2011 reflections

Just wanted to keep this site ticking over.
Its now 5 years on and while the memories have faded somewhat, the emotion comes rushing back whenever photos or videos of Germany 06 are shown. That part will never fade.

A lot has changed since 06.

A disappointing Asia Cup in 07 (fucking Arnie)
A successful qualification campaign for SA 2010....including attendance at some of the home qualifiers.
SA 2010 - A disappointing performance against Germany followed by redeeming shows against Ghana and Serbia......and the emergence of Brett Holman as a socceroo hero!
Funny how the same results (albeit with different scorelines) got us through in Germany.

A new coach - Holger's Hero's and a refreshing attitude to young local players (Im actually thinking of coming out of international retirement).

A hugely successful Asia Cup 2011. Losing in the final but finishing the better team. And the Emergence of some local hero's - like Matty Mackay.

One Year On

Well....
a year has passed since we sat (or stood) in the FritzWalter Stadion in Kaiserslautern and witnessed, first hand, Australian sporting history being made. The game/goals have been shown many times on our TV screens since (I watched the game again last night)...but what do I remember about our day...I think I'll make a list:

• An early morning wake-up in tent 1
• Such a beautiful day
• The queue for the buses heading in to K-town
• Aussie songs on the bus (shivers down the spine)
• Fritz-Walter-Stammtisch (aka Burger King corner) and more Aussie rock - and the friendly Germans
• Ticket touts (all scousers...well alot of them were)
• Those guys in their sumo outfits and all the Japanese getting photos with them
• Singing under the railway bridge
• Beers just near the bridge
• The walk up the stairs to the stadium - through the thick forest
• The heat
• That awful feeling that we were never going to score and that the whole WC campaign/our trip was down the shitter
• Super Tim!!!!
• feeling emotionally and physically spent
• The crush to get out of the stadium
• The sad, but noble in defeat, Japanese
• Sitting on the hot ground in the fan-fest watching the following match (cant remember which one it was)
• Happy Aussies everywhere
• Happy Germans sharing their beers with us

I could go on - but no one really cares. I just needed to reflect - because I was worried that my memories of the day were being slowly replaced by what I watched on the DVD of the match.

We all have our own special memories of that time.

There will surely be more magic days like that one. There have been some magic football moments since (not all socceroos related) - eg The Jets thumping Melbourne 4-0 at the EAS and Over-hauling Sydney in the second leg semi a few weeks later.

And now we all look forward to the Asia Cup. Im confident we can put in the performance which reflects our status in Asia. Im pumped for the AC - especially since our own Nicky Carle will be there with the Socceroos

Sadly, Shane and I will not be in Thailand.

GO THE SOCCEROOS

Match Day: Australia v Italy

The world cup is over for the Socceroos, but we go out with heads held high. The manner of the defeat was hard to take. The lads played very well and looked the goods to progress to the last 8.

I think the Australian Football team has earned a lot of respect through its performances at the cup and surprised a great many people. Even here in the UK, the press have been right behind us. And we are all proud of the lads.

The next steps are important for the football federation, a new coach is needed and the best man available needs to be sought, sparing no expense. This success needs to be built upon.
We now look forward to the Asian cup and then beyond to the next qualification phase for South Africa 2010.

For Shane and I, last night was our last in London and the culmination of a wonderful journey. We were part of football history, we experienced some of the huge party that is a world cup and contributed to it in our own small way. We sung our hearts out, screamed and shouted.

We met many wonderful people from all over the world and made some good friends.

All that said, we both agree that we are ready to come home. We miss our families very much and are looking forward to seeing them again.

Match day - Australia v Croatia

As I write this, I am back in Bad Durkheim having driven here from Stuttgart with Tim. Shane is on the London Coach which is somewhere between here and Calais.

Last night has become the greatest night in the History of Australian Football. You all know about the match but I will add a few things about the pre-match.

The main mall in Stuttgart was a sea of both red and white and green and gold. When we heard the Cro's sing we knew we were in for a big night- they were easily the most vocal of the opposition supporters we had faced.

Tim and Michael Mann joined us for this match and they were both glad they made the effort to get to south-west Germany.

Some of the songs of note on the night were

Youre red youre white
youre going home tonight

Youre shit but youre chicks are hot

youre shirt looks like a chequered table cloth.

Shane will post photos when he gets a chance so stay tuned.

Dachau and The Samba Party

After a beer free day yesterday, we felt human once again and the morning was devoted to visiting the Dachau Concentration camp. This is place where many thousands of people were murdered and the site of some pretty horrendous medical experiments on prisoners. We saw the crematoria and gas chamber and left in a very sombre mood.

After the mornings activities it was time to head back to the LowenBrau Keller for the Samba Party. About 2000 Aussies in attendance and all in fine voice. Entertained by a selection of aussie hits followed by samba music and dancers. It was a Huuuuuge party.

Celebrities in attendance included:

the guy from Men at Work (Colin Hays?)
Matty Johns
Fatty
Eddie Maguire
John Oniell
Robbie Slater
Frank Farina
Sam Newman (Who was spat in the face and got into a punchup with some dickhead)

The Pictures tell the story

The Werfen Ice Caves and Salsburg

Today we piled onto the bus we call the shit bus and headed to Austria to take in the stunning beauty of the Austrian Alps and the largest ice caves in the world.

After a white-knuckle ride up the mountain to the ice caves we trecked another several hundred metres up to the entrance of the caves. It was a hot day and we were looking forward to some relief in the caves.

Shane had done this tour before and warned us that it was cold in there. When they opened the entrance door and an icey, 80 km\hr wind blasted us, we knew he was right.

The caves are AMAZING - 42 km deep. we trecked in 1 km. Harold our guide (Sherpa) was happy that with 200 Australians in the cave at once, we must have had the world record for Aussies in an ice cave.

After the ice caves, we drove to Salsburg in time for the Netherlands v Ivory Coast game. The world cup has served up some great games so far and this one was no exception.

After this, it was back on the shit bus and home through a massive afternoon storm. Luckily, when we got back to the tent, the contents were dry.

The FFA travel staff have been working their socks off to make sure we are having the time of our lives - they were working into the night ensuring tents were zipped up and everything stayed dry.

It was a beer and sausage free day for us today.

Bavarian Bar Crawl

The big fuck off pretzle ...not big enough to hide the git in the background

Prost


After a great night last night, we had a quiet morning in preparation for another big one. 1000 Aussies embarking on a Bavarian bar-crawl. The first venue was the Hirschgarten biergarten - the biggest beer garden in the world. The weather was beautiful once again and we enjoyed our first stein of the day with some great friends from Brisbane.

Then the large group split up into 3 sub-groups and headed for one of 3 beer gardens. Our next port o call was the lowenbrau bier garten and stein number 2 was demolished here.

The 3rd stop was our final - we went there early to get a good seat for the England v T&T match. There were further steins consumed and the singing was as good as ever.

My personal favourite was "Warnie shagged your missus and your Mum" sung to the Poms in the crowd. We are all new to this world cup supporters thing but we are learning fast and we will need all our skills against Brasil on Sunday.

WE ARE STILL NOT ABLE TO UPLOAD PHOTOS: WE EXPECT TO GET A CHANCE TO UPLOAD THESE LATER TODAY.

The Tent in Munich

After a 6-hour ride in what was the absolute best coach we had ever been in, we now are at the Tent in Munich. A massive sea of green tents has been erected. Facilities are ok - they dont seem to be as good as in Bad Durkheim - already, there is a queue for the showers.

We are kicking back in the little internet cafe at the camp-site, watching Aussie Mark Sheild officiating the Tunisia v Saudi match - which is being played here in Munchen. As with every so far here in Germany, the weather is HOT. Shane has cracked his first beer of the day. We are a little dusty today after what can only be described as the best party we have ever experienced last night. (singing and dancing on tables and swinging from the rafters). The Knaus campground put on 2 free barrels of beer last night which fueled the festivities and seeing Australia sitting top of the group after the Brasil game was an excuse to party late into the night.

We will post photos later.