Justine Larbalestier

reading, writing, eating, drinking, sport

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Thus far survival

Football is a brutal tying-my-stomach-in-knots game. Aaarggh!!! Especially right now as Australia plays Italy. They’re better than us on paper and having watched the first half I can see they’re better than us on the field too. But they haven’t scored yet . . . on account of two incredible saves from our fab keeper, Mark Schwarzer.

Just forty-five more minutes to endure . . .

P.S. Sorry, Marrije, that was a tough, horrible game with awful ref’ing.

P.P.S. Yes, I should be off at the conference, but you guys didn’t think I’d miss this match did you?

P.P.P.S. Sorry about being behind with responding to comments and emails. This conference is crazy frantic.

Posted by Justine at 11:55, 26 June 2006 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Sport | 8 Comments »

Comments

  1. orangedragonfly Says:

    awwww, i almost cried when italy was awarded a penalty kick. wretched!!!

    :(

    June 26th, 2006 at 1:35 pm

  2. marrije Says:

    so sorry about that. blerk.

    hope there are lots fabulous writers and librarians around to distract you. perhaps we can all write some grand fiction about horrible teachers’-pet referees?

    June 26th, 2006 at 2:33 pm

  3. niki Says:

    they cheated – we were robbed !

    June 26th, 2006 at 2:40 pm

  4. Corey Says:

    Tough game to see, and i’m not even a ‘football’ fan (as a bloody yank my type of ‘football’ involves more use of hands)…In talking to someone at my office who is a big World Cup buff, he says it was still a stone-solid performance by AU who I guess wasnt favored to advance a bracket(?)

    June 26th, 2006 at 2:46 pm

  5. 5. Justine Says:

    Orangedragonfly, Marrije, Niki and Corey: Losing in the last minute to a penalty kick awarded for a massive flop ain’t ideal. But Italy did have more shots on goal and always looked more likely to score than we did.

    Corey, your office friend is right—we did way better than expected. I’m dead pleased and kind of relieved. I can now watch World Cup matches without almost throwing up from tension.

    Yes, indeed, there are lots of fabulous writers and librarians to distract me! Printz award ceremony tonight. I get to watch my friends John Green and Margo Lanagan make acceptance speeches.

    June 26th, 2006 at 4:50 pm

  6. Perry Middlemiss Says:

    at least we didn’t have to go to penalties and then implode like switzerland. but yes, I thought the dive was pretty “good”. the game deserved a btter ending than that.

    June 27th, 2006 at 1:04 am

  7. Darren Says:

    Justine! Arrrgghhh! Robbed! I went through my not inconsiderable list of profanities, but eventually settled simply for ‘cheats’. I suppose I should have expected it, though: in the second group match the ref seemed to award a large number of fouls against us for the offence of not being Brazilian; in the third, the ref turned down two blatant penalties against Croatia and then neglected to dismiss a Croatian even though he’d been given two yellow cards; now this.

    At least now we know how the African nations have been treated for the last decade and a half – not very well. The refs will always favour the big teams.

    I say we challenge the Italians to a game of cricket and unleash Mr Lee on their asses!

    June 27th, 2006 at 4:18 am

  8. cecelia (C.C) Says:

    Great

    June 28th, 2006 at 4:53 pm

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