The one man Victory
I was one of the 55,436 fans who packed the Telstra Dome last night to see Melbourne play Adelaide. After about 40 minutes everyone could see that this was Melbourne/Archie’s game. I’m no soccer expert so I’ll leave that to The Age but here are some observations about the game.
- Worldwide, soccer fans tend to be the rowdiest. The crowd at the Grand Final was very well behaved and the Telstra Dome had more than enough security and police to control the crowds.
- What are you doing with the roof? At the start it was half open. It then rained. They closed one half, then opened up the other half where it poured down with rain and saturated the crowd at the corners of the stadium. Finally, they close the roof but now it is humid inside. At the end, the entire roof was open.
- Flares. Soccer seems to be the only sport where fans set off flares. Setting off a flare inside a stadium with a closed roof is usually not a good idea.
- John Howard gets booed and the CEO of Hyundai gets cheers? Whats that all about?
- Where was John So? Surely he likes soccer?
And now some eye candy…
Some video eye candy after the jump…
Technorati Tags: Adelaide United, Australia, Melbourne, Melbourne Victory, Soccer, Telstra Dome
Evermore playing in the background with a view of the stadium
The Melbourne Victory supporter groups cheer squad (Thanks Chris)
Kickoff
Streamers come out of the podium.
Melbourne Victory players do a lap around the stadium with their trophy.
Adelaide fans surround by police and security personnel to ensure their safety when leaving.
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I would never, never, never call the northern terrace a cheer squad to their face - they prefer the term supporter groups (there are at least 10 different ones)
The best part of the day was the pre-game stuff. From the Great Western in King St the crowd headed down Bourke St and then onto the Spencer St steps and the concourse.
Intersections were closed, traffic was doing u-turns over embankments and a tram had to be escorted through Bourke/Spencer intersection.
This is from Spencer St steps, and you wouldn’t get anything like this in Australia for any other sport.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfeCeCBw4kA