Why Australia were not intimidated by the long-bawl game

Uruguay's dirty-tricks campaign reached a new low when their players tried to provoke physical confrontations with the Socceroos in the tunnel before Wednesday night's game.

Australian players yesterday provided extraordinary accounts of Uruguayans trying to put them off with verbal and physical abuse as the teams lined up to take the field.

Socceroos striker John Aloisi said his teammate - defender Tony Popovic - and Uruguayan striker Richard Morales ended up at each other's throats. "'Poppa' and Morales had a bit of a tussle in the tunnel before the game," Aloisi said. "They grabbed each other by the neck. Even when we were going out on the pitch, there was a bit of push and shove. But we knew what to expect from them.

"We copped that sort of stuff four years ago from them. They try to put you off your game like that, but we had to rise above it and not let it worry us."

Socceroos goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer said the Uruguayans' unsettling tactics might have shocked some of the younger Socceroos at the time but the senior players made it their job to settle them down.

"There was a lot of jeering and a lot of verbal assaults in the tunnel," he said. "There was even a case of one of their players lashing out at one of our players with his foot. It was uncalled for, but that's just the tactics and that's just the level they stoop to, the South Americans.

"They're renowned for it. Some of the boys were a bit taken aback by it, but the senior players were turning around to the younger players and saying, 'Listen, that's part and parcel, they're trying to put us off our game'. We were telling the younger guys to just ignore them, go out on the pitch and show them what we can do."

Popovic said he could hear the Uruguayans mouthing off, but didn't let it bother him. "They were being very vocal, trying to get us off our guard," he said. "It's a different mentality with them, but it didn't work."

The bad blood between Australia and Uruguay goes back to 1974, when the two teams played in a warm-up match for those World Cup finals and a Uruguayan player hit Socceroos star Ray Baartz with a karate chop to the throat. Baartz suffered severe medical complications that temporarily threatened his life and he never played again.

And four years ago, Uruguayan fans made life hell for the Socceroos when they arrived in Montevideo for the second leg of the play-off for a spot in the 2002 finals. They hit the players with a welter of invective and spittle as they tried to make their way to the team bus at the airport and the players stayed in their hotel for most of the time up to the game.

This time, Uruguayan officials changed the starting time for the first leg in Montevideo to prevent Australia from being able to catch the next commercial flight to Sydney and so delay their return. But that backfired on Uruguay when their own charter flight fell through and the Australians organised a luxurious Qantas charter back, while the Uruguayans had to take a commercial flight.

Uruguay coach Jorge Fossati and striker Alvaro Recoba rubbished Australia in the lead-up to the return, but the Socceroos were unmoved. "We didn't take any notice of that garbage," captain Mark Viduka said. "All we were thinking about was what we had to do on the night."

Yet, was the Uruguayan attempt to psyche the Socceroos out an indication of confidence or concern on their part?

Popovic thinks the latter. "Recoba can say whatever he wants," he said. "If you're put off by that sort of stuff, then you shouldn't be out there. I think all the stuff they were going on with was a sign that they were concerned about their own situation. Talking about the other team's game instead of your own game, that's a sign of weakness."