Well Anja and I have a thing for going to obscure sporting events in countries that we are in. Put that down to the fact that Jason is a very typical Australian male and loves his sport but he can at least justify sometimes the occassion. Early into Anja's stay in Australia we attended the Oceania championships for men's handball out in remote western Sydney and of course it was a slight difference to what she had seen back home. However whilst in Germany Anja's father Hans discovered that a Rugby Union game was on in Hanover so that was also an interesting experience for all parties!
So keeping to form Jason discovered that New Zealand were hosting the u/17 women's soccer world cup later this year so they were having a small tournament as a test involving Australia, USA, New Zealand and yes Germany! On the last day of the tournament USA was to play the also undefeated Germany and Australia and New Zealand faced off for the third place after not winning a game yet. Sadly Australia were well beaten by Germany during the week so Jason was spared that.
After reading the paper we realised it was in Northern Auckland so it involved a bit of a bus ride but also a new Westfield had been recently opened there so Anja could enjoy some retail therapy. It was at North Harbour Stadium but once we found out the tickets were only five dollars we discovered it was on an outer oval. Still this was good as the first game was the USA versus Germany and we could sit quite close on the sidelines. For this age group the game was quite physical and to our amusement the German girls were criticising the Americans not realising Anja understood every word!
The Germans started well and scored early and the pace was quite frantic. As I said the girls were quite physical and I think the NZ ref was out of her depth. At the main interval they held onto their slight one goal advantage but whatever the USA girls had at halftime worked very well. Within minutes somehow the USA was up 2-1 and it took a while before the Germans after repeated attacks slotted in the equaliser.
A draw would have been a fair result and the crowd that was increasing in numbers for the main game were being treated to an absorbing show of skill.Sadly the USA were awarded a free kick just outside the box and that was converted to allow them to win overall but both sides were applauded equally.
Then it was time to renew the trans tasman rivalry Anja has now seen up close and personal. You would have thought with this involving girls under the age of seventeen it would have been pretty amicable on the sideline. However the psyche of the average Kiwi shows a terrible dislike of their closest neighbour. Still we enjoyed the game and even more so when the Aussies were granted a penalty shot by the NZ ref and the crowed booed!
It was stopped but much to the distaste of this crowd it was re-taken and much to the delight of these two travellers it hit the back of the net! So Australia once again triumphed and we had another day of interesting sporting entertainment. I was soon to try to educated Anja on the subtlety's of the gentleman's game being cricket with a match between England and New Zealand but I will blog that unique experience later!
Jason
No comments:
Post a Comment