Saturday, October 06, 2007
Okies I have FINALLY gotten the Socceroos pictures so I am FINALLY going to blog about it.
So that day Syl and I went to watch Australia vs. Argentina right - As you all know by now, Argentina won by 1 to nil. I expected that Argentina would win but I thought they would win by a larger gap. Anyways, on our way to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground - where the 2006 Commonwealth games were held), Syl and I were already surrounded by supporters wearing green and yellow (for Aus) and blue and white (for Argentina). I desperately wanted to wear green & yellow but I couldn't because we got our tickets pretty last minute so the Aussie supporter side was sold-out, leaving only the Argentina supporters side available. Moreover, the seats were directly in front of the goal net and quite close to the pitch (and were cheap too!), so we decided to sit there (I felt like a traitor).
Anyways Argentina is supposed to be ranked number 2 in the world (behind Brazil) so they are really very good. They are fast, agile and cunning so watching them was pretty exciting. The MCG can seat about 100,000 people - attendance for that day was around 72,000 so that was quite huge already, considering the small part soccer plays in the sporting lives of Aussies. However, the popularity of the sport has been growing ever since Aus made it to the World Cup.
When we got there, we were seated with the Argentinian supporters all decked out in their Argentinian gear - people were wearing large blue and white jester hats (which Syl and I were quite tempted to get) and jerseys with "Maradona" and "Messi" printed on the back. The face paint going on was way cool. Everyone was just there for Lionel Messi anyway - he got the most cheers and the most camera focus. Every time he got the ball, the crowd went mad. He's like a devil on fire when he gets the ball - he and Carlos Tevez were the attacking pair who were the life of the team.
The Argentina crowd went mad man! There was an old man beating the large drum so hard and they were all singing! The atmosphere was fantastic! Syl and I started yelling with them in unison, "Ar-Gen-Ti-Na! Ar-Gen-Ti-Na"!! *screw loyalty lol*!!! Then they started singing in Spanish and cheering and waving their scarfs etc. I love it when everytime the players start moving nearer to the goalpost and the possibility of a goal gets higher, the people will all stand up and start screaming, "SHOOT!!! SHOOOOOOOOT!!!". It's awesome. Of course when Argentina scored a goal everyone went mad. I have no idea what one Argentina supporter did but we saw him being dragged away by the police with everyone just staring. Part of me wished there was a streaker *lol*. After that people just kept yelling, "UNO MAS!!!" which means "ONE MORE"!!
The thing about the MCG is that it is not a proper soccer pitch. It's a cricket ground. So the field was the wrong size & shape. Must be weird playing there when the players are used to a long rectangle field.
Anyways I saw LUCAS NEIL!!! WOOOOWOOOOOOT!!! It was hard to take a picture (as you can tell, the pictures are all blur) because the stands were some distance away from the pitch.
The Aussie team did a lap of victory around the pitch after the game ended to thank the fans for coming to support them. They always do that, so I asked Syl to wait with me until they finished their round (thanks!).
In conclusion, the match was exciting, the Argentinian goalkeeper was fantastic (Roberto Abbondanzieri) and we went home cheering for both teams because although Aus lost, it was a great effort on their part, especially without their key players.
Yinny was Joshing around @ 9:11 PM
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