Referee M. Torky of Iran keeps the order after showing the red card to Bruce Djite of Australia during the match against Thailand on November 1, 2006 in Kolkata, India.

By Chetan Kulkarni

KOLKATA: A crestfallen Australian team left this East Indian city today after their dreams of qualifying for the FIFA U-20 World Cup were dashed in the quarterfinals of the AFC Youth Championship by Korea Republic.

With rough physical play and tackling frowned upon in the Asian game, the newcomers have been left pondering over the large number of cautions and suspensions they received in their four games, including the quarter-final.

The Young Socceroos topped the cautions’ chart with eight yellow and three red cards. This is excluding the seven cautions received in the qualifiers. The suspensions hit their game plan and severely hampered the performance of the team at crucial stages.

For example, coach Ange Postecouglou had to do without ace striker Bruce Djite, who had picked up two yellow cards in the qualifying rounds against Turkmenistan and Sri Lanka, in the opener against China which they lost 1-0.

This was not the end of Djite’s temperamental woes. He lasted only 23 minutes in the second game against Thailand as Iranian referee Mohsen Torkey gave him his marching orders for kicking Thai midfielder Kriangkrai Pimrat after losing ball possession. Australia won this match 3-1.

It was the turn of another star player, Nathan Burns, to enter the referee’s books twice during the final group game against the UAE (2-0) and he had to watch the quarterfinal against Korea Republic from the gallery.

Before the last eight crunch encounter, assistant coach Stephen O'Connor admitted that the team's red-card addiction was a matter of great concern. "The players should realise that the team misses them and it is a strong tournament," he had said.

However, defender Sebastian Ryall was not listening and saw red for serious foul play in stoppage time as the Australians crashed out 2-1.

Postecoglou said the cautions were more due to strict refereeing than flawed temperament of his players. “I think we had only one serious foul but the rest was not the players’ fault,” he said.

“There is no problem with the players’ temperament but it’s our playing style. The other Asian teams should try and adapt to the similar style if they want to excel at the world level,” he added.

Meanwhile, 115 yellow cards, two double bookings and six red cards have been accumulated in the 28 matches played so far in the AFC Youth Championship with an average of 4.39 per match.