This was supposed to be a night to remember for all the right reasons. My top four Eels vs the 2nd last placed Dragons, a win securing our place in the Top Four and guaranteeing a first week finals home game. I invited our German friends, we got our tickets and head to their first ever rugby league experience. This was also my first trip to WIN Stadium, a stadium by the ocean with a traditional grass hill section. It was here on the hill that our tickets were purchased.

In honour of Italy’s breath-taking FIFA World Cup win over underdog Australia, a training camp video has been released to show the world just how Italy has become so effective at their game. One could say they are are the top of their game. USA and Australian fans surely agree.

On a serious note, Italy beat Australia in their Round of 16 knock-out match at the World Cup on the back of a disgraceful and controversial penalty kick award by the Spanish referee 8 seconds from full time. Yes, that’s 8 seconds. Enjoy!

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Unbelieveable! I don’t know how to describe what I just watched. With Australia playing Croatia at 1pm Thursday (my time)Â I tried in vain in grab a live video feed of the game on the Internet. Today it wasn’t going to be good enough to simply participate in the FIFA text updates. I had done this during Australia’s historic win against Japan. The Australia v Brazil game was Sunday morning (again my time) so I was able to watch at home. Today my frustration got the better of me as I grabbed a co-worker and went down to Cuckoo’s Chicken House and Sports Bar for lunch. And there I witnessed a pulsating, agressive, heart-pounding match on the big screen. With my boisterous Australian accent I quickly became a popular person in the bar, a number of yanks suddenly becoming temporary Australians to join in on the cheering (and perhaps cursing).

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Surprised? I’m not. In all honesty this was a match Brazil should have won and should have won easily. The two-nothing scoreline suggests they won comfortably, I’ll be the first to tell you that this is not the case. Here’s my reasoning:

The score was 0:0 at half-time
The first half was a defensive battle. The highly fancied Brazilians were expected to get off to a fast start and dominate the game early. We’re talking 5 time World Cup Champions over 88 World Cup Games and 190 Goals, versus an Australian team in the World Cup for the second time ever complete with their vast 4 game history and 3 goals. The Australians made us proud with their steadfast defence on each and every Brazilian raid. They even managed to take a few shots at goal themselves.

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I awoke early this morning to log on to my computer at home and see Australia head into it’s first World Cup appearance in 32 years. Our foe, Japan. Head to head the record stood at 4-3 in Japan’s favour in terms of wins. Australia is currently ranked 41st in the World and Japan 17th.

I had to leave for work, and I have to say it is difficult to work when your country is playing on the biggest stage in the world. Japan was heavily favoured and took the lead in the 26th minute with a somewhat controversial goal when Aussie goal keeper Mark Schwarzer looked to have been interfered with.