Just came back from the game at the G. Much more entertaining game this time round, with the boys playing some nice football.
I saw there were a couple incidents which were going to blow up, but this time round the Aussie tackling was much more cleaner. Brazil got a few hacks in this time too, and really came off as a real bunch of whingers (they had a good argument for the Sydney game).
I rightfully reserved my judgment on the Aussie tackling in Sydney, but I think Wadey summed it up very well. Some of Moore's tackles were bordering on being "barbaric" as Wade put it. He played a much better (and cleaner) game tonight.
As to the result, it doesn't mean much. For starters, only one of their best four players started tonight (Alex, Ronaldinho and Fabio Junior didn't start - Not sure about Fabio?), and they made a difference when they came on. Meanwhile the Aussies rested Viduka after a corker of a performance, which I'm sure FF wouldn't have done if the match counted. Agostino scored two nice goals, and hit the bar off a scorching free kick.
The Zelic incident pisses me off. As someone said earlier, you should stick to a core of players that start every match. He would've been one of my core players, and the whole "Okon and Zelic can't play together" argument is garbage. I don't justify his reaction to being dropped for one game, but I think there must be more to it.
The Olympic Football opener at the G was plugged pretty hard, with pretty girlies handing out flyers and ads coming up on the scoreboards regularly. I think it would've recieved a big boost from this match. My Aussie Rules mate turned to me after our 2nd goal saying, "Imagine the reaction when it counts in the Olympics".
On the last note, 80k was a nice crowd for a Wednesday afternoon. And there was more noise made for the Aussie goals than the Brazilian ones... There might've been a bunch of foreign-strip wearing people, but many of them were supporting Australia. The whole end where Australia were attacking the first half was very pro-Australia, and made a lot of noise that helped the crowd get into it too (also the biggest fans of the Mexican wave!). With that, Bonnie, can you make sure the next WC qualifier match is played in Melbourne? :) You're one of the few Sydney-siders that experienced both matches and can see the difference! And once again the national anthem was sung with a bit of gusto!
written by {name withheld by request}