Sydney FC v Melbourne Victory

It was such a sin. Among all things, I forgot my camera. I would have taken so many nice shots at Aussie Stadium. My seat was so close to the field, Dwight Yorke would have been within ear-shot if I had hurled any abuse!

The atmosphere in the stadium was just brilliant. And the game wasn't bad as well. I wasn't exactly expecting such a fast-paced game. Both teams went at each other right at kick-off. Expectations were high as the two teams were considered the top two sides of the league. The turn-out was fantastic with 25,208 fans in full voice. This is more than 10,000 more than what organisers had anticipated. 1600 spectators were let in free half an hour into the match because of congestion at the ticket stands.

My Uncle and I sat at the wrong seats for the first half. Or else we could have had a much better view of Yorke scoring the first goal. It was a fabulous diving header, just like so many he had done for the Red Devils. We went down to our seats in the second half and we were probably less than 10 rows from the pitch. There wasn't a running track round the stadium, it was one built for field games.

Melbourne scored through their star striker too, and coincidentally with a good headed goal as well. The two sides were pretty evenly matched throughout. Melbourne played well as the away team, and in my opinion, more than deserved the draw. They had a good defense to neutralise Sydney's attack down the flanks and looked threatening on the counter. They had quite a few chances in front of goal towards the end and were very close to scoring the winner in the dying seconds. Sydney played with slightly more flair. It was an attacking side with two big strikers and Yorke just behind them. There were some great passes but they lacked impetus going forward and were not decisive in the attacking sense. If Sydney had been more clinical with their finishing, they would have had a good win at home. But as it turned out, both teams just took their only chance and the game ended in a 1-1 stalemate. All in all, a great advert for the new soccer league. Very encouraging indeed to everyone involved in Australian soccer.