Uruguay v Australia

I can’t say I feel too sorry for the Uruguayan soccer team. Four years ago they denied Australia a spot in the World Cup amidst some controversy over the Australian team bascially being assaulted on arrival in Uruguay. Of course that incident has been brought up again, with leading members of Uruguays soccer fraternity accused of orchestrating it.

In the last few weeks leading up to this Saturday night’s game, the off-field antics have heated up. Australia refused Uruguay’s request to play the first leg in Montevideo a day earlier than originally scheduled. Uruguay announced they would delay the kick-off time by four hours, starting the match at 9pm. It looked like an attempt to strand the Australians in Uruguay for another 24 hours post-match because neither team would have any chance of making the only flight out of South America to Australia at 10pm. When the Uruguayan team chartered their own flight to set off for Australia immediately after the game, it seemed they had their revenge.

But, as The Australian reports, the Uruguayan’s charter has fallen through, and now they’re desperately trying to reschedule back to a 5pm kickoff, so they can make the 10pm flight out of Chile. Funny thing is, Australia organised their own charter flight with Qantas, and are now under no obligation to accept Uruguay’s rescheduled kickoff, which would leave them stranded at home for another 24 hours.

UPDATE: It seems FIFA have allowed the rescheduled kick-off. I hope Australia keeps their charter flight, even though they could make the flight out of Chile. Two reasons. 1. Everyone can stretch out, sleep, and relax with only their teammates to disturb them. 2. The possibility of other passengers disturbing them won’t include the opposition.

How much would that suck, spending 12 hours in a confined space looking across first class at the guys you’ve learned to hate thanks to the high politics of football taking place? Not to mention they may have just thrashed you in a fiery and physical on-pitch battle.