Australia to Play the Good Korea

We're coming up on another set of international friendlies next week.

Australia makes a trek north to take on the Tigers of Asia - South Korea in the national capital of Seoul.

As with most friendlies, it's a worthless game, but it should be interesting to see two of the top Asian qualifiers play - and how the Aussies perform to a somewhat hostile crowd.

Which, makes me wonder, will the FGOC representative to the Republic of Korea, one FST be in attendance?

More on USA/Mexico

Great article by ESPN’s Sports Guy on the USA/Mexico game.

A choice excerpt:

I have attended all kinds of sporting events: Never have I heard a crowd more stunned than the Mexican crowd after Davies’ goal. All traces of sound vanished from the stadium. Like someone pointed a remote control at Azteca and pressed "mute." It was one of those sports moments when you wish they could have stopped the proceedings right there for 20 minutes, just so we could soak in what happened and dream about all the possibilities.

Estadio Azteca. United States 1, Mexico 0. (Pause.) Hold on, just a little bit longer. One more second. Just let me keep enjoying this.

Hat tip to FGOC friend Bill for calling this to my attention.

V Australia to Fly to South Africa

Freakin' sweet. Daddy and Mr. Man may be flying V Australia to South Africa - a hell of a lot cheaper than the Flying Kangaroo.

V AUSTRALIA SECOND PHASE EXPANSION - TUK TUK OFF TO THAILAND OR SAFARI IN SOUTH AFRICA!
LAUNCH FARES ON SALE 2.00PM TODAY

* BRAND NEW INTERNATIONAL ROUTES AND DESTINATIONS FOR V AUSTRALIA
* THAILAND, SOUTH AFRICA, LOS ANGELES
* $399* ONE WAY “TUK TUK TO THAILAND” FARES* EX BRISBANE AND MELBOURNE
* $1899 “FAR OUT SAFARI ” RETURN FARES* EX MELBOURNE

Monday 17 August 2009: Australia’s new international airline V Australia today announced Phuket and Johannesburg as its next two destinations along with a strengthened focus on Melbourne just six months after launch. Four new V Australia routes to commence from December onwards^ include:

* Brisbane to Phuket, Thailand direct twice weekly from 22 November 2009.
* Melbourne to Phuket, Thailand direct flights 1 a week from 3 December 2009.
* Melbourne to Los Angeles, USA direct flights twice weekly from 1 December 2009.
* Melbourne to Johannesburg, South Africa direct flights from 13 March 2010.

The airline has also lodged an application with the International Air Services Commission for permission and slots to operate flights between Australia and Fiji.

To celebrate the extra destinations of Phuket and Johannesburg, special launch fares go on sale from 2.00pm today on the airline’s website starting from $399* one way to Phuket and $1899* return to Johannesburg from Melbourne.

USA 1-2 Mexico

Well, shit. The USA’s futility at Estadio Azteca continues with a 2-1 loss to El Tri today. After a great start (a U.S. goal in the ninth minute), things went downhill pretty quickly. ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle has a good summary:

The U.S. battled hard, but this will go down as a missed opportunity for the Yanks. In a game where the U.S. looked fatigued at the end, the team’s inability to keep possession was their undoing. They simply spent so much time defending that they wore down. The sight of Juarez beating Donovan in the run-up to the winning goal was telling. Donovan is one of the fittest players on the team, yet even he looked gassed.

I’ll be less diplomatic than Carlisle. The final score belies the game, really. The Yanks played like shit. Zero play in the midfield, and thus no possession. It felt like Mexico was on a perpetual power play.

Thank God for Tim Howard, otherwise this game would have been a repeat of the Gold Cup final, only with our A squad in. Donovan played well, but again, zero play from the midfield, and defensively we were lacking.

It seems like our entire strategy — or, worse, perhaps this is becoming the “U.S. style” of football — is to play bend-but-don’t-break defence and hope for goals on the fast break, maybe the odd set piece off a foul coming from a fast break.

That’s not sustainable, as we saw in the second half of the Confederations Cup final against Brazil, and through much of this game.

I won’t comment on officiating, since I was watching streaming video at my desk while simultaneously working and chatting with two friends and keeping an eye on the Washington Post’s live chat. But I will say that the Post crowd was pretty apoplectic, as is their wont, and it did look like the ref completely lost control of the game.

General consensus was that if you look at a Mexican player, foul, possibly a card. Mount an unprovoked back-alley knife attack on an American, play on. But I didn’t see it.

Some quick hits:

• Always nice to see the klassy Mexican fans. Thanks for throwing shit at Landon Donovan as he sets up a corner. Call it “passion” if you want; I call it bush-league.
• USA maintains its perfect record in Mexico City: No wins, especially at Azteca.
• Brian Ching is worthless.
• In the end, this game was a must-win for a Mexican side that is still in danger of not buying tickets to South Africa next year. The Yanks have a bit more wiggle room, but not too much — don’t want any more of these performances.

Two more quick hits, courtesy of friends writing in:

Dave Breg: “We suck. It’s Jurgen time.” (Bring on Klinsmann, I say!)

Bill Atkinson: “At least we have clean drinking water and Tamiflu.”

All Nando's - All The Time

I don't know much about South African food.

But I do know this. Fast food in Australia is crap.

We have McDonalds. We have KFC. We have Hungry Jacks, which is a crappy version of Burger King. That's it.

No Taco Bell. No Whataburger. No Sonic. Not even freakin' Wendy's. And certainly no Taco Cabana.

There is only one fast food joint in Australia that is worth a shit, and that is Nando's. I go to my local Nando's at least once a week for the extra hot grilled chicken sandwich (or "burger" in Australian) with peri-peri spicy fries (chips in Ozspeak). It's the only food in this barren land that is the least bit spicey and it's freakin' good. Plus, they sell beer - always a plus in the fast food department.

Come to find out, Nando's is from South Africa.

I can pretty much guarantee that the FGOC clan will visit many a Nando's while we're at the World Cup.

But, the main reason for going to Nando's?

Because Herrmann hates it.

Real Madrid at D.C. United

Cross-posted at K Street Blues.

Let me just start by stating the obvious: It’s bloody hot outside.

I mean, oppressively hot. Devastatingly hot. The kind of hot that makes you lose the will to live. Right now, the thermometer says it’s 95 degrees (34C) with 39% humidity. It’s supposed to hit 100 (38C) this afternoon. So far, we’ve had such a mild summer that this seems like a sudden and brutal kick in the nuts.

So what did I do yesterday, when it was just as hot? Why, I put on a black shirt and stood out in the sun for six hours, of course!

I went to see D.C. United take on Real Madrid at FedEx Field, which is normally home to the Greater Chesapeake Region Indigenous Peoples. The fun started on the Metro, as we were waiting for the Blue Line train. A group of about 10 guys in their early 20s came down the platform, coolers in hand. They spotted our Barra Brava jerseys, and high-fived us and yelled some variations of “Go United!”

Then, they brought out the Jell-o shots.

Yeah, I’ve never done a shot in the Metro, but now I can say I’ve done one on the Metro Center platform and one on a Blue Line train. (The latter was blue Jell-o in honour of our train line’s colour.) The chaos continued at the Barra Brava tailgate party, which is always fun. One of said Jell-o shot guys actually walked barefoot over hot coals (from the barbecue) that had been disposed of on the asphalt. Later, he was seen sitting in the grass, feet resting on a pile of ice, with a look on his face that, to me, indicated a serious existential crisis was going on.

So then we, along with 72,000 of our closest friends, filed into FedEx Field for the actual game. (No word on whether coal-walker had to be carried into the stadium.) Which was pretty good — at least, the first half was. Score was tied, 0-0, at the half, mostly thanks to United goaltender Josh Wicks. Oddly, it was only after Madrid’s stars, such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká, left the game that the scoring began. (Ronaldo continues his streak of not scoring against D.C. United.)

United’s downfall didn’t actually begin until the 57th minute when Higuain, a 21-year-old forward in his fourth season with the Spanish power, blazed into the penalty area. Two minutes later, he was the beneficiary of Robben’s explosive move, and in the 69th, Robben lifted the ball to himself while at a full pace and cleverly chipped a shot over reserve goalkeeper Milos Kocic.

The one-sided score was hardly an embarrassment for United, which had two starters less than a year out of college and another who was playing in the third tier of the U.S. pro system last season. Real’s lineup included Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka, the past two world players of the year, and other pricey superstars coveted by almost every other club on the planet.

Three years ago, United played Real to a 1-1 tie in Seattle, and although that Madrid side featured English star David Beckham, the roster on display at FedEx Field was one of the most expensive ever assembled. The marquee players weren’t United’s undoing; rather, it was Robben, the 25-year-old Dutchman who entered at halftime and almost single-handedly changed the course of the match.

Some notes:

• There were tens of thousands of Real Madrid fans there. Who are these people, exactly? They certainly weren’t Spanish. Bandwagon fans, all.
• I wish I had made a t-shirt that said “Faux Madrid.” That’d have shown ‘em.
• FedEx Field = epic fail. You can’t bring bottled water in. So smart when it’s 98 degrees and humid. So they charge you $5 for water — that’s warm. At least they sold Miller Lite, which is a lot like water.
• More FedEx Field Fail: loud music. Before the game and during halftime, the stadium PA blared music (really bad music, too) so loud I couldn’t hear anyone who was speaking directly, much less anything else. It also drowned out the very loud and proud United fans. Well done, stadium crew.
• Best chant from Barra Brava: “Ka-ká! Poo-poo!”
• Although I was hoping for a few more taunting references to Franco and/or fascism to be hurled at Madrid and its fans.

Oh, and I am sunburned as hell.

Travel logistics

Interesting post by Michelle Higgins in the New York Times’ travel blog today, about planning travel to major sporting events such as the Olympics and the World Cup.

It may seem too early to be planning a 2010 vacation, but travelers who want to see the Winter Olympics in Vancouver this February or cheer their favorite soccer team at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa next summer had better get going.

Despite the recession, demand is high for both events, making tickets hard to come by and sending prices for any remaining hotel rooms soaring. But travelers can still watch their teams compete if they’re willing to be flexible, spend a little more money and make their travel plans now.

Higgins also hits on something that is sitting in the back of our minds here at FGOC. Namely, how the hell do we plan our trip to South Africa next year when we won’t know where (or when, exactly) Australia* is playing until early December?

Unlike at the Olympics, however, where sports are tied to specific venues, and the dates and times of most events are already set, soccer fans won’t know where, when or even which teams will be playing in South Africa until all 32 teams have qualified and FIFA holds its tournament draw on Dec. 4.

That means travelers hoping to watch the United States in quarterfinals, for example, won’t know where the team will be playing — whether it’s at Green Point Stadium in Cape Town, or nearly 900 miles away in Soccer City in Johannesburg — until just a few days before.

Of course, that’s always the case when it comes to the World Cup — and the last-minute scramble is part of the fun. But following your team around will be more complicated in South Africa than at the last World Cup, held in Germany in 2006. Fans staying in Frankfurt, for example, were within a two-hour train ride from most United States matches. South Africa, on the other hand, has less reliable trains and highways, and moving from match to match requires flying.

That’s something we’re just now working out, and that’s going to be the fun part. Sort of. Do we use a travel agent and go in bulk? Use our own travel agents? Go solo? Hire a goat?

I, for one, might want to stop in somewhere before or after the main event — for example, South African Airways flies direct from here in Washington, with a stop in Dakar, Senegal, which is almost exactly halfway between here and Johannesburg. I might be tempted to stay a few days there, because when the hell else are you going to be in Dakar?

I think getting the actual tickets from FIFA might have been the easy part.

_______
* If you’re just joining us here at FGOC, we have real, actual tickets to see Australia’s games in group stage, so that’s where we’ll be. Naturally, we’ll be following the good ol’ USA, too, as well as some others (see this post to find out who’s following whom) but we actually have tickets to see the Socceroos.