Australia made light of its advancing years and the early dismissal of striker Harry Kewell to produce a gallant fight for World Cup survival Saturday as it held Ghana to an often dramatic 1-1 draw. In an open, fast-moving and incident-filled Group D encounter that began boldly and ended bloodily, the Socceroos showed immense spirit, grit and ambition to take its first point of the tournament. The Australians led as early as the 11th minute when Brett Holman profited from an error by Ghanaian keeper Richard Kingson who spilled a shot from Mark Bresciano, allowing Holman to net the rebound. But its hopes of victory were wrecked when Kewell was sent off by Italian referee Roberto Rossetti 13 minutes later for stopping a goalbound shot by Jonathan Mensah on the line with his upper right arm. Asamoah Gyan waited while Kewell argued and gesticulated his way off the field – he was finally escorted up the tunnel to the dressing room by FIFA officials – before firing a low spot-kick into the bottom right corner. That was the end of the scoring, but just the start of the excitement as both teams threw caution to the wind on a cool and vuvuzuela-scored evening of clever individual play, wild errors, abundant openings, brave defending and goalkeeping. Ghana had several chances to win it, but when Gyan, after 50 minutes, and substitute Quincy Owosu-Abeyie, after 88, were on target, 37-year-old Socceroos keeper Mark Schwarzer produced two superb diving saves. At the other end, Kingson blocked a 72nd minute shot by Luke Wilkshire and then stood up as Joshua Kennedy fired the rebound straight at him. When the final whistle blew Ghana right-back John Pantsil was being treated for a bloody facial wound after a painful clash with Australian substitute Kennedy and his own team-mate Lee Addy. He was carried off on a stretcher.
