The match was scheduled to occur a day earlier in a larger venue closer to the city centre. Sadly it rained heavily for most of Saturday as well as rain in the days leading up to the game with the end result that the game was announced as cancelled about 15 minutes prior to the scheduled kickoff. From the point of view of the match it was the better decision as water had collected on the surface which meant that no matter how hard you kicked the ball if it went along the ground it wouldn't travel more than 5 metres.
Of course the interstate travellers would have been less than impressed.
So thanks to an unco-operative South Sydney Rugby League club Australia's World Cup campaign continued at Parramatta stadium the following evening which meant another visit to the place where even standing up is denied.
The day went largely rainless and although there was some rain during the game it was fairly light and intermittent. Most importantly apart from the surface moisture the ground was firm and quite flat. The turnout was officially 14,045 but considering the grandstands on both sides were almost full I should have thought the attendance was greater.
I got to the ground early (coming across Kevin Christopher), sat back and looked up at the night sky. It gets dark early in winter. The stadium lights were only partially on and allowed me to see the merest crescent of the moon hanging just above the roof of the far (Ken Thornett?) grandstand. Meanwhile a small Martian probe, the first since Viking 2 in 1976, made its first findings known to mankind after landing barely a day earlier. I await eagerly the news that there are a series of purpose built stadia on Mars in preparation for the Martian bid for the 2006 Wor^H^H^HSolar System Cup.
Oh well there were more immediate concerns. The previous day the first Test of the Bledisloe Cup between Australias and New Zealands Rugby Union sides was played out in Auckland resulting in a 30-13 win to the home side. The Rugby team of New Zealand are known as the All Blacks, due to the uniform I might add, and the Soccer side have taken up the concept becoming known as the all-whites. Except this night they wore all-black in what was, perhaps, one final desperate attempt to pick up on the overwhelming superiority of their Rugby cousins over the Australian team and use it to spring the upset every Australian fears when playing New Zealand. In our favour was the withdrawal of Wynton Rufer from the NZ squad, due to a back injury which he had carried for most of the NZ camapaign and eventually expediency got the better of him.
Game on.
Well since I am bound to repeat myself after all these games I will keep it brief. After Australia scored so early, just after 5 minutes, from a long range dipping shot by Ned Zelic which eluded the fingertips of the flying Batty there was some belief that there could be a solid flogging of the Kiwis. However due to some determined defence and a relaxation, whether intentional or not, of the Australian effort saw to it no further goals were scored. Although John Aloisi did shoot wide from a pullback by Graham Arnold there were not as many clear cut scoring opportunities as there had been a week ago. Also unlike the previous week New Zealand got some decent chances, mainly in winning headers from crosses. Mark Bosnich saw fit to vehemently question the concentration of his defenders and from the appearance of things he had good reason.
Best for Australia on the night were again Craig Foster and Ned Zelic, though that's not to say the others played badly but with an aggregate of 4-0 in hand it is hard to remain as committed as if the scores were level, Foster looked the most committed (no doubt trying to retain the spot in the team) and Zelic the most skilful, let's hope he stays free of injury. Craig Moore, who had been injured the previous game, was substituted after getting a knock late in the first half. Also Aurelio Vidmar, Mark Bosnich and (urgh I forget the the last player) were all sitting on yellow cards from the previous game and there was some concern a second one in this match may mean a suspension for the first game against the Asian qualifier.
Then in the second half Graham Arnold finally scored one for Australia, he had been described as past his use-by date and he himself was worried about his form so when he collected the ball from a Bosnich clearance and lobbed the onrushing New Zealand keeper for the second goal he celebrated enthusiastically.
Nothing of major concern happened in the remaining 30-odd minutes of New Zealand's 1998 World Cup campaign though it was nice that coach McGrath gave the youngsters such as Noah Hickey a run. An investment in the future perhaps, although bringing on Rodger Gray had a less clear motive. Australia too substituted their forward line and brought on Damain Mori and Paul Trimboli neither of whom did anything markedly better than their predecessors.
Now comes the planning of warm up games so that once the 4th placed Asian team of the 10 remaining sides Australia will possibly face is known Australia will be in peak condition to advance to the World Cup final tournament in France. Rumoured opponents have been Greece and Croatia with murmurs about games against England also circulating.