Australia vs Japan - First World Cup Win Ever
Trip Start
Apr 25, 2006
1
31
76
Trip End
Apr 25, 2007
Kaiserslauten,
Germany
Monday, June 12, 2006
For some of the journey to Kaiserslauten I assumed what would become known as "easyrider" position, which involved launching myself into our pile of pillows and sleeping bags on the main bed and having a bit of a nap. Not much happening in the town when we arrived at 2pm, so we stocked up on food/drinks and found a suitable parking spot at an outrageous price of 15 euros each. Right in the nads.
Aussie supporters going off
Walked into town to find that it was Little Australia in there. All the pubs had obviously studied the market because there was more AC/DC, Chisel, Icehouse etc than you could poke a stein at. The vibe was extremely upbeat, considering the must-win match against Japan was the next day, but thankfully it was all good-natured and not too many dickheads around. Needless to say, we watched all the matches for the day and kept partying well into the night.
Match Day: Australia vs Japan
Feeling very seedy, we headed back into the main street for prematch atmosphere and to find me a ticket. Hard to imagine, but it seemed there were possibly more Aussies than the day before - the streets simply heaving with them. Ran into a few ticket scalpers early in the day asking 300 euros, but decided to ride my luck until closer to kick-off so that I'd have a bit more bargaining power. It paid off, because about an hour before the match I got a ticket for 100 euros. I must declare at this point that it really irked me to hand over any money to this bloke, seeing as there were so many Pommie scalpers who had obviously robbed real Aussie supporters of tickets just to make some cash.
Aussies go mental night before the game
Pretty heavy security at the stadium gates - every single supporter was padded down, and ANY bottles (suncream, water, deodorant) were all thrown in the bin. Once inside it was staggering to see that although I'd only run into about 5 Japanese supporters in 2 days, suddenly half the stadium was filled with them! Naturally they had been at the stadium for hours, and the Aussie supporters were rocking up just before kick-off...
The game really speaks for itself. If you didn't see it, I'd have to ask you why. After trailing to a suspect (ie foul) goal for much of the match, we looked threatened to lose to a dodgy refereeing call (essentially ending our chances of progressing). Fortunately, 84 minutes of heartache were soon replaced with 6 minutes of brilliance, as we piled on goal after goal in classy fashion to bury the hapless Japanese. The euphoria in the ground is impossible to describe, and naturally it continued well into the night.
So there it is, I witnessed the first goal by an Australian in a World Cup, as well as the first win by Australia in a World Cup - well worth the price of entry I reckon. The high spirited Australian supporters are some of the most passionate I've seen, and the Australian anthem was by far the loudest I'd heard - there is a sense of history being made, and we're not finished yet!
