Last night the Australian Soccer team, the Socceroos, took on the Greek national team in a friendly. It is unbelievable the hype that surrounded this game – I can’t imagine how it can get much bigger for the World Cup games next month. It is not surprising the interest in this game – the promoters found the right opponents for Australia in Greece as Melbourne has one of the highest populations of Greeks outside of Greece itself. I couldn’t get tickets to the match as I was a bit slow – they all sold out in a couple of hours, and had to watch on TV. Australia played quality football, beating Greece 1-0 – indicating that they deserve to be at the World Cup. The game was played at the home of Cricket and AFL – the MCG. These other sporting codes must be concerned about the interest in soccer/football. After the World Cup undoubtedly more and more people will be playing and watching the game, which has to impact of the figures of the other codes. I am happy watching any sport played at an elite level, though I am particularly happy to watch Australia playing and winning.
Related Pages: soccer, Football World Cup, Australia at the WC
I have moved around Australia quite a few times over the last 20 years, spending time in Perth, Darwin, and Canberra, finally making it back to Melbourne, the home of my birth. In my attempts to stay healthy with a small amount of aerobic fitness, I sometimes venture out onto the roads and parks for a jog (I do it too slowly to call it a run!). In Perth there were some great spots along the river in Nedlands, and around Lake Monger, and the weather was usually pleasant to hot. Darwin was always hot but you can get used to that. Canberra was a challenge. I started running each morning before work, and I lasted until one morning the temperature dropped below zero. That was too much for me and I had to find other methods of keeping fit. Now in Melbourne I am finding the same problem, but I reckon it is even harder than in Canberra. The cold air and wind are not very appealing. I am sure there are many reading this that have to put up with much colder weather than we get here in Australia. I am very impressed with how people cope with the extremes of weather from other parts of the world. They say we are the lucky country and for me it is the weather that makes it so. No matter how lucky I am to have such a mild climate, mild is not enough for me to use my usual methods to keep fit.