Super Bowl Misery

“My husband cannot [expletive] throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time. I can’t believe they dropped the ball so many times.” – Giselle responding to a Giants fan Eli Manning taunt against her husband, Tom Brady (I’m with you Giselle), after the Super Bowl loss.

Losing hurts.  Losing in playoffs really hurts.  Losing in the Super Bowl, well that’s just not fun at all.

The Jose took his annual day off on the Super Bowl along with his side kick, Man Chew.  For those who are unaware of Man Chew, he also goes by the nickname Phar Lap and Larry Johnson.  Be sure not to feed him cheese and onion chips, otherwise he’ll cry.

The Super Bowl Menu:

Buffalo Wings with Blue Cheese Sauce

Pork Ribs with BBQ Sauce

The game itself was bit of haze.  But this is what I remember:

– Dropped catch by Wes Welker in the fourth quarter

– Dropped catch by Wes Welker in the fourth quarter

– Dropped catch by Wes Welker in the fourth quarter

– Dropped catch by Wes Welker in the fourth quarter

Enough on that (The Yellow Jose does not hate Wes Welker, he has been a superb player for the Patriots for a number of years and usually doesn’t drop passes).

It’s close to easter, which means…

I was thinking the last the Patriots lost a Super Bowl, this occurred:

After the heartbreaking loss against Collingwood (why do they keep showing this game on Fox Sports?) and Jarryd Roughead’s unfortunate achilles snap last year, this 2012 team is as ready as I have ever seen them.  No injuries, solid pre-season, and Jarryd’s return (Get ready for a ginger explosion), cannot wait.

Bet of the Week:

This is not even a great bet, but I want to dedicate this one to Man Chew for dealing with a cranky Jose on Super Bowl day.  New Orleans to beat Indiana on the road at $6.75 (odds courtesy of SportingBet.com.au).

Why?  New Orleans has looked good on the road in the last three games, with some solid defensive efforts against the Knicks and Bucks.  Obviously, their offense is poor, but in the middle of a back to back to back games, they could cause an upset against a Pacers team who are also not that solid on offense.

2012 Stats:

– Sierra Nevada Pale Ales consumed – 9

– Pork Ribs consumed – 4

– Bets Placed – 7

– Bets Won – 4

– Bet Amount Won – $90

Always Hawthorn…

“My legends membership is worth more than 8 years of general admission membership.” – Bins, a one year member of the Collingwood Football Club which was bought after the club won the 2010 premiership.  Talk about bandwagon supporters.

Jose El Amarillo is attempting to restart his blogging career for the fifth time.

I will not make any promises that this blog will be updated more than once this year.  However just like an old veteran sportsman on the verge of retirement, I will treat each post as my last.

This year has already bought a few sporting delights to this guy:

– An old Hawthorn Football Club jumper, which was brilliantly rescued by the crew at In the Mood for Noodles.

– A new Hawthorn slogan, “Always Hawthorn”.  I’ve already ordered the personalised stubby holder and tea mug offered by the club with the words “Jose is Always Hawthorn”

– A proper mini basketball ring for the Jose Palace

– A new NBA season, where the Chicago Bulls are destined to win.  I have missed Derrick a lot.  I fear that I might end up like Robert De Niro’s character in the movie “The Fan“.

– New England Patriots in the Super Bowl.  Finally, the team goes through to it’s first Super Bowl since losing against the Giants in 2008 (David Tyree’s catch off his helmet still haunts me).  The day of the Super Bowl has become a religious holiday for me and it becomes even more great with the presence of Tom Brady.  Beat those Giants.  The food festivities for the day will include Buffalo Wings and Pork Ribs, with the beer supplied by Sierra Nevada.

I’ve discovered that wearing basketball shorts is extremely comfortable.  Now I need a pair of D-Rose 2.5.

Bet of the Week:

It’s Super Bowl time and with both teams playing great defense in the postseason, this should be a fairly close game.  Expect the Patriots to win by a field goal (odds: 4/1)

2012 Stats:

– Sierra Nevada Pale Ales consumed – 3

– Pork Ribs consumed – 2

– Bets Placed – 6

– Bets Won – 4

– Bet Amount Won – $110

As I Lay Eating

“Asik and Destroy” – Stacey King, Bulls commentator & player commenting on Bulls center, Omer Asik.

A couple of years ago, I was looking up the Oakland A’s website for baseball tickets in which I stumbled upon an All You Can Eat season ticket.  I wasn’t too sure of the price of it, but the season ticket entitled you to 81 games of the A’s, as well as an unlimited supply of hot dogs, nachos and soft drink for the duration of the game.  I could imagine myself completely drowning those nachos with the hot liquid cheese, and stuffing as much hot dogs down my throat.  I can also imagine the damage I might be doing in the toilets afterwards.

Peterborough United are offering 10 season tickets priced at 15k pounds each, for a seat in the ‘director’s box’ and an endless supply of pies and champagne.  Pies and champagne!  I would be slightly confuse on my status in the world if I consumed those two together.

The Amarillo Sox Baseball Club offer the “Bud Light Bullpen All You Can Eat Party Deck”, in which you are allowed to have as many hamburgers, hot dogs, nachos, peanuts, chicken nuggets (gold!), french fries, potato chips, ice cream, soft drink and beer (I assumed this would be Bud Light) at $25 per person.  $25???  That works out to be a pub meal and a pot of beer here in Melbourne.

For $70, you can catch an Atlanta Braves game while devouring smoked chicken bbq sandwich, buffalo chicken wings, all beef franks (just say hot dogs), baked potato salad, chocolate chip cookies, soda and draft beer.

With the new Major League Baseball starting soon, 19 out of the 30 baseball teams will have an All You Can Eat ticket available during the course of the season.  To me, that is heaven.

Click here to see Sports Illustrated’s best ballpark food.  My favourite, BBQ Chicken Nachos.

I’m off to watch the Hawks play on Sunday with no all you can eat options.  This is depressing.

And to my ”I’m not to be blamed for your gambling problem, but here is my best sports bet of the week”…

Butler has been paying off for me last week.  I hope it did the same for you.

This bet has no reasoning whatsoever, but it’s just fun to see who scores first.

Phoenix Suns to score the first score (two points) against Sacramento Kings at $2.65

Gambling Summary:

Number of bets placed: 2

Number of bets won: 1

I’m not naming my child Jimmer

“Dumb loses more games than smart wins.” – Bob Knight, legendary NCAA basketball coach

Extraordinary ending to the Butler (8th seed) vs Pitt (1st seed) game in the 2nd round of NCAA tournament.  I had a vested interest in the game, so I got up to watch up in the morning (i.e. I had fifty bucks on Butler to win).  As I expected, it was a close game, and unlike many of these college games in this tournament, it turned out to be quality.  Except for the last 2 seconds of the game.  After Butler hit the lead with 2 seconds to go, I thought I was going to win 200 hundred bucks but no, a smart player did a stupid play.  When you have money on a game, the thought of losing can be quite crippling at times.  I remember when I had money on the draw between Australia and New Zealand in a football match last year.  I put the money on at half-time, and thought it was in the bag heading into injury time.  And what do you know, Brett Holman scored with the last kick of the game.  From then on, we referred to being screwed over as being Holmaned!  So on the Butler game, the smart player fouled the Pitt player and sent him to the free-throw line which essentially allow them to win or tie the game with 1.4 seconds left.  So there was my fifty, gone.  The Pitt player made his first free throw, and with two hands on the monitor, in which i was ready to throw through the window, the Pitt player missed his second free-throw.  But then, for some explicable reason, I didn’t get Holmaned.  Another Pitt player fouled a Butler player while trying to grab a rebound on the missed free-throw.  That Butler player went to free-throw line and scored the winning points.  I win!

The VPL season is almost starting, and I’m ready to line my stomach with cervapis and hot dogs.

And to my ”I’m not to be blamed for your gambling problem, but here is my best sports bet of the week”…

Apologies for the last bet, New York stuck it out better than I thought.  And Miami are shit.  Never bet on a team you hate.

NCAA Basketball Sweet 16 – I’m sticking with Butler at 2.50 against Wisconsin.  Just because I’m a sucker for having near heart-attacks (their last two wins have come off in the last two seconds of the game), and they got enough mettle (they made the final last year) to beat this Wisconsin team and making it to the Elite 8.

Totals:

Number of bets placed: 1

Number of bets won: 0

Chris Bosh is a pussy

“Can I have two tickets to see The Roger?” – Bins’ Chinese girlfriend asking for tickets to see Rodger Federer

After months of exile, the Jose has decided to make a comeback.  Hopefully this comeback won’t be as painful as Michael Jordan’s effort with the Wizards, or as short as Tony Lockett’s last stint as a Swan.  I can guarantee you that I will be maintaining this blog at least once a week.

So what has happened to the yellow one since he dominated Chicago?

– Made $2300 from sports betting – which I have now created a new segment in this blog called “I’m not to be blamed for your gambling problem, but here is my best sports bet of the week”

– I bought a bowling ball, and will now join a league to continue on pursuing my dream as a professional bowler – My ball has FREEZE engraved on it.  It’s so cool.

– Became obsessed with Derrick Rose – MVP MVP MVP

– Became obsessed with Blake Griffin – I cannot believe that I’ve nearly  watched the same amount of Clippers games as I have with Bulls games.

So what’s with the title of this post?  Bosh, who plays for the Miami Heat (what’s Miami Heat (for the majority of my friends)?  It’s a NBA basketball team which requires a player to be an absolute douchebag to join the team), recently pulled out the following comment:

“C’mon, that is how guys get hurt, that is how serious injuries happen,” Bosh said.”You’ve got to watch people’s legs. I know guys want to hustle and everything but we all want to play and provide for our families and have a job.”

This is after a Bulls player, Omer Asik, went to dive for a ball (it’s called hustle Chris!) and accidently injured Bosh’s ankle.  Chris Bosh earns approximately $17 million a season over the next five years, so I think he’ll be alright in providing for his family (unless his family is the whole of the state of Texas, which I’m sure it isn’t).

I’ve recently had dreams of being a starting point guard for the Chicago Bulls (sorry Derrick, but I can shoot a lot better than you).  I was dreaming that I was the superstar of the team, and had thoughts of what music I would have while I was playing.  I was thinking at the start of the first quarter, I would have ‘Walk in the Park’ by Beach House.  A perfect song to calm the nerves at the start of the game, and get me in rhythm while I destroy the opposition.  And if my team was behind, I would play ‘Sabotage’ by the Beastie Boys to provide panic in the opposition and at the same time provide the necessary fuel to start a comeback.  And just before tip off, I would have ‘Know Your Enemy’ by Rage Against the Machine, just to ensure that there will be no fraternising with the opposition.

If Jamie Oliver can change the school’s food menu, can we have Nigella introduce her line of fatty foods at sports venue?

And to my “I’m not to be blamed for your gambling problem, but here is my best sports bet of the week”…

Miami to beat New York by more than 11 points at $3.90

Reason: New York has not played very well at all  in the last 10 games (3-7), and seen a drop in production from Amare and Felton.  LeDouche likes playing at Madison Square Garden, and his teams have always pummeled the Knicks (even during the last encounter in New York when the Knicks were flying).

Welcome to the Madhouse

“Two hot dogs please.”  –  The Yellow Jose first words when arriving at the United Center

I decided to take a break from critiquing the football and food of the VPL, and went to visit Obama’s country for a few weeks.  As soon as I arrived in L.A, I became….THE YELLOW CHUCK (named after the great late Detroit Pistons coach, Chuck Daly).

As with most kids during the 90’s, if you loved basketball, your number one hero was Michael Jordan (although for a brief period, Jordan took a back seat to Wesley and Woody (and Rosie Perez for the eye candy) from White Men Can’t Jump as my gods).  I never got into the whole Magic and Bird persona, maybe I was too young to enjoy “Showtime” or Bird was just too white for my liking.  With Jordan though, I witnessed things I had never ever seen in the sporting world.  No AFL, football, tennis, or just any sportsman had the visual and personal impact as he did.  He defied gravity, took shots at will, had a ruthless competitive streak and came up with some many highlight reels in which most NBA players would like to have one let alone a million.  And with that admiration, I became clothed in Nike for the next few years.  I had about eight Jordan t-shirts, a pair of Jordan 6 and Jordan 7, four Chicago Bulls hats and three pairs of Jordan socks.  After a run of six championships, Jordan left us (I have no memory whatsoever of his Washington Wizards days, even though I did watch him live playing for this team against the Raptors where he missed a dunk and shot like Ben Wallace).  When he left us, the NBA’s popularity dropped and the Chicago Bulls became shit.  Obviously, the worldwide support of the Bulls went downhill.  I mean who wants to support a team who in the next five years would only win 119 out of the 460 games.  Well, I stuck by them.  I became fans of Ron Mercer, Elton Brand, Eddy Curry, Jay Williams (why the fuck did you have to crash your motorbike when you explicitly told not to ride it!), Jamal Crawford, Marcus Fizer and Ron Artest (I wish he did his fan fighting antics at the Bulls instead of Indiana, it would of made the season more enjoyable to talk about).  And I wanted to watch them play at their home court, the United Center.

So here I was on a Saturday night in front of the United Center.  I was finallly going to watch my Bulls.  I don’t know whether it was the three pints of beer I had previously, or the mad turkey burger I had at Hackney’s, but I was fucking pumped.

Chicago Bulls vs Charlotte Bobcats

Saturday, 3rd of April 2010 at the United Center

I was so overwhelmed when I entered into the arena.  I didn’t know whether to get a beer, food, look at the merchandise, or go for a pee.  But I could smell the dogs, and got two of them, along with a Bud.  I felt like a true American (just without the American fat).  The Uniter Center had an art deco feel about it.  Art deco!??  It was an impressive building, which had far more charm than Rod Laver Arena.  Armed with my hot dogs and my Bud, I got to my seats up in level 3.  I was greeted by a floating Bull.  It was hovering above the court.  It was massive.  Along with the SIX championship banners hanging off the ceiling.

I spoke to the couple besides me (which instantly bought the “Your from Down Under??” question), and was wondering how they could fit in there seats with the amount of weight they had.  But they were nice enough to get me a Bud during the game.  And on Bud, I find the beer repulsive, along with Bud Light (which is not a light, but a low-carb beer).  There was other full-strength beer available, but that entailed me walking quite a bit from where I was (again, I’m a lazy American without the fat).

The players came on court for the pre-match warmup.  And there was my Bulls team, Kirk, Rose, Noah, Deng, Miller, Gibson…live in the flesh.  Awesome!  And it was appropriate that my first Bulls game was against the Michael Jordan owned (plus Tyrus Thomas new team), the Charlotte Bobcats.  I didn’t see MJ around, but I think that was because my eyesight is appalling.  The Bulls were 2 games out of the final playoff spot.  They needed to win the remaining games and rely on the Raptors to lose a few to make it.  So this game was huge.

Frank Sinatra’s rendition of Chicago came out of the speakers, and for a brief moment I was sold on the idea of moving to here (this could be added to my Karaoke song list).  And then the lights went off and out came the song Sirius by the Alan Parsons Project.  If I was fucking pumped beforehand, I was close to blowing off my load during this song.  And out came the Bulls.  One of these days I will get drafted by them, and be part of the starting five (I have one-game winning streak against Fingers, does this make me NBA ready?) just so I can come out to that song.

The game starts and finally, I can now say that I’ve seen the Chicago Bulls live at the United Center.  The game itself wasn’t that great, but that didn’t bother me at all (it helps when you punish a few Buds).  The  Bulls led all game, with Hinrich and Rose doing most of the damage with 24 and 26 points respectively.  They end up winning it 94-88.  The one thing that really stood out from this game was Derrick Rose.  He may look quick on the tv screen, but fuck he is even quicker live.  I don’t think there is a player in the NBA who can keep up with him at the moment.  I don’t see him as a true point guard yet, but he definitely can shoot a lot better than most people give him credit for, and soon enough he’ll get the passing game going.  Plus, he is an awesome dunker for a point guard.

I left the United Center happy.  After waiting so many years for this moment, I felt that it could not get better than this.  I was too hyped to go back to the hotel, so I ended up getting annihilated.

Chicago Bulls vs Milwaukee Bucks

Tuesday, 6th of April 2010 at the United Center

‘Andrew Bogut will be out for the remainder of the season.’ – ESPN Sports Center, the morning of the Bulls v Bucks game.

Shattered.  There’s always something that’s got to ruin a trip.  The Bucks played the Suns, and Bogut had just dunked over Amare Stoudamire, in which Bogut  landed on his arm.  I think the arm was damaged in five areas of the arm.  Shattered.   I almost threw the remote at the tv.  I was looking forward to seeing him play.  He’s had a great season, a beast on the defensive end (which was acknowledged by the NBA, as he made the 2nd all-defensive team).  Bogut is the best basketballer that has been produced in this country (apologies to Gaze, Ray Borner, and Larry Sengstock).  Again, shattered!

What made it worse is that the Bulls could not beat a Bogut-less Bucks.  They indeed fear the dear and got trounced in the final quarter.  I’m amazed on how well this Bucks side has played.  I cannot believe Scott Skiles (Bucks coach) was dumped by the Bulls (he got fired on christmas eve.  John Paxson, you have no heart).  I stepped up my seat, and sat on level 2.  Best thing about sitting on this level, drink and food service from my seat.  Ahhh, a beer, hot dog and chicken strips/fries wench!

One thing that frightened me from sitting on this level, was the Bulls cheer squad.  They were armed with T-shirt guns.  The guns should be banned.  Those things are lethal (though I did imagine a midget getting hit by a t-shirt, now that would be f’n hilarious).

Bulls lose this one 74-79 (see what I mean about dull)

Chicago Bulls vs Cleveland Cavaliers

Thursday, 8th of April 2010 at the United Center

“What, that Cleveland really sucks?” – When Joakim Noah was asked whether his dislike for the city Cleveland would motivate him more.

This was the game where I was going to absolutely give it to the LeBron James.  He must of heard the Yellow Chuck was in town, because he decided not to suit up for this game.  This was different type of disappointment compared to Bogut, as there is nothing like giving shit to a player you dislike.  By the way, top five NBA players where hate is the only emotion I have for them:

1. Kobe Bryant (I don’t like convicted rapists)

2. LeBron James (stop thinking about becoming a billion dollar athlete and a spoiled brat)

3. Eddy Curry (the fact that you are earning 12 millions dollars next year for being fat)

4. Rajon Rondo (you’ll never be as good as Chris Paul)

5. Ben Gordon (betrayal hurts)

I decided to take it another step with my seats, and sat in level 1.  It was right next to the players entrance.  I could give the pound to Bulls players (which I did for Brad Miller).  Being like five metres away from the Bulls bench is super.  The cheerleaders were top notch (they even had the granny cheerleaders for the GILF lovers).  Craig Sager (TNT courtside reporter, and the man with the awful suits) was having photos taking in front of me by fans.  He would be a true ladies man, especially in that lovely yellow suit.

The game itself was quality.  The Bulls starters were on song, especially Deng, Hinrich and Rose, with each scoring over 20 points.  The Cavs had Mo and Jamieson going off.  It felt like it was the playoffs, as the noise level was far louder than the previous two games I had watched.  I thought the Bulls had it with a minute to go, but Mo kept on landing bombs from outside the arc.  He had the chance to win the game on the buzzer but came up short.  Free Big Mac for the fans!  (each Bulls fan gets a free big mac with each victory and only if they scored over 100 points).

So, after the game finished, I stood up, took one more look at this awesome venue in my oversized Derrick Rose jersey and walked away feeling completely satisfied.  And as I left the United Center, I was again thinking, could I move to the land of Obama and watch the whole season of the Bulls live?  I might have to.

Game Summary

Notable Attendees – The whole Chicago Bulls team

Number of Hot Dogs consumed – 6

Number of Buds consumed – 16

Number of chicken strips consumed – 3

Season Summary

Number of Hot Dogs consumed – 7

Number of Beers consumed – 21

Number of Souvlakis consumed – 1

Number of chicken strips consumed – 3

Number of food poisonings – 0

Goran Pandev is not Bulgarian

“It’s against my religion to be here.” – Fingers (a former Macedonian, now Bulgarian) attending the Northcote City (Greek club) vs South Melbourne Hellas (another Greek club)

The second post.  This is quite the milestone.  I’ve outposted Kip Riptide’s blog.

Before I delve into last weekend’s battle of the souvlakis, I thought I might go on about my relationship with the Greeks.  I spent five years at a greek high school.  Now this wouldn’t be unusual, unless you were not greek and had a bit of the rice paper roll genes.  It’s strange being bought up in this environment, as I did not speak a word of the language, didn’t quite buy into euro techno, couldn’t fill out a bonds t-shirt or was not a V8 lover.  But I did manage to get greek accent, score a greek chick in my final year of high school and learn the greek national anthem.

Obviously, the number one sport at our school was football.  We did try to attempt to play other sports.  When we played AFL in a high school  competition, our average losing margin in the three games was close to 120 points.   We did manage to kick one goal, which caused grand final like celebrations from our team.  Our problem with the game, is that had we tendency not to pick up the football and try to kick off the ground as much as we could, which kind of defeats the purpose of the game.  We also participated in a cricket competition.  The sight of seeing some of our players kick the cricket ball (I do not recommend this, despite this being common practice by cricketers in the sub-continent) at the stumps rather than picking it up and throwing it was quite horrific.

So we only got serious when we played the round ball.  Although we didn’t win much, we didn’t look like duds.  Our most memorable match was against a rival greek school.  I think it would be the only time we were all on the same page (there was not a whole lot of lasting friendships coming out of this class) and enjoying each others company.  We drew the game, but we could have won it, if it wasn’t for my poor finishing (as one greek student said to me after the game, “You stupid kinesos”).

On to the game…

Northcote City vs South Melbourne

Saturday, 13th March 2008 at John Cain Reserve

I headed towards Northcote with Mr and Mrs Ego.  The last time I was at John Cain, was when Melbourne Victory smacked five goals against the Victorian Premier League All-Stars (Allsopp kicked his first goal for the club after a million poor attempts beforehand).  As I entered into the ground, I was confronted by raffle tickets sellers.  On offer was apparently $2,000 worth of cosmetics and perfume (sorry ladies, but I find that hard to believe its worth that much).  One seller said I had great hair, fortunately I have a good sense when people are talking shit.  I went straight for the food and beer stall.  I was a bit disappointed with the lack of food and beer options (I had a hot dog in my mind all morning), but the tasty lamb souvlaki made up for the lack of variety.

Not surprisingly, the crowd had a greek flavour to it.  The game was one-all with South Melbourne dominating play.  The ground was in superb condition, so there was no excuse for bad touches and passes.  Hellas was causing havoc on the left wing, and would have been annoyed with lack of finishing up front.  With ten minutes to go in the first half, shoddy defending by South Melbourne allowed a City striker (the artist formally known as the Impotent Striker) to catch on to a long ball and finish truly.  Five minutes later, they showed the replay of the goal, except it wasn’t a replay, the same City striker scored again with the long ball.  It’s a shame the manager can’t stone his defenders at half time (note to self, when I take over the Victorian Premier League, allow managers to stone players).

Fingers arrives at half time with beers.  He is clearly feeling uncomfortable being at a greek game.  The second half begins, and it’s Northcote who begins well.  They go close extending the lead, but the defending from Hellas has tighten up.  The game changes when South Melbourne scores (former Victory player, Daniel Vasilevski).  The boys from Hellas go off in the stands (“Northcote City Fuck Off”), and now its game on.  With ten minutes to go, Vasilevski scores the equalizer with City now hanging onto dear life.  You can sense the lack of any forward movement from City, and deep into injury time, Hellas blows a chance to win the game.  The whistle blows, and it’s a draw.  Overall, an entertaining game from the Greeks.

Game Summary

Notable attendees – A midget wearing a Northcote City jersey

Season Stats:

Number of Hot Dogs consumed – 1

Number of Beers consumed – 5

Number of Souvlakis consumed – 1

Number of food poisonings – 0

Gourmet Dogs

Welcome.

This is first (and quite possibly the last) post about the life and times of myself and the upcoming football leagues around Victoria.  I’ve made a committment along with my fellow sidekick, Kip Riptide, to watch as many football games, whether it is the Victorian Premier League, Division 2 or the Christian League.  There are a few reasons why this could be my final post:

• A very bad gourmet hot dog
• Wearing a Serbian jersey at a Croatian aligned club
• Hurling abuse at a linesman
• And getting myself lost in the Western Suburbs

Along with commentary on the game, I’ll be also be keeping tally on the number of hot dogs and beers consumed, along with any subsequent attacks of diahorrea that may fall upon me.  Now on the with the first game!

Richmond SC vs Northcote City

Sunday, 28th of February 2010 at Kevin Bartlett Reserve

It was about six months ago when I was in Altona watching supposedly my mate’s final game.  Fingers, my mate, had long-lived in the shadows of Steve Horvat, and never ever gave up on his dream in representing the Socceroos.  But when you have a broken body and heading towards the wrong side of thirty, you eventually have to give up.  So there he was, helping Altona City defeat Westgate by 7 goals.  I thought it would be a laugh to watch Fingers troll around the ground with the younger kids.  But he was easily holding his own, and was even rewarded with a goal (although this is debatable, I didn’t think he touched the ball at all).  But what captivated me the most about the day (besides that maniac of a car attendant chasing us around the car park demanding money), was watching a game without the frills of an MCG or Etihad Stadium.  I didn’t half to fork out dollars for a mid-strength beer, an extremely horrible hot dog and atmosphere that can be so annoying at times.  Here I was, drinking full-strength beer (VB, best cold beer ever), a tasty cervapi and enjoying the entertaining surroundings.  I found enjoyment in watching a fat kid try to outrun the last defender, being mesmerized by his manboobs and watching him fail miserably.  I couldn’t help but laugh at his misery.

So now I was on my way to meet up with Kip at the Kevin Bartlett Reserve in Richmond.  I get a bit lost getting to the ground, what with the road not being on Google Maps (tip to getting to this ground, you see the GE building, you walk straight down the private road towards the building).  It’s the first round of the Victorian Premier League, so there is a bit of buzz around the ground where Richmond plays host to the newly promoted Northcote City.  I catch up with Kip, and we start to admire the pitch.  It’s what all football pitches should look like, green and smooth.  I was thinking how much Melbourne Victory would have appreciated this surface after playing on Etihad a couple of weeks ago where the ground was destroyed by the AC/DC gig.  The game starts a frantic pace, with Northcote City dominating possession.  Northcote’s captain, who was playing up front, was struggling to finish off the good work that his team was providing.  Thirty minutes of pressure from Northcote was undone with a foul outside the box at Richmond’s goal.  Richmond scored with an impressive free kick.  I start to kick myself thinking that the quality of these matches would be poor.  My stomach begins to rumble, and gave the nod to Kip to test out the food provided by the Richmond Soccer Club.  We were not disappointed with the hot dogs.  A tad pricey for what it was ($6.50), but nevertheless, it was went down a treat along with the five dollar VB.  The club is of German descent, so I was hoping for a German lager of some sort.  But no, just the standard CUB beers.

Back to the second half, and Richmond scores with a decent counter attack.  They have clearly dominated the first 20 minutes, and looked like it was cruising to victory.  But the boys in white began to tire and Northcote came back again.  Northcote got a deserved penalty in which they scored.  From then on, it was all Northcote City.  With their supporters chanting ‘Northcote’ (which was quite weak), they had two great opportunities in which their impotent strikers could not convert.  And just like that, the game was over.  The score was 2-1, in favor of Richmond with Northcote rueing a missed opportunity.

Game Summary:

Notable attendees – John van’t Schip (Melbourne Hearts manager)

Number of Hot Dogs consumed – 1

Number of beers consumed – 2

Food Poisoning – Negative