2-0

Along with the three biggest soccer fanatics I know - CM, AM and PB2 (ie. not the PB from my poker do) - I attended tonight's Asian Cup qualifier between Australia and Kuwait at Aussie Stadium.

It was officially a sell-out, although certain sections of the stadium weren't used. Nevertheless, the 99.99% home crowd meant the atmosphere was excellent, with plenty of English-style chants. Pity about the morons bouncing beach balls overhead and organising Mexican waves - we're there to watch soccer, dammit! It's insulting to the players and distracting for serious spectators.

But I digress...

Despite fielding a second-string team, we were overwhelming favourites with the bookies. However, it was Kuwait who had the first two chances to score. For a team of amateurs (in the literal sense - they have day jobs), they were surprisingly polished and kept us to 0-0 at half time. I don't know their players' names, but the goalie, along with numbers 17 and 2 impressed me most.

The second half was headed the same way until Travis Dodd broke through for a goal, then set up Sasho Petrovski for our second just before full-time. I've already heard people saying it was superior fitness that got us home, but in my opinion it had more to do with a great individual effort from Dodd, a deserved "man of the match" winner. David Carney was our only other player who ever really threatened, with a pair of powerful strikes.

Anyway, it's all fodder for tomorrow's newspapers now. We won and are into the finals of the Asian Cup, while Kuwait can be proud of going toe to toe (boot to boot?) with a much higher-ranked side for a good 75 minutes.