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 the figures on 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
