Australia Make it for Russia

Ventured to Sydney midweek to see Australia play Honduras in the second and final leg of the intercontinental play-offs between the best third ranked Asian side and the best fourth ranked north and central American side. The whole journey was filled with drama and events but all in all was a fantastic shorty trip to see Sydney again.
Due to track problems, a tree falling on the lines or something had caused the network to slow down. This caused huge delays to my journey to Olympic Park and I was going to miss the start of the match. I only missed the first 15 minutes, which wasn't too bad but I did want to get there on time. This is a huge game!
Before going to my seat I had decided to grab something to eat and drink as I did not want to leave my seat after missing a bit of the game already! I bought a coke and a hot-dog for 12.50 which was typical stadium prices. Coke was 6 dollars and the hot-dog a staggering 6.50.
I actually had planned on having a beer or something else but to be honest from those two high prices, I had decided to go against it.

Australia was never seriously threatened, except for a few moments where the Hondurans looked threatening. Funny how when Ange's Australian side is up against the wall for a do-or-die clash they seem to play better, unlike during the qualifiers they play like a Sunday league side. While the cattle on the park these days are very thin compared to the golden generation, the manager himself is utterly bereft of ideas and usually is found wanting by teams that should be dispatched, but manage to take points off them.

Australia though didn't look like they would score form open play which has been a huge concern during this "revolution" we were promised since 2013. So far we are still waiting for this to happen. Jedinak scored the opening goal with a free kick which deflected and went in.

Later in the second half you had two penalties given and Jedinak completing his hat-trick. Juric missed yet again another one-on-one howler which could have put Australia 4 goals ahead. Late into the second half Honduras scored a consolation goal to finish the match 3-1. Australia won 3-1 on aggregate and booked the 31st place to Russia.

Leaving the stadium was a bit of a nightmare as tens of thousands of people wishing to go back to the CBD had to wait for a very long time to be marshalled into the station in order to go home.

Sydney though, put on a great event and has always been great to visit.