Australia manager Pim Verbeek blasted the officials decision to send Harry Kewell off in their World Cup draw with Ghana 1-1 Saturday afternoon.

The Socceroos seemed in control of the Group D encounter following Brett Holman's 11th minute opener. However, former Leeds United midfielder Kewell was dismissed after a goal-bound Ghana shot struck his arm on the line, leaving Australia a man down.

"Great performance and great spirit (from us). It was not a red card, what can you do? Cut your arm off?," Verbeek told a post-match press conference. "As far as I know the rule is that it needs to be an intentional hand ball and in this case it wasn't."

Asamoah Gyan scored the resulting penalty to leave the final score 1-1. However, after picking up their first points of the tournament, Verbeek praised his team's overall performance.

"I think Germany played the best game of the round against us. It was unfortunate but it is history now," he added.

"We can't change Germany and we can't change today. We showed a great fighting spirit and that gives us confidence for Serbia, it will be a difficult game, but it is the World Cup and there are no easy games.

"I have no problems with the referee. I make mistakes, my players make mistakes, and so do referees, it is not a problem.

"Wednesday and Thursday were fantastic training sessions and the spirit in the camp is the best it has ever been. We have to go for it and we have to win the next game and we have to see what happens with the other game.

"We have to assume Germany will beat Ghana and then we will need to score many goals. I think I have enough players to do it and we scored many goals during the qualifiers so we can do it," the coach said.