This would be the first Soccer game that Ee Laine and I have watched live and we sure weren't disappointed!
So... here's the timeline of events...
Caught the train to the venue... It had been raining for most of today and there were little rivers and lakes which had formed on the path of the regular trek from Olympic Park station to the stadium. It was damp, there was a strong odour of clothing which had not dried properly... compound that with the oily smoke from the fast food stores made me feel ill (I'm denying any possibility of the KFC Tower Burger I ate an hour earlier being responsible for turning my stomach)
When we finally made it to the front of the Stadium, we realised our seats were on the OTHER side of the stadium... a good 2km away... Seems much further in the rain!
The stadium was pretty packed for a rainy day (to my surprise) as I was expecting dismal support as a result of the weather...
Now we were supposed to be seated at the "under cover" section of the stadium... turns out that there was technically a roof over our heads... but it was 100m above us and it offered NO protection whatsoever with the horizontal gravity defying raindrops that were hammering us... We had no choice but to pull out the poncho... yet another first for us this evening (the below pic looks like we're in those inflateable sumo suits).
The first half was pretty damn frustrating... Early in the first half Bresciano only had the goalkeeper in front of him and decided to kick it straight to him... The sound of 57,000 forehead slaps was deafening. Nothing much happened after that in the first half.
Then came the second half and Jesus walked onto the pitch (Josh Kennedy) and there were instant results. That miracle header came out of nowhere and suddenly I had experienced my first live goal at a soccer match - the euphoria was amazing and the atmosphere would have rocked the roof off the stadium (if it had one).
About 10 minutes later, a U-Stan guy charges into our Harry Kewell.. bounces off him and needs to be carried off the pitch on a stretcher whilst Harry stood there wondering what hit him (from memory two of the Uzbekistan players had to be stretchered off, one had to get "magic spray" on their leg, the goalie needed assistance with his ankle because it was tough work standing in a stationary position, 4 players carried on like they lost a leg in a minefield only to miraculously recover when the ref ignored their performance)
Here's a pic of Harry getting ready to pwn the goalie whilst a Uzbekistan player is being carried off:
And the kick to put the win in the bag
Australia 2 - Uzbekistan 0
By the end of the game, the light drizzle had ended... Almost as soon as the whistle was blown for full time, the heavens opened up and flooded the joint. Our $1.50 ponchos were certainly put to good use tonight!
PS - if you're interested in a play by play summary... visit this link:
Atmosphere there would of been Crazy!!
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