Australia Through to World Cup!

This one's for the Brits.

I witnessed something quite spectacular last night. Australia beat Uruguay in an unbelievably intense game to make it through to the World Cup. That in itself wasn't spectacular, although it was a great game which went through to extra time and then penalties. I couldn't help but get caught up in the thrill of the moment as I remembered with horror some of the worst moments in English football history when we lost in penalty shoot-outs. My theory that the first team to lose a penalty loses the game proved correct when Australia's giant of a goalie, Mark Schwarzer courageously saved the first Uruguayan penalty. The fact that the Aussie captain Viduka shot his penalty wide (at least I think it was him - I'm still not quite sure who is who in Aussie football) and missed didn't even matter when the Aussie goalie made another good save of Uruguay's fourth attempt. Oh the tension! Now knowing that if Australia scored their next penalty they were through. And they did it.

Yes, it was a good game but what was really spectacular was the response. Honestly! You'd have thought they'd won the World Cup itself. Everyone was so excited. I've never seen such a big fuss. I got quite into it myself, I have to admit. It made me a little homesick to think I'll be missing all the big England games but the atmosphere last night was just amazing. The commentators reminded me a bit of English commentators as they kept going on about 31 years of shame.

It's great to see the Aussies getting so into a real sport for once (usually it's all about picking up squashed balls and running in games I can't quite tell the difference between - expect AFL players wear skimpier clothing) but the country partied on into the night to celebrate their World Cup entry. Personally, I'm just happy to be on the side of the winning team of a penalty shoot-out for once. And it is refreshing to see how happy everyone is - in England we see it as a right to be in the World Cup and the fans seem to do nothing but whinge about the performance of the team and pick up on the mistakes, such as missed penalties. (Incidentally I have so far read no mention of the missed penalty!) Perhaps this is the crucial difference between Australia and England... the arrogance of the Aussies when it comes to sport, and their ungraciousness in defeat (and I'm talking about the media here, not the sportsmen themselves) really bugs me, but at least they focus on the positive and it seems to get them results.

I feel like I have witnessed a great moment in Australian sporting history and I'm looking forward to the excitement of the World Cup next year - although I'm a little nervous that I'm going to be surrounded by so many Aussies backing their own team. It'll be great to be a part of but I do wish I could come home and watch the England games with the usual crowd (you know who you are). Now I just have to get them all calling it by it's proper name instead of the poncey word "soccer" which they insist on using.