Australia didn't play soft. They played excellent. They surely gave Italy a run for their money, I think they were expecting it to be a lot easier.
Australia can be proud of the way they played, they certainly didn't deserve to go out like that. Italy, despite being undermanned did a good job, but I don't think they deserved that win. It was a stupid and tough refereeing decision. So was the red card to the Italian. It was a shame since the rest of the game the refereeing was relatively good and he didn't let the Italian team get away with half the shit they tried to.
No doubt Australia was the better team, but what can you do.
Anyway, I'm going for the next underdog, Ukraine.
Up the Orange Revolution!