Australia Finally Warm Up Against Cameroon

Australia hosted Cameroon for the FIFA Series 2026 on a rather cool and breezy Sydney at the famous Sydney Olympic Stadium. The FIFA Series is a collection of miniature tournaments around the world with four countries in each group and they play against each other in a series of matches as a way for match fitness and experience before the upcoming World Cup. This is the second edition of the FIFA Series with Australia participating in it for the first time for the 2026 World Cup cycle. For this group Australia hosted Cameroon as I mentioned earlier for this match but also participating are China and Curacao. Australia will play Curacao in Melbourne a few days later than tonight's match and China not playing Australia. This means that one team will play two and not one of the 4 in total.

 

To start off the evening we had China play Curacao and then followed by Australia and Cameroon. I did not get to the earlier game due to my name of the blog being punctual and prompt. But we got there on time for the Australian game and thought i would take advantage of that nature and get some food and beverages to avoid having to get up during the game or leaving during half time to find food and fight the crowds.

 

I had a crispy spicy chicken burger followed by hot chips then we had chicken tenders and complimented with coke and water. The crispy chicken burger was not too bad as it did have a little bit of a tickle with spice. However, it was not what I was expecting and I would say that this left me feeling rather disappointed. So it was a very highly tamed Australian level of spice. Though the chicken was very tasty and was not too dry and a bit of juices still left within the chicken which brought out those flavours of the salts, peppers and some of the chili flavouring. The burger was on the steep side at 17 dollars. So based on how it tasted, I would argue that it would be about 4 to 5 dollars too high.

 

The chips were on point with the temperature, the crunchiness as well as how salted they were. You could bite in and feel the flavours of the salt, the textures of the crunchy outer layer as well as the soft and fluffy potato inside. The pricing for the chips were at 8.50 and while I thought this was reasonable, the serving of the chips were the issue here when trying to enjoy this. As if there were more chips in the box, then I would have said that it was simply a perfect way to treat yourself while watching the football. Especially on such a cooler evening with a bit of a chilly wind blowing through the stadium.
 

Lastly were the tenders and the beverages. The tenders were not too bad, with their batter rather crunchy but not too crunchy that you are simply biting and tasting batter only. The chicken was not too bad with a bit of the juices there but on the overdone side of things which gave it a slight bland taste to it. This was helped with the chili sauce that we ordered as well as some tomato sauce. Though I would have gone with something that was not tomato. But at four pieces of chicken tenders, and the size of the tenders being of a reasonable size, the price of them compared to their size and portion was on the cusp of being too much.

The drinks were 7 dollars and the water was the same price. Then followed up by a drumstick and that was 6.50 and that was not too bad but again, slightly overpriced. However, you get that kind of a price for ice cream at delicatessens and petrol stations. While it was rather chilly weather for an ice cream, it weirdly hit the spot. I think this was due to so much savoury things that I have had that I needed something sweeter to contrast what I had eaten.

 

Now to talk about the football itself. This occasion I have decided to talk about the food first, rather than the sport first. Which is something that I have not done for quite a rather long time on this blog. Now I have explained the nature of this match and it is akin to the SBS Optus World Series that was ran in the late 1990s and I did not mind that at all as it gave the then Oceania based Socceroos much needed match experience as being in Oceania, they hardly played solid opposition as well on a regular basis. However, now that Australia are in Asia, this is now fixed and there are regular and good quality opposition. This essentially rules out the need to actually have friendly matches and they have been few and far between, compared to the times of old.

 

I say this as it sets the tone for how both teams played the match, but more specifically, how Australia played for most of the match. The Australians were never in full control as they just were not pressing the Cameroonians to put them under any pressure, nor any form of trouble. The Socceroos always seemed to just be in first gear or second gear and just not moving into the spaces needed to provide dangerous options for the defence and midfield to target to try and strike on goal. The visitors were playing similarly, the difference was that they were actually playing better at this low intensity style of play than Australia.

 

This started to shift in the last 20 to 25 minutes of play in the second half as the first half was a nil-all affair. With a few substitutions and fresh legs on the park, it looked like the new additions onto the field had shifted the tempo how Australia was going to play. This and also the shift in managerial attitude by Popovic I assume had instructed the new substitutions to make an impact and to press the visitors and to ramp up the tempo of the match.

 

This meant that Australia were now playing with purpose. They were chasing the ball down quicker, moving the ball around quicker, switching play quicker, pressing with more intent and looking for targets to strike with venom and with clear focus. Their transitioning from defence and into midfield to launch counters and to try and probe the Cameroonian defence was with vigor and needed vitality. This was lacking in the first half and the first half of the second.

 

 

Australia were going in to challenges with purpose and treating it now for points and would then wrestle the ball away from the opposition and would result in Australia scoring in the 81st minute. However, there was a penalty that was granted by the VAR but was saved by the valiant Cameroonian keeper. The take was dreadfully poor and was stuttered and predictable. It was just a shame that it was wasted and a concern if we are playing in the world cup just around the corner. 

  

Australia had taken control of the match and had ended the game as 1-0 winners to kick off their FIFA series with a win and with one more game to play in a few days time in Melbourne. While it was an interesting experience again to watch Australia in Sydney, the prices of the food were on the high side and would be costly for a family. Better to save the money and eat elsewhere, despite the food being not too bad on offer at Sydney Olympic Park. Looking forward to my next Socceroos match for another day. 

Hawks Manage to Soar Against Eaton

I have not watched South West Football League football for quite some time. So to return due to my work being closer to this competition means that I will be watching more of it during the season. Though I will try and watch some football (soccer) as best as I can, quality football in country Western Australia is tricky to come by, no offense there. So this is the opening round, round 1 of the league and five teams had the bye, so the closest game to me was Eaton. Eaton were hosting Augusta-Margaret River and it was an interesting game to watch for the neutral.

 

The ground is slightly challenging to get to as the shopping centre next door, Eaton Fair, are experiencing renovations and expansion. While this will be very cool as they are developing it into a town centre of sorts, well, in the Western Australian flavour, which isn't a town centre, just more shops and just apartments to give a town centre vibe with narrow streets. However, I digress and have gone off topic with my ranting about poor town centre development in Western Australia. But the normal ways to get in are closed off and you essentially have to park in the shopping centre. Which is not too bad as the walk is not very far. Though was a little bit confusing that you cannot walk into the club-rooms as you have to go around to the far northern gate with no signage. 

 

However, I made it in and was able to watch some SWFL finally. I should of course get to it and start talking about the game then. Eaton were in control in the first quarter and lead with a narrow margin of just five points. They did not feel like they had the upper hand in the opening quarter but they did continue to maintain a lead at half time, though this time it was four points. Their grip on the game and the lead was highly tenuous and flimsy, the visitors were just starting to find their groove and rhythm and started to take control of the game in the third quarter. Augusta-Margaret River started to simply out-pace the hosts and were just simply quicker to switch across the park, their hand passing was just quicker and sharper. Their kicking was accurate and able to hit their targets, rather than bomb it into a space and hope that it nailed a target. The hawks had players running into spaces and creating targets for them to simply mark and take multiple set shots and wrestle the lead away and hold onto it. They were 19 points up at the final break.

 

In the last quarter there was a bit of a spirited fightback from Eaton. However, Augusta-Margaret River maintained their domination of the match and were simply too quick and had more pace compared to Eaton. Eaton had simply ran out of petrol, given that petrol is rather expensive in this current time period of the Iranian-Israel drama, not having petrol is vital  and Eaton had run out! With jokes and sarcasm aside, Augusta-Margaret River just strengthened their grip on the game and simply continued their high quality performance against the hosts to run home 13 point winners.

 

Despite winning by less than two kicks, it did not look like that Eaton were ever going to retake the lead and take control of the game. It always felt that they were playing a continual match of catch-up and it wasn't going to work for them given that they were slower across the ground and simply not hitting their targets. Now on-wards with some food and drink.

I had an Emu Export and that was 7 dollars with a hotdog being 8 dollars. I had a can of coke which was 4 dollars and I think for country football, these are decent prices though compared to what should be a good price, I am arguing that the food is perhaps 2-3 dollars over-priced. However, like I said, this is country football and sadly prices have gone up everywhere and while prices for food are not going to reverse, I will still have my say and just move on with that. The hotdog hit the mark and on a warm day at Eaton, having an ice-cold Emu Export with it hit the spot nicely. Especially after a long week at work and not having a refreshing beverage of this variety for a little while is always welcomed.

 

Speaking of welcoming, it was nice to be here at Eaton Recreation Centre and I will probably be making a return at some point as I am more in the area these days. So we will just have to see, hopefully North Melbourne win tomorrow. Though fingers crossed!