Socceroos

That's the name of the Australian National soccer team.  It is called soccer here.  And the Aussie's give their national teams nicknames.  Wallabies for rugby, Socceroos for soccer, Boomers for basketball ... I don't know any others.

So I found out about 4:45pm on a weekday that the Socceroos were in town that night to play a World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia.  As LT had a work function that night, I rang up a mate and met him down at AAMI Park to attend the match.  Attending a soccer match at the International level was a first for both of us, and I'll admit my expectations for an exciting evening were pretty low.  It's soccer.  Fun to play, typically mind-numbing to watch at the highest level.

So we ended up a section over from the Saudi Arabia section, amongst a bunch of Saudi Arabian fans.  A kind Saudi fan informed us the Saudi's needed an Oman loss and Saudi win to get in.  Australia had already qualified at this point.  A recipe for an away team blowout and we were amongst the away team fans who never took a breath from song nor chant the entirety of the contest ...

.... and oh what a contest it was!!  The Saudi's took a 1-0 lead 20 minutes in.  The Aussie's tied them up two minutes before the break and then gave up another one in the final minute of the half to go down 2-1 into the break.  The second half began with the Saudi's clearly trying to slow the pace and hold onto a 2-1 lead for an entire half.  It looked like they might as we watched Saudi defensemen hold possession for eons and my pulse faded.  I noted the location of the nearest defibrillator in the event this began to rival the boredom of a cricket match.

Then the Socceroos came to life and and attacked.  The crowd roared back with them on the heels of two disallowed goals and a Saudi that lay motionless until 2.37 seconds following the stretcher carry to the sideline.  The Aussie onslaught continued without results until the 75th minute.  By the 79th minute, the Socceroos had taken a 4-2 lead.  Three goals in three minutes.  The crowd was insane!!  4-2 was the final and our new Saudi friend had become sad prior to the final whistle.  Oman had won during the course of the match putting the Saudi's out of the World Cup.

Aussie Children Choir which did NOT sing prior to the match.

The Saudi section.  Never sat down.  Never stopped singing/chanting.

Loved the two Aussie's in the Saudi section with the large inflatable boxing kangaroo.
Some Saudis had begun the deflation process at this point.

Socceroos versus Saudi Arabia