Croatia 2 - Australia 2

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We got to the stadium well before kick off. It was packed outside the stadium. We ended up going in with a while bunch of Aussies, the conversations involved how much we were going to pump Croatia, Aussie rules, and beer. We ended up getting into the stadium and went about finding our seats. We entered our bay and were walking down the stairs. As we walked down there was only Croatians on our left. I´m talking the whole bay was Croatians. On our right there was miscellaneous supporters, probably mostly neutrals. We walked all the way down the stairs and found our seats in the very first row of the top tier located along the lengthy side of the pitch in between the 18 yard box and half way. As you could probably guess, our seats were located in the bay which was full of Croatians. We had to watch the game, in our Australian shirts, in a bay full of Croatians...

So our seats probably weren´t the best. Great place to watch the game from, but we didn't´t have much back up. We timidly asked some Croats who were in our seats to move, they obliged no problem. We then sat down to await kickoff, every now and again looking over our shoulder at the mass of opposition fans, then looking at each other and shaking our heads. We were hardly noticed at the beginning of the game. Even when Croatia scored an early goal from that cracker free kick we went pretty much unnoticed. The opening goal was a real downer for us (as for most Aussies following the game i would imagine). It sure sparked up the crowd though. There was Croatian covering about 20% of the stadium in one big block, starting from us and going across our left for quite a way. After the goal all we could hear was the fans delivering chant after chant after chant. They looked really cool, all going up in unison and throwing their fists in the air as one. Their noise went on despite us having the majority of possession.

When we equalized Vanders and i did our nuts. The Croatians behind us were noticeably quiet. We were dancing and singing, high fiving and the likes. I was expecting some kind of verbal, or maybe something thrown at us, but nothing... The game went on and the Croats, after a short delay following the goal, sparked back into action. We were pretty far removed from the Aussie section of the crowd so all the noise we heard was in favour of Croatia. Vanders and my heads dropped when the calamity that is Kalac somehow let in Croatia´s second goal. In all seriousness how did that go in the net? Needless to say that the Croatian supporters went nuts. They were now in a position to qualify for the next round. All Australia needed was a goal, 2-2 was enough for us to qualify.

The game progressed, the Croats sung, Aussies were biting their nails. Then we popped in our second goal. A goal we deserved as we were pressing so hard. The crowd behind us went pretty silent, they were out of the cup if the score stayed as it was. Vanders and I went absolutely crazy, as did the Aussies across the stadium. Fist pumping, dancing and screaming, it was all happening. We started banging on the advertising sign just in front of us with our fists. This was when we started being noticed by the Croatian fans. I don´t think our carry on really impressed them all that much. As the game continued we were getting happier and happier and kept banging on the metal advertising sign. The pin in Vanders watch broke and fell to the ground below. We couldn't´t get into the are below as it was cordoned off. We had to yell over the rail and get the attention of the people below. We had to stand up to do this. We eventually got the watch thrown up to us. Just in time too. As we got the watch a firm hand from behind grabbed my shoulder, I turned around and saw this irate Croatian yelling at us to sit down. We were trying not to obstruct the viewing of others, but apparently we were unsuccessful. We quickly resumed our seats but this guy was furious. He was yelling all kinds of things at us (some we understood, some we didn't), i swiveled in my seat and put both hands in the air saying sorry, then i tapped his knee saying we were sorry and were would remain seated. He didn't´t appreciate that too much, he slapped away my hand and continued with the finger pointing and yelling. Vanders tried to gesture that his watch fell and attempted to apologise. That didn't´t go down too well either. We just turned back to the game.

This episode didn't stop us getting animated about the game however, we screamed foul when not awarded free kicks, etc etc. Later in the game one of their players was to receive a second yellow card and therefore a red, he was sent packing. From here it was quite unlikely Croatia were going to qualify for the next round. This provoked more sign banging from us two as well as fist pumping and general carry on. Next i felt this gentle tap on my shoulder. It was that same guy with a stern look on his face. He was resting forward on his seat, eyes wide open and looking directly at me. He just raised his finger and put it to his lips 'shhhhhh‘. Then, still looking at me, he reclined back into his seat. We were pretty quiet after that.

The game finished 2-2. The Croatians all left pretty quickly and left us to our celebrating (after the whistle we weren´t holding back). Mr. angry man didn't´t approach us at all, but the guy sitting next to us shook both our hands on the way out and gave us a nod. We were left to celebrate to the sounds of such songs as 'I come from the land down under´ and 'TNT'. The Aussie section of the crowd stayed for a long time after the final whistle. the Aussie team went into the dressing rooms and reemerged about 5-10 mins later to acknowledge the fans still there (all of them). They stayed for a while showing their appreciation for the support (or maybe stadium management asked them to come out so we would go home). After all this a Croatian came out from the aisle, i was kinda in his way so he tapped me on the shoulder, I turned around and he gave me the biggest hug. It was the kind of hug you would give your closest friend after not seeing them for a couple of years. We broke and he kept his arm around my should and said 'well played Australia, now you must beat those Italians for us. You must do this for us'. Then he tapped my should a couple of times and was off. It was a really nice parting impression of the fans. I turned around and saw that Vanders was in the middle of swapping shirts with another Croatian fan. It is a really nice last memory of the game.

After all the post game commotion we left the stadium and went to a beer stall. We ended up chatting to a couple of Aussies and drinking. It was getting late by this stage so we decided it was best to catch a train back to our hotel in case they stopped running. We jumped on and 30 mins later we were back at our stop. We knew how to walk to our hotel from the train station so getting home should have been a simple enough proposition. As it turned out though we were having a chin wag with these Croatians who said that they were going to go into town and drink some more beer 'you should come along they said' good idea we thought. We told them to go on as we needed to use the facilities. It was about 1:00am or so and we decided to go into town and find some pubs. Needless to say we strayed from the path we knew and ended up getting lost. This would have been ok if any pubs were open. It soon became clear that all the pubs (everything actually) were closed. So not taking notice of how we got to where we were, and having walked to far to retrace our steps we decided that we should try and get home.

We ended up walking down this street which looked like earlier in the night it was a night bazaar of some kind. As we walked through we got some strange looks. Being helplessly lost at 1:30ish in the morning in some small town in Germany we were pretty keen to go to bed. We approached these 3 guys covered in tats who were drinking beer and smoking ciggies. They spoke no English and we no German. We tried to ask where the train station was. They were helpful but clearly didn't understand what we wanted. We walked where they pointed but it was clear we were going to wrong way. About 15 mins later we returned to these guys (who in normal circumstance would not have been our first choice of people to ask for help) and threw our hands in the air. Again we tried to communicate but to no avail. In the end Vanders just pulled out the business card from the taxi company who initially dropped us at our hotel. One of the guys pulled out his mobile phone and called a taxi for us (lucky we had the name of the hotel written down!). While we waited they pulled out beers for us and offered us cigarettes. We sat around and drank and smoked and had a good laugh (although I'm not sure what at). We ended up talking to these guy for about 10 - 15 mins. When the taxi showed up we tried to give them money for the beer and smokes we had, and because we felt we owed them something for their kindness. They refused, 'you friend Germany' one of them said 'ok ok'.

Probably not what we were looking for when we left the train station in search of beer, but overall I can’t imagine a better end to the evening.

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Photos

Where We Were Sitting
Mr Angry Man and the Croatians

The Teams
Pre Kickoff

Kick Off
Down To Business

Action Shot
Croatia Clear

Goal!
Croatia 1 - Australia 1

The Team
They Loved It

The Fans
So Did They

Australia
The Curtain Call