Football Fever
A mate asked me a couple weeks ago if I was interested in coming to the next Sydney FC game at Aussie Stadium (previously Sydney Football Stadium), which was last Friday night. I went. We sat in the 4th row from the pitch. We got soaked for 2 hours. It was a reasonable game I guess but the idiots in the row in front detracted somewhat from the guys on the pitch.
There were about a dozen of them and their average age, at a guess was around 16 or 17. They were obviously just trying to impress each other with the comments they were yelling at the ref, the linesmen, the other team (Central Coast Mariners), the ball boys... The 1st half would have been rated R18+ for sure. They calmed down a little in the 2nd half (estimated rating: about M). Actually a few of them didn't return from going off at half time to get something to eat/drink - I guess they'd had enough sitting in the rain. They were just yelling for the sake of hearing their own voices. Ridiculous comments. Telling the ref he was making terrible calls when there was no question about his decisions - they were fine.
Anyway, the nearby high school idiots notwithstanding, the game was OK. Sydney scored first after about 10 minutes and Central Coast drew even about 5 minutes later from a penalty (I have to say the penalty was a little dubious - looked like it was outside the area to me but it's hard to tell from the sideline at about the halfway line). Central Coast went further ahead just before half time. Second half, nothing much happened for some time. Finally Sydney drew level with a simple put away for Dwight Yorke right in front from a cross (that drew the backs off - shocking defense) with about 15 minutes to go. Yorke was definitely Sydney's star. My mate and I were with 2 other guys who decided it was time to go at about the 85 minute mark - bad timing. Central Coast popped in the winner right on 90 minutes - free kick from about 5m outside the box towards the far post, through the wall, off a defender, wrong footed the keeper who was heading for the far post and it snuck in the near post. The 30 Central Coast fans (total attendance was 15,614) behind the Central Coast goal went crazy and in the rest of the stadium there was stunned silence. With only 3 minutes stoppage time remaining my friend & I decided it was time to go.
A reasonable game, exciting finish. Shame about the morons in row C. On the whole it was kind of fun (late night though - kick off at 8pm, home at about midnight...<yawn>) But being soaked for 2 hours (trying to keep my laptop dryish) at about 10 deg C gave me new respect for the poms that sit in the rain/sleet/snow at < 5 deg C for a couple hours to see a Premier League game...although they do get to watch a couple teams full of Dwight Yorkes. For that kind of talent I might be willing to sit through that more than once as well.
There were about a dozen of them and their average age, at a guess was around 16 or 17. They were obviously just trying to impress each other with the comments they were yelling at the ref, the linesmen, the other team (Central Coast Mariners), the ball boys... The 1st half would have been rated R18+ for sure. They calmed down a little in the 2nd half (estimated rating: about M). Actually a few of them didn't return from going off at half time to get something to eat/drink - I guess they'd had enough sitting in the rain. They were just yelling for the sake of hearing their own voices. Ridiculous comments. Telling the ref he was making terrible calls when there was no question about his decisions - they were fine.
Anyway, the nearby high school idiots notwithstanding, the game was OK. Sydney scored first after about 10 minutes and Central Coast drew even about 5 minutes later from a penalty (I have to say the penalty was a little dubious - looked like it was outside the area to me but it's hard to tell from the sideline at about the halfway line). Central Coast went further ahead just before half time. Second half, nothing much happened for some time. Finally Sydney drew level with a simple put away for Dwight Yorke right in front from a cross (that drew the backs off - shocking defense) with about 15 minutes to go. Yorke was definitely Sydney's star. My mate and I were with 2 other guys who decided it was time to go at about the 85 minute mark - bad timing. Central Coast popped in the winner right on 90 minutes - free kick from about 5m outside the box towards the far post, through the wall, off a defender, wrong footed the keeper who was heading for the far post and it snuck in the near post. The 30 Central Coast fans (total attendance was 15,614) behind the Central Coast goal went crazy and in the rest of the stadium there was stunned silence. With only 3 minutes stoppage time remaining my friend & I decided it was time to go.
A reasonable game, exciting finish. Shame about the morons in row C. On the whole it was kind of fun (late night though - kick off at 8pm, home at about midnight...<yawn>) But being soaked for 2 hours (trying to keep my laptop dryish) at about 10 deg C gave me new respect for the poms that sit in the rain/sleet/snow at < 5 deg C for a couple hours to see a Premier League game...although they do get to watch a couple teams full of Dwight Yorkes. For that kind of talent I might be willing to sit through that more than once as well.
posted by Mike Hodgson | 20:42
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