Australia v Argentina; whatever happens, we've won
Fri, Dec 02.22
September 11, 2007. Bresciano, Schwarzer, Neill, Grella, Skoko et al took on Lionel Messi's La Albiceleste at the MCG in a friendly in front of 70,000 fans. 15 years on, a new generation of players get their chance to face Argentina and Messi again. 15 years on, more than 70,000 spectators will fill live sites around Australia to watch our biggest game in nearly two decades. Millions more watching in homes and pubs around the country. Football isn't just alive and well in this country, it's exploding in a way only this game can.
It's our equal biggest game in history. Like 2006, it's a round of 16 encounter against a football powerhouse. This time with an immortal on his quest for the last piece to his illustrious puzzle to stop. A player who is the sole remaining figure from that 2007 Argentina side. Facing a team led by the man still around from the Socceroos setup, Graham Arnold. Arnie will enter the immortals of Socceroos history if he can guide his side to a win at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium.
Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra will join Melbourne in hosting outdoor live sites. The game will be a celebration like we've never seen before if scenes from Fed Square are replicated around the country. We've already taken the football world by storm with videos from ecstatic fans beamed across the globe. Whatever happens, each and every one of us deserves to enjoy this achievement in the same, beautifully emotion-fuelled, fashion.
Don't let anyone tell you we don't deserve to be in this game, too. We've scored in all three group stage games for the first time. We've won two of three group stage games for the first time. We have a team of players who's names will be spoken of in the same way as the aforementioned names forever. Souttar for that tackle. Duke for that header. Mooy for those performances. Leckie for that goal. The list goes on, and on, and it's not over yet.
A show of thanks to the '74 crew for reaching our first, the '06 crew who sent us into raptures and the current crop for a World Cup we'll never, ever, forget. To fans at live sites and in the stadiums; this is another time we'll talk about forever. Sunday we go again.
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