LIVE MATCH...

7 Oct 2006, Sat - A chance of a lifetime for Brisbane dwellers, LIVE Soccer Match: Socceroos vs Paraguayians!

It is rare for the Australian national soccer team to be playing in Brisbane, so Brissies throng up the Suncorp stadium in force - 47,000 strong of them including 5 of us.


On the train, on the way to Milton Station, the nearest station to Suncorp Stadium.





We paid $20 bucks each to have a seat in the restricted viewing area. How restricted? We didn't have much clue but just to speculate that we might be staring at the goal posts since we are in the third row from the front.


The view from our seat. Not too bad, not that restricted. Just that we can't see all the action that's happening on the other side





Nevertheless, we made our way there at half past six, only to reach the Milton train station packed with supporters. We had to walked right around the stadium from the station to our gate entrance (taking us a good half hour), rendering us missing the grand entrance of the Socceroos and some butt butt had the cheek to sit at our seats!

But, things soon settled down, and we proceeded to enjoy the atmosphere...


Look at the amount of people here!






Instead of hearing "Referee kayu!!!", the chant here is "I'm deaf, I'm blind, I wanna be a ref!" when they are mad at the referee's decision. Some other chants to sneer the opponents are "Bull Shit Ah..................." . Also, there were no curry puffs or bandung sold here, but only beer, soft drinks and hot dogs....


Fanatic fans....






For the first half, all the action took place at the other court. From where we were sitting, all we could see was a bunch of people running around, supposedly trying to score. However, no goals were created then.


Back up players, warming up.











Come second half, we thought that all the action will take place at our side. But to our surprise, it wasn't to be. The Paraguayians seemed to have "wake up their idea" and improved on their defence, but was attacking the Aussie goalie too.


One of the few goal mouth scramble before our very eyes....










But our wait was worth it, because the first goal was created right in front of our eyes! It was over in a whif, but everybody was egging the Socceroos on, watching the match at the end of their seats and when the ball was headed past the Paraguayian goal keeper everybody jumped up from their seats with their arms in the air shouting "GOAL!!!!!!!"... Everybody was so elated.

But our joy was shortlived, as a couple of minutes down the road something happened that caused the whole stadium to come down to complete silence. Another goal was created. But there was no celebration.... because it was an own goal made by a Socceroo. It happened so fast, that most people went: "What the? What happened?"....

The match ended 1:1. It wasn't a perfect ending and when the match ended, everybody sort of shuffle through. There wasn't much jubilation / celebration... Then again, this match was mostly for players who are playing their last match before their retirement. Hence, not as crucial as a real match.



Until the next match in Brisbane....