The Best Night of My Life
The Best Night of My Life, look getting married and having children are fantastic experiences and ones I will treasure for the rest of my life. But nothing compares to the pure adrenalin charged night that was November 16, 2005.
The Build Up
- Organise Flights - Jetstar.
- Tickets - E-mailed mates in Sydney. Heffo and the Mighty Engadine Eagles came to the rescue. Row 16 behind the Northern Goals.
- Accommodation - Again Heffo to the rescue with a bed at his place.
The first game was in Montevideo on November 12, and a hard fought match saw Uargay win 1-0. But this was a significantly better performance than 4 years before when Tony Vidmar’s tears touched us all I am sure.
November 16, 2005
I went to work as usual but dressed in Jeans and a Green and Gold Socceroos Shirt. My flight was at 3:15pm and at about 2pm i had my Secretary drop me off at Coolangatta Airport. I was really pumped and headed to the lounge for a few ales prior to boarding. Met a few other fans heading down and we downed some ice cold Crownies.
Due to Daylight Savings (I still don’t understand what they do with all the daylight they save), we landed at5:30pm. I headed straight to the Train station and headed to Central Station. By this time there were literally 1000’s of Green and Gold shirts everywhere. I just followed the pack and boarded special trains going straight to Homebush. The atmosphere was really starting to build and i just wanted to get to the stadium and meet up with my mates for a beer before kickoff.
I finally arrived at 7pm and met Heffo at the gate. I met up with the rest of the boys and went to the bar. The line was 4km long. I bought a burger first then entered the Beer queue. It took so long i missed all the pre game entertainment but we had some fun in the queue. I finally got there and bought 4 beers for myself and went to my seat. 10 mins before kickoff.
(There is a photo of me with these guys. Not to mention any names, but BOZO has not sent me the photo and it is almost 4 years now.)
Green and Gold Army
Prior to this match i had never heard of the Green and Gold Army. I was 2 bays over from them. For the next 2.5 hours they stood and sung their lungs out. It was infectious for the most part and we spent a lot of time on our feet. The singing of the National Anthem was very special. With 86000 people belting out Advance Australia Fair you could not help but be proud of who we are. There was also the 86000 booooos for Recoba and any other Uargayan.
Match Time and on the 32nd minute Harry Kewel joined the fray and on the 35 minute mark after a well timed miss kick from Harry, Marco Bresciano scored for the Socceroos, right in front of us. A magic moment i will never forget.
My heart was in my mouth for the rest of the match. Heart Stopping moments when Uargay nearly scored. The crowd erupted when Reccoba was replaced. And then it was Extra Time. I did not think my heart would hold out. My 4 beers were gone before half time and i had not left my seat. This match was going to be a pivotal match in Australian Football History and NO WAY was i going to miss out on 1 second of it.
The Penalty Shootout
I think all 86000 people were now standing, literally on the edge of their seats.
- Kewel - Scores
- Rodriguez - Saved. Schwarzer an instant Hero if he was not already
- Neil - Scores
- Varela - Scores
- Vidmar - Scores
- Estoyanoff - Scores
- Dukes - Saved. 86000 people went silent. My heart began to sink. No not again
- Zalayeta - Saved. At this point No One is a bigger hero than Schwarzer
John Aloisis steps up. 86000 people know that if this goes in we are off to the World Cup of Football for the first time in 32 years. We were all standing on our seat snow, My view was very similar to this. I cannot describe what the feeling was like but this video does it some justice.
Now John Aloisi is the Biggest Hero in Australia and that Penalty along with his topless run along the sideline would be shown over and over again on national TV. I rang Veronica during all this, i could not hear the other end, all i did was yell into the phone, We are Going To Germany.
Truly the Best Night of my Life
April 03 2008 06:57 am | World Cup
