here. I think we have won a huge amount of credit for the way we have played. We have come up against two powerhouses in Brazil and Italy, and played them both off the field.