Football

Last night I actually attended a sporting event for the first time in years. I went to the football (note: that's what the uneducated refer to as "soccer") match between Australia and Paraguay. The tickets were a little more expensive than might have been wise for someone trying to save money to travel, but as a one-off I figured it wouldn't make a huge amount of difference in the overall scheme of things.

It was an exciting match, but the frustrating aspect was the Australian team's traditional problem of finding that final ball into the penalty area to actually make their dominance of the game count. Looking at the final score (1-1) one would conclude it was an evenly fought match, but that was far from the truth. Paraguay barely had a noteworthy attack all game, yet Australia's inability to create anything in the final third from open play kept them in the match.

When Tony Popovic headed in from a set piece to give Australia a 1-0 lead inside the last two minutes, I really thought we could hang on. As it was an own goal from Michael Beauchamp levelled things. Nobody in the stadium could believe it when it went in, but I suppose that's the nature of football. I had a good night regardless of the result, but I need to work on my photography of action shots clearly.

Below: The teams lining up for the national anthems at the start, a rare Paraguayan attack in the first half, and some of the Australian players celebrating what should have been the winning goal.