June 12, the anniversary of our first goal in a World Cup, the anniversary of our first win in a World Cup, and the anniversary of football officially arriving in Australia (I call November 2005 unofficial).
A few years ago a friend who owns every sports DVD imaginable, came up with the great idea of reliving the Socceroos journey in Germany 06. He brought out the DVD of the Socceroos matches and we watched each fixture on the date and the exact time they started.
So on June 12, 2008 at exactly 11:00pm our time (3pm Kaiserslautern time), he hit the play button.
I guess it’s the kind of thing you can do when you’re at university and have a bit of spare time on your hands!
Our housemates of the female variety were quite perplexed that we would go to such lengths to recapture nostalgia. Of course, we could never create the exact feeling of watching that first match live against Japan.
I remember that night like it was yesterday.
Sitting in a dining hall kitchen at university, surrounded by a bunch of rugby boys who pretended they didn’t care about the match. Every player that went down in a tackle was heckled with “Get up you soft cock!”
They were pretending they didn’t care because they didn’t want to admit that this was the most nervous they’d been in any sports-watching experience.
Japan’s first goal was controversial. Everyone went silent.
When the score was still 1-0 to Japan after 80 minutes, the disdain was evident by the rugby boys; the frustration immense. “Hurry up and score already,” was the cry. “Bloody hopeless. What a joke of a team.”
And then, a seemingly innocuous throw-in by Lucas Neil in the 84th minute, fell fortuitously to Tim Cahill’s right boot.
If the Melbourne Cup stops the nation, that goal by Tim Cahill kickstarted a nation into frenzy. Those same rugby boys who had bemoaned the Socceroos for 83 minutes were now their biggest fans.
The first was lucky by Cahill, but his second was pure class.
Then Aloisi decided to take on the last defender, and won.
3-goals to 1. The greatest 10 minutes of Australian football.
Celebrations all round.
“When’s the next game?” Asked one rugby boy. “So we have to wait almost a week for the next match!”
“I reckon we can beat Brazil,” said another, who had amazingly become a football expert.
Ah yes, June 12 was a fun night.
While it was extremely frustrating sitting next to ignorant fools for 90 minutes, it was also refreshing to see a transformation. In seven minutes, I saw non-believers turn into football fanatics.
All I could think of was the famous message from the late Johnny Warren: “I told you so.”
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