We are going to the World Cup

It was a glorious feeling Wednesday night as the Australian Football team made it to the World Cup in 2006. After 31 years of non appearance and so many heartbreaking ties, the feeling that was felt by the whole of Oz land was unbelievable.

Myself, I was estactic and over the moon with joy, glee, happiness etc (all those words that are just good).

Prior to the match I was excited about the kick off but reserved given previous failures (refer to my last blog). I did not want to get too excited as I would be setting myself up for a fall, AGAIN! But I took the 50 minute drive in to the city to meet some mates.

A beer helped settle the nerves as the group attention in the pub focussed ont he telecast. However, the first 30 minutes of the match did not go to the game plan we envisaged.

Too many time the boys from down under looked unsure and U-R-GAY created a few opportunities to grab a goal and crush Australin hearts once more. There were 3 or 4 near times the Urugayans had shots at goal and hearts were set a flutter at these moments.

But after 30 minutes Harry Kewell came on and it changed the match. He added some creativity and flair and his impact was profound after just 4 minutes when he instigagted the play that set up the equalising goal.

The crowd at the statdium and the crew at the pub went balistic. We were scremaing, hugging and high fiving everyone. We got the equaliser and were back in the hunt.

The rest of the match flowed with emotions as both sides came oh so close to scoring a goal that would have changed the course of the game. Needless to say, I was on edge but sickingly, enjoying the sense of adrenalin that was developing in my body.

Australia dominated proceedings but could not score as we did not convert our chances. A lot of people felt that fate would cruelly grasp the chance to qualify into the world cup based on our previous history.

But after 120 minutes of play Oz Land won thematch 1-0 but the seriew was level 1-1. It was on to penalties.

After the emotion of watching Liverpool in Istanbul 5 months ago, I could not believe that the fate of my team was to be resolved like this once more.

One of my friends could not bear to watch and dug his face into my shoulder during the kicks. Myself I was holding on to my friends and looking upwards seeking divine intervention.

The crowd at the stadium, all 83,000 of them were going ballistic at being in this position. You could feel the urge for the Ozzies to get the win.

If a kick was converted by an Australian, it was met with a grear roar, when goal keeper Mark Swachzer made a save (he made 2) the crowd got louder. But the noise when John Aloisi converted his penalty was amazing. To be honest, I can not recall what happened at the stadium, all I remember was grabbing my 3 mates and screaming "WE WON".

We hugged each other, as men do when a great sporting moment occurs and flushed with alcohol but we hugged in a circle and danced screaming that we had finally made it to the world cup.

This moment was special because I was with 3 friends who felt the same desire, need and urge for Australia to win and make it to the world cup. And this is why the moment was special.

To Jes, Simmo and Victor - it was an amazing night!

Well done AUSTRALIA