Australian Football has arrived

Italians suck.
I'm pretty good at analysing warm up from the last few games. I knew Kalac was starting long before the team list was announced - I was right to be wary! Luckily it didn't count against us in the end.

I saw Bresciano and Wilkshire warming up with the A-team for Italy and was a little doubtful about how Wilky would go (but he was excellent), but was more concerned about Where was Harry Kewell?

I couldn't find him in the A-team warmup, I couldn't see him with the substitutes, I couldn't even see him on the bench! He was listed on the Subs list, and only at half time with the help of some dude's telezoom camera lens could I locate him on the corner of the bench waving to the Australian crowd. And not stripped for action! WTF? Alas it was not until long after the game I found out about his gout issue.

I wonder if this is the same mystery injury that he was complaining of a few years ago when he first moved to Liverpool? At any rate, what terrible luck to have it hit now. Having Emmo or Kewell ready to go off the bench might have sealed it for us in regulation time before the Grosso incident.

There will be no Dukes, no Aloisi, no Lazaridis, no Moore, no Schwarza, no Kalac (is this a bad thing?) next time around. I thought in 2001 that we would never field a stronger Australian team - how wrong was I? We'll still have Culina, Bresca, Grella, Cahill, Kewell, Neill, Emmo, Wilkshire, Kennedy - gonna need a new young goal keeper. Some of the players who didn't make the squad or didn't play hopefully will step up - Beauchamp, Milligan, Ljubo, Carney, Brosque, and Kaz Patafka from the AIS who everyone reckons is gonna be the next Kewell. I think we are gonna be ok!

My knee has gone all clunky from no exercise and extended periods of sitting and standing - I should have been a bit more dedicated in my rehabilitation - I also somewhat suspect that my knee graft didn't hold either :S (a new operation beckons within 2 years...). Can't wait to get home and play some football. Football on telly almost everyday, and I finally had a kickabout yesterday in a 5v5 at the Berlin fanpark and thankfully didn't slip over on the astroturf! A-League ought to be groovy, and I want to catch a few Aussie home games in our Asian matches too this year.