The much-awaited debut of the Socceroos took place very late today in the Americas. Reportedly people were queueing for hours along Swanston and Flinders streets in Melbourne to get into the live viewing site at Federation Square. I will update this post with some comments later.
The Turks at least one-upped Australia with their Minister for Sport Dr. Osman Aşkın Ba dropping in to say hello at a friendly match between Turkish and Australian supporter groups.
But as far as fan friendship goes, this was pretty good:
Thanks to https://x.com/YourMateJez for the image.
With the tournament now ramping up to four matches a day it’s time to pace yourself, guys!
The last time the World Cup was held in the USA, 1994, I watched every match live. Every one. 2am, 4am, whatever. At the time I was an Indonesian language interpreter/translator and work was a bit patchy. Interpreting if any was usually mornings at the courthouse, and translations were hardly ever urgent and I had a few days to get them done. So, every game. After a month that added a lot of nights with interrupted sleep, for which catch-up naps couldn’t really compensate. By the time the Italy-Brazil final came around, I was so exhausted that I fell asleep in the first half and only woke up as the trophy was being presented.
Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter, a controversial figure in his own right, came out and blasted the USA over its refusal to allow the Somali referee into the country despite having a visa and a work schedule for the tournament.
“A FIFA World Cup host country must guarantee two fundamental principles: the safety of the country — and the unrestricted entry of all qualified teams, officials and referees. The case of referee Omar Artan from Somalia is against one of these obligations. FIFA must never compromise the universality of football.”
Fine in theory but the current FIFA leadership, and I use the term loosely, simply folded on the issue. Not even a performative hand-wringing.
Qatar-Switzerland was the early match and a late late late equaliser gave the Qataris a slightly fortunate 1-1 draw (link to highlights).
To be honest this is the joke of the tournament so far:
Should this have been banned?
Also: Qatar v Switzerland is the World Cup’s only group-stage match where one country’s highest point is lower than the other country’s lowest point. Qatar tops out at just 103m above sea level. Switzerland bottoms out at Lake Maggiore, ~193m. So there. Thanks to Iain Cameron for the nerd-out.
The Haiti-Scotland match took place with the Haitians wearing shirts. Usually that would be unremarkable, except that only two days ago the island nation had their usual playing shirt banned by FIFA because it contained a visual reference to triumphant Haitians at the Battle of Vertières, the final battle of the Haitian Revolution against colonial power France.
The world governing body considered considered this ‘political content’ which goes against its rules; fans are also being prevented from displaying political messages on flags. That said, outside the playing venues just about anything goes. Moroccan fans were seen yesterday waving Palestinian flags in Times Square in New York.
The Scots took the game 1-0 (link to highlights) and might now stand a chance of progressing from the group stage for the first time ever at a World Cup.
Brazil-Morocco saw the five times champion challenged by 2022 semi-finalists Morocco in a flowing game that finished in another 1-1. Definitely don’t miss the highlights. Both teams can probably live with the result given they envisage easier matches ahead against Scotland and minnows Haiti.
Just in case you and reality don’t get along, on the FIFA YouTube channel you can see goal highlights expressed in videogame style. It’s not my thing but if you’re a gamer, knock yourself out.
More action tomorrow: Germany-Curacao, Netherlands-Japan, Ivory Coast-Ecuador and Sweden-Tunisia. These games are of interest to me as the next round will see Japan facing Tunisia…our first live match at the 2026 World Cup, in Monterrey.
Alan Whykes is a Tasmania-based writer and an ex- too many things to list.
This blog is the start of a new section called Tas At Large which showcases stories of Tasmanian despora let loose upon the world.
Featured image above courtesy Green and Gold Army.
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