I forgot to mention in last night's update that last Wednesday I attended the Australia/Qatar football match, the latest round in the Asian qualifying matches for the 2010 World Cup.
It began with an enormous storm, quite the loudest and heaviest I've been out in for ages. Of course the acoustics of the stadium encouraged the sound of the thunder claps to be magnified even further, and it was quite depressing to be there at 6:30 for a 7:30 kick off (delayed later for 30 minutes) and watch from 6:45 the players warming up whilst wading through masses of surface water.
The pitch drained away quite quickly after the deluge was over (storms never last more than an hour here in the sub tropics) but it was forecast for around 3pm, so its late arrival was an unusual problem.
The 4-0 result to Australia (The Socceroos) was indicative of a match that IMHO was lack lustre in the first half and then only moderately interesting in the second. Some of the Qatar players were lucky not to be fined by Actors Equity for acting whilst not being paid up members of the union. The Saudi ref was adequate, but I had little faith in him after the first half hour.
One lonely photo from my phone shows the action in the first moments. 34 000 spectators helped me enjoy the evening - you can't beat the atmosphere of being there 'live' - but it wasn't quite the fabulous game I had hoped for. Now the quarter final I saw in the 2000 Olympics between Brazil and Cameroon (the deciding goal for Cameroon in the 12th minute of the second half of extra time) was mind blowingly unforgettable. Cameroon later won the gold in Sydney. Now that's memorable football!
Australia is unbeaten in their round. Their Dutch coach, Pim Verbeek (keeping up the tradition of Socceroo Dutch coaches lately) was very happy with the team's performance. They go on to meet Bahrain next month and Japan in February. Let's hope the Socceroos feature in South Africa in 2010.
PS Thanks Kit for inviting me.
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