Squad numbers for the trip

Thanks to Glenn who made these...

Memories of Sydney Nov 16 2006

The beginning

A journey beginning as 5 year old’s in the garage of 26 Kendall Street Charlestown while kicking one of George Hunstone’s many soccer balls is finally being fulfilled in Mark & Shane’s trip to Germany 06.

Having played football together for the same junior & senior club since the late 1970’s and following the local NSL & A-league teams Mark & Shane are itching to fulfill the dream of going to the world cup (even though neither of us were even remotely able to play for our country, we would both qualify for Nerd's FC).

But this world cup is special because it is the first time the Aussies have made it since the dream began and we will be partying on behalf of everyone unable to get there and showing our team the support that they deserve.

Gee I am stuggling to concentrate on work today!

Aus v Greece 25 May 2006

Just a quick mention of the Greece match....

Last Thursday, Dad, Mat and I travelled to Melbourne to see the Socceroos play their friendly match against Greece.

It was also a pre-world cup warm up for me - with the travelling, drinking, singing shouting etc. Shane was doing the same back in Newcastle.

I was pleased with our personal performance on all fronts. We were strong in the drinking and singing departments.

All in all, a memorable night - proud to have been part of the 95,103 crowd.

Some highlights:

Seeing the "Getaway Program" filming a segment with the Fanatics Boys
Being at the GGarmy function and singing our hearts out for the lads!
Seeing those 2 blokes run on the field at full time and being chased by security. I hope their mates chipped in for the $6000 fines!

Welcome to our Road to Germany Blog

Hello?? Is this thing on??

So this is what a Blog is!

I thought it would be a nice idea to document the adventure that Shane and I will soon embark upon.

This whole trip was totally unexpected. Having been unsuccessful in the initial FFA round for those precious world cup tickets, I had resigned myself to sleepless nights in front of the telly watching all the action of Germany 06 unfold on SBS.

But.... on the 6th of April at around lunch time, all that changed - I got the email Congratulations etc etc. My immediate action was to call Shane and the ball began to roll.

So after a number of hectic weeks, booking flights (thanks to Holly from flight centres) and paying for the FFA camping package, we are off to the world cup to see the socceroos do us proud. It is still hard to believe that we will actually be there in person!

I hope we will be able to post on this site regularly while we are on our journey. If not, then I will have wasted about 30 minutes of my life setting this page up.