A footy game at the MCG had finished only a few hours earlier so obviously the room was full of beefy lads with overdeveloped foreheads, product-filled hair, upturned collars, bourbon and cokes and brilliant bon mots about fat chicks, car theft and homos.

I'm glad they were getting into the soccer. Good on them. Naturally the only thing they could think of to encourage our tiring representatives as the game wore on was to cry out “Aussie Aussie Aussie” at the TV screen at which some others answered with the clever reply “oi oi oi” which struck almost everybody in the room as pure genius. I was certainly cheered by such a creative display of pride in one's homeland.

They howled as one with surprise and indignation whenever somebody fell to the ground after a tackle. They were endearingly bewildered by the red card as if we were never going to suffer harsh decisions. One of them wittily described the referee as a homo. Oh how everybody laughed.

The game itself was an entertaining spectacle. The Japanese were as well-organised and sharp as expected and Australia had a few good patches. The Aussies played a valiant last 45 minutes a man down in difficult conditions and the draw after extra time was actually a good result against a team better and ranked higher than us. A couple of guys gave tired penalties at the end and out we went. After the dreadful, dreadful displays in the first two games, this match I rather enjoyed.

My footy-loving neighbours in the bar were not so generous. When they were finally able to remember his name they had same things to say about Graeme Arnold and how quickly that homo should be fired.

¶ 12:45 pm