Qualification, Done and Dusted

Wednesday June 17, 2009, MCG

With qualification in the bag we were down to our last group game for the qualification process. And it was against perhaps our biggest rival in Asia, Japan. The Blue Samurai had also qualified and some pundits were wondering whether there was anything in the match

PRIDE

I would say that the pride of both nations was on the line, for the players as well as the fans. Both managers had hard decisions to make regarding the make up of the starting teams. In the end Australia still sent out a very strong side along with some new blood and the re-emergence of Nicky Carle to the starting line up, which pleased many. Whilst Nicky had a solid game and did not do anything wrong, he also fell short of some of the hype generated by some journalists.

After going down a goal prior to half time, it took K-Town hero, “Super Tim” to level the slate and then WIN the game. I think the Blue Samurai nightmares came flooding back at this point.

FOR THE FANS

I was in the crowd on Wednesday night and had a fantastic time. Mid winter, freezing cold, mid week and a dead rubber, but the fans turned out and just shy of 70,000 people enjoyed a great night in Melbourne. The GGA organised a meet up at The Corner Hotel in Richmond and we all had a great time catching up.

Muz, a Newcastle boy and GGA Nutter came up with a great banner that was displayed at the end of the match along the fence. Says it all really.
Nippon Forever in our Shadow

CHANTS

Some of the chants were great. “You only sing when you’re whaling”, “10 Kamikaze’s in the air”. It is a great atmosphere in the home end at Aussie matches these days, despite the efforts of some twats to stir up interstate rivalries (perhaps the topic of another post).

For me it was just great catching up with a group of people I met in Germany and have kept in contact with ever since. For me, that is the real benefit of following the Socceroos.

Thanks guys and gals.

Cheers

Tezza

June 21 2009 02:06 pm | Socceroos and World Cup

2 Responses to “Qualification, Done and Dusted”

  1. Scott on 23 Jun 2009 at 7:27 pm #

    Nice post mate. It certainly was a great night had by all. The Japanese fans were great sports after the game.

  2. Terry on 23 Jun 2009 at 10:20 pm #

    Cheers mate. The Japanese are always nice.

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