How Much Fun Can One Boy Have?

That Used To Be MY Credo In The 90s
Alas the 90s are long gone and while nobody seems to look back with fondness the way babyboomers go on and on and on about the 1960s, truth is, I really miss the 1990s. The Naughties have been a bit of a drag. Still there's no reason to let up with the fun, so here's my sketchy account of a weekend mired in sports.











Working For A Quid


TV Tokyo wanted to a do a story in Sydney about the Japan Australia match; and I was the intrepretter-coordinator guy. It was hilarious. We staked out positions for the match down in Ciruclar Quay and Shelbourne's pub where soccer fans haad reserved a place to go whacko as the game unfolded. Then, we went and covered 'stories' ; one of the stories was how un-energised Sydney was about the match. The other story was the TAB betting chart. All very tongue in cheek takes on Sydney-side attitudes to the impending match.
The guys were such good sports they placed $50 bets or Japan to win, at the TAB as part of the story.

Now, I dunno about you, but I'd rather barrack for a team because I have an emotional investment without the gambling angle. I swear, if I had $50 riding on the Yankees in the World Series, frankly it would diminish my enjoyment as well as put a jinks on *my* team.

Anyway, eventually we were down in Circular Quay to see the action start in the first half. Then of course Japan went up 1-0 in the 23rd minute and the Japanese half of the crowd went bananas. They held onto that lead right up to half-time which was when we changed locations to Shelbournes.The game continued and Australia really didn't look too good as the score stayed 1-0, up to the 75th minute.

Just about then, the Japanese reporter asks me, "When this game is finished, can you ask these questions for me?: How do you feel about the loss?; how do you feel about the chances of Australia now? & How will Australia respond to this grave loss?"
I said "sure," thinking, "dude, how much can you jinx your own team like that? Firts you place bets, now you're talking about it like they've won it?"
Seriously, that is exactly what I thought.

Sure enough, the rest is history: 3 goals in the final 9minutes to Australia. Talk about Shock-And-Awe as Celebrations broke out everywhere. In the car later on, the postmortem on the Japanese side sounded really sad as I sat in the same car with a smirk in the dark.


Some Thoughts On The Socceroos
It's been a bloody long time coming that the powers that be in the Australian Soccer Federation finally:

1) Got their best payers from around the world together in one team.
2) Got a World Class Coach who knows how to conduct aa World Cup Campaign
3) Got a little lucky with the PR.

Truth be known, I can't think of any Socceroo team that met these pre-conditions. it's been a long time coming. During that time, Australia did dominate the Oceania block; it just wasn't good enough to be rated highly so they always came in with a rank of 42 or there abouts or worse.

I don't think anybody in the Australian soccer admin have ever seen a Socceroo team function properly as a proper Test Side should until this incarnation of the Socceroos. In other words, not even Australia knows how good it really is or can be until this World Cup is all said and done. We've simply never witnessed a proper Australian 'Test' team for soccer with the best bits in place and play until this year. Are they good enough to knock over Brazil? Our humility and common sense tells us no, and yet if ever there was an under-rated team in this World Cup, it's the 42nd ranked Socceroos.

BTW...
Even the NYT took notice of the Socceroos.

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany Australia waited 32 long years and 84 agonizing minutes for its first goal ever in the World Cup finals. Once it started Monday against Japan it could not stop.

Tim Cahill scored twice and John Aloisi added a third as Australia, which had trailed for almost the entire game, scored three times in the last eight minutes to win, 3-1.

Cahill's opening goal after 84 minutes was the first ever for Australia in the finals. It had failed to score in its three games in its only previous appearance in 1974. His second, in the 89th minute, gave Australia its first victory. Cahill, a second-half substitute who received a yellow card for a typically wild tackle, won the man of the match award for only 38 minutes of action. He also drew attention from his goalie, Mark Schwarzer, who had presented the Japanese with their goal after 26 minutes. The Australian players, and their coach, Guus Hiddink, who tussled with officials on the sideline as the replay was being shown, thought Schwarzer was fouled.

The noisy Australian fans made clear what they thought, although perhaps the referee, Abd El Fatah of Egypt, was unfamiliar with English sexual insults.

Well, the last bit's not too edifying.

A Quick Word About South Korea Supporters
After the celebrations broke out in Sydney Streets, we came across a group of Koreans rejoicing at the top of their lungs, chanting for South Korea. Excuse me if this sounds judgemental but that just is the very definition of having no class at all.

A Fantasy Life Is Better Than None
On top of all the above, there's this part of my life exploding this weekend:

Part 1. The AFL Fantasy League
This thing is really a bitch with conical metal tits. Once you have made your 20 alotted 'trades' which are essentially swaps with the free agency pool, you are screwed! Just screwed! Marooned without any real option to change or reshape your roster, and this is simply no fun. Plus getting beat by some guy I never even heard of until I signed on to this league just plain sucks; but there it is, that's a 4-4 record for my AFL Combat Wombats.

Part 2. The Fast Rise And Fall Of The Combat Wombats
For a brief moment, my fantasy baseball team did but linger in first place for 3 days. Then of course the wheels fell off and now they're back to 4th. I still can't tell if they're contending or fluking it from week to week.

Part 3. More World Cup Madness
Through some weird mishaps the likes of which are regular occurence on the net I've signed up for a Yahoo team for the World Cup as well as one for Sportal; and somehow ended up with essentially the same team. they're chugging along okay so far. My Sportal team is actually coming second as of this writing, but that will change again in a day.