I trust Forza's judgement on the penalty. It was impossible to see, of course, and I still haven't seen a decent replay. Having said that, most of the media seem to think it was a "soft" decision and I loved Paul Okon's comment AFTER the game "I said Italians are good referees. They always favour the home side."
Thrills?
Besides the result, of course, the biggest thrill was the noise when we were awarded the penalty; the tension of (almost) 85,000 people as he took it - with me saying to the crowd around me "Don't worry, Kevy will get it" - but not watching anyway; the mass intake of breath; the expansion of air and noise in celebration was just superb.
My stomach is still tense from the whole day in knots yesterday (actually from last week when I saw Frank), then the game and now Waiting for Monday.
I'm not going to comment on individual players other than to say Harry is simply superb and, in fact, is so very Australian in his aggression and (positive) arrogance/cockiness which is not at all misplaced because he has such a precocious talent. Just love it.
Disappointments? Just a few off-the-park ones:
* I didn't think the anthem sounded as good as it could or did last time;
* "sell-out"! Makes me really mad. There was a whole block of empty seats. How many people didn't try to go because they had been told for at least four days that it was a sell-out?????
* the flare in the vicinity of the GGA who also were not as vocal as I thought they would be.
I also think it's a shame that the WC regulations were not read closely enough to realise that Danny Tiatto wouldn't have been able to play. Frank has one less option than he might have had.
One game to go. It will happen.
Written by Bonnie Mersiades
The heavy-handed Taliban-esque antics of the Victorian Police no doubt had an intimidating effect there. Bay M2 was supposed to be a standing and singing area. Why so many police saw the need to renige on the arrangements and throw a random selection of a couple of supporters out for the heinous crime of actually standing in the vocal supporters group area isn't immediately obvious to me.
A few minutes later I went downstairs to answer a call of nature; and then on my way back I saw a group of about 5 police punching and kicking a supporter. I had my exceptionally poor quality digital camera with me and took a photo; and next thing I had 3 policemen surrounding me and threatening to charge me. I got away, but they've got my camera.
Written by tealmeister@yahoo.com.au
Nope. No difference! There is no cold hard light of day, just the same warm glow of last night [:-)]
There is one worry that is scratching the back of my mind though. It has again passed with little or no comment how poor our preparation was for these games. It is IMO worse than 97. Sure we had the Confed Cup but that was in June and that was not the same team as last night. In fact, quite a few of the players even then left early to tie the knot!
The France match and even last night showed that we (or Frank) hasn't quite worked out yet how to play Harry, Vidukes, Agostino, Emerton and Stan together in the same team... or even if at all. Has it been worked out? Did anyone else get that feeling that things with this team (the second time they have played with each other) are still way too much on the experimental side? Too many times straight to Harry (if that is a bad thing)? Too many runs by Emerton into the corner flag? All those corners and only one real chance.
Uruguay on the other hand showed that they were battle hardened and quite a unit. Their problem is fatigue and again, IMO it showed in the last 10 -15 minutes last night.
At least, that was from my view in the stands. I have yet to review the tape of the match which was symbolically and ceremoniously recorded over that game in November, last century.
Written by Frank Savaglio
[Before the match...]
Despite the talk of whether flights, our opposition, the refs, the travel, etc etc help or hinder us, I am now convinced that it gets down to whether we win the first leg or not.
Apart from the task of coming from behind over there (I'm not sure we could do that), the sheer history of our campaigns (as recently posted ) tends to shift destiny for better or worse.
In other words, if the current team can win on home soil (never done at this stage of the WC before), then we are in. Especially if we concede no away goals.
This probably seems obvious, but I get the feeling that the real hoodoo is the lack of the home win, not the lack of qualification per se. If we smash that hoodoo, we will really steamroller through.
[...and after the match.]
See you in Melbourne.
1. We won our first final stage WC home qualifier. Ever.
2. We won at the MCG.
3. We scored at the Johnny Warren "non goal" end.
4. The English press (or some of them) have written us off.
Monkeys are falling off our backs.
I had a fantastic night.
Harry (old man) and I were on late flights - went straight from the airport to the ground. Found my brothers. All the usual suspects were there, but got the chance to meet Andre at long last.
The Bowmans were, as always, tearful nervous wrecks. I couldn't watch the penalty.
At the end of the game, a fantastic party started. Singing and dancing in the ground well after full time. Then outside, dancing along with hundreds and a samba band, singing and bouncing along. I was releasing 4, no 28 years of pent up depression - OK it's not over but for 5 days at least, I was going to enjoy this.
Back to Inflation for the post match function - more dancing (sorry Bec!!). Hit the sack in the early hours for the early flight back.
Had to apologise to all my patients this afternoon and own up as to why I had no voice. They were all delighted with the outcome of the game.
Written by Mark Bowman
I heard on radio 2KY Andy Paschalides say that Harry attempted to enter a players function with his brother(s?) and the security guard asked Harry who he was.
Allegedly...and I repeat allegedly cos its not good what follows......and this was stated by a non footballing commentator on the show......Harry said words to the effect of..."If you don't know who I am by now , don't worry about it.." and walked off in the huff.
That type of behaviour would NOT appear to be what one expects of the 'new' Harry though......but that *was* the gist of the report....
Allegedly, 'officials' then tried to get Harry to come back and get into the function but Harry refused.
The commentator said that the worst thing a 'celebrity' can say is "do you know who I am'...and the conversation quickly changed to more positive things.
Written by Fred Legget
In fact the only better thing could have been if Agostino's header went in on 68 minutes. Our chances to score a second would have improved greatly, although as would have Uruguay's chances for an equaliser.
Having said that, I do believe we should be very happy with the victory regardless of it only being a 1-0 lead.
Remember Uruguay flew to Equador for the game on the 7th, back to Uruguay for the game on the 14th, to Melbourne for the game on the 20th and then back to Uruguay for yet another game on the 25th. Each time they have played their result and performance has deteriorated. Each time they would have played, their confidence would have decreased. Each time the preparation, training, motivation talks and team building execises would become more and more mundane.
Remember, the Uruguayan players are just as human as the Australian players. And as much as this tie is a tug of war and battle of mental willness, believing you will succeed is vital. Australian players celebrated after the match in front of 85,000 supporters, whilst Uruguayan fans rioted and looted stores in their home country. That has to effect the players, your repsect for your own country. There comes a point (as do people in war) where they know what is right.
On a side note, does anybody actually know if Paul Okon has a decent shot at goal? It seems like he finds himself in the best of positions of the penalty area sometimes, and chooses to pass away from goal. I do remember his penalty miss against Paraguay, and I am sure Farina does too. But having said that, Kevin Muscat's penalty at the MCG was terrible and bloody hell, how lucky we are it actually went in.
Written by Markian Jaworsky
To me that was the unbelievable aspect of Tuesday. Before the match not only the Cricketers but Young & Jackson was full of crazed Socceroo supporters.
After the match, well those experiences will stay with me for ever.
The ever-charming Victorian police had once again spoilt the fun of the party singing up the back of M1, so everyone headed triumphantly outside. The scenes there were definitely better than those at the Champions League final in Bayern, where the overriding feling was of wanting to die through stress. Groups of Aussie fans engaged in mass 'mosh pits'. Hundreds more stood on the car park grass marvelling at it all. We are all going completely nuts!
The Bob Stand crew walked through the city, singing all the way. I had my green gold green flag and was waving it wildly at another passing by. Several Sydneysiders (actually members of St George rugby league flag group-we have friends in the most unlikely of places)joined us.
We got to Flinders St to suddennly be greeted by a sea of singing Socceroo fans. The traffic was stopped as fans started singing on both sides of Flinders & Swanston Street. In our group were Glory, Wollongong, Strikers and Spirit fans all in unison (until we started singing at the West Aussies! :-))
The highlight was the evening was when we were having a much-needed meal at Maccas at about 11:30pm. Suddenly in rocked about 6 Brasilians with drums. In their wake stormed at least 150 crazed Socceroo fans, with the whole upstairs level running down to take part in the drum celebrations. The whole Maccas store lost the plot completely and started engaging in a conga line (remember, this was in a McDonalds store!) The staff just stood there stunned, but nonetheless with grins on their faces as they tried to take in what they were witnessing.
Things like this only happen on a special special night. I'm still not down from it!
Written by Julian Farrell