Nykolai and I went to see the Australia vs Argentina soccer game at the MCG tonight. We went with our friend Nick and two of his kids, Darte and Violetta. Given they’re from Argentina and we’ve got strong Argentine connections, it was a given that we’d be in the middle of the Argentine contingent.
Much fun was had, the game was pretty good (Argentina won, 1 goal to nil – woo hoo :) ) and the crowd was pretty well behaved all round. An Argentine supporter was removed near us (no idea why) and some dickhead set a flare off over in the Australian supporters area. Otherwise, all good and friendly.
The game did get a tad slow towards the last 10 minutes or so when Argentina had their goal and were delaying to keep possession and prevent Australia from having a go. After a few substitutions on both sides, things got exiting again as both sides had a few attacks.
Weather stayed good, if cold, and there was only a very small shower just before kick off, otherwise dry. We were just under the edge of the layer above so we had cover.
The official attendance was 70,171 – not bad given max capacity of the MCG is about 98,000 (including about 3,000 standing area tickets).
The only complaint for the night was the big screen – you’d be getting ready to see a replay and they’d pop up a page which said “Australia” on it and that was it. This didn’t always happen – some times you’d see it, some times you wouldn’t – very annoying and definitely the worst part of the whole show (especially when we were trying to see what went on there).
Oh well, all up a lot of fun, Nykolai had a great time and Argentina won. Got to be good :)