Yesterday afternoon, in the oven that is the Fritz Walter Stadion in Kaiserslautern, Australia won it’s first ever World Cup Final match. They beat Japan 3-1. You wait for 32 years for a goal and then three come along in 8 minutes.
I couldn’t be happier.
I watched the game at the Walkabout in Covent Garden. There was no electricty in the Covent Garden area. After five days of warmish weather the grid shat itself. Luckily the Walkabout had a generator so the TVs were working if nothing else. The lack of A/C and the scrum of tightly packed Aussie bodies meant that the conditions on the Kaiserslautern pitch were recreated perfectly.
The Japanese scored first. It was a dodgy goal and the ref has apologised since to both Mark Schwarzer (goalie) and Dukes (captain). But it stood and for a long time it looked like it would be enough to knock our World Cup campaign on the head. Then, with less than 7 minutes left on the clock, Timmy Cahill scored Australia’s first ever World Cup final goal. And then he scored again. Then, two minutes into injury time, John Aloisi thought he’d have a go too. Those of you who live under the flightpath of the third runway in Sydney will have an idea of the decibel levels at the Walkabout.
I’m the first to admit it wasn’t the greatest game of football. Neither Australia or Japan are going to win the World Cup. But it was our first World Cup Final win ever and it played out like a Hollywood script. And best of all, the Sheilaroos (as The Guardian likes to call them) never gave up.
As Sally is always saying ‘You Aussies never know when you’re beat!’
Below you’ll find a selection of pictures from the match that I’ve stolen from various web sites. You’ll find a very funny blow-by-blow description of the match by Barry Glendenning from The Guardian here.
I’m off to the chemist to get something for my throat!
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Congratulations!
Just one little remark: The stadium is called “Fritz-Walter-Stadion” and is named after this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Walter_%281920-2002%29
Hey Patrick,
Thanks for that!
I liked the fact that Fritz played better the worse the weather was! I wonder how he would have found the heat yesterday?
I am quite sure he would not have liked it at all – one bit of information missing on the english wikipedia page is that he hated heat since he was on Sardinia, Corsica and Elba during WW2 and had malaria. After that, he preferred cold weather.
Sounds like quite a party in the Walkabout. My local was also absolutely sweltering, albeit for the England game on Saturday. However, after half-time we were playing so badly that I don’t suppose anyone would’ve really minded if there’d been a power-cut.
Do you suppose Mr Hiddink could have a word with Sven about how to score in the second half?
Nick,
I don’t know what the FA were thinking when they didn’t just appoint Guus without the rigmorale of an interview. If he was in charge of the English team they’d win the World Cup – no doubt about it. Where Sven is cautious with his substitutions Guus is fearless. He proved it when he bought Kewell on in Sydney and then when he brought on Cahill and Aloisi yesterday.
In short, Guus knows what he is doing. Sven doesn’t.
Peter,
The scary thing is that Sven probably does know what he’s doing – or at least he thinks he does. He’s got a track record that reads ‘safety first’, and is therefore way, way too cautious, especially when trying to protect a lead. His idea of killing off a game is to close up and take no chances, thus effectively inviting the opposition to equalise – unlike (say) Italy, who killed off the Ghana game by pushing forward and scoring another!
I’m pretty sure that Guus Hiddink wouldn’t have accepted the England job if he’d been offered it – just one look at the intense media scrutiny/pressure/intrusion would be enough to put anyone off that job!
Enjoy the Brazil encounter! The way they played against Croatia, you guys could be in with a chance!