Melbourne Victory vs Sydney F.C at Telstra Dome

On Saturday, I went with some friends to the Melbourne Victory versus Sydney F.C soccer/football match at Telstra Dome. This was going to be Melbourne's only match at the Dome this season. The clubs and media had built this up as a huge match, since Sydney were the reigning premiers. The sporting mad Melbourne crowd didn't disappoint, with 39,000 people turning up, the biggest crowd for a domestic game in this country.

I had previously been to a Victory match at Olympic park and it was very boring. It was hard to see the play from where we were standing and the actual contest was bad too. This match however, was quite lively. The view from the bottom level was excellent, the players were extremely close.

The match itself got off to a cracking start. Victory scored a goal within the first few minutes. This was quickly followed by a penalty for Victory in which they converted. I was about to head off to the toilet since usually nothing happens at the start but luckily only started to walk out of my seat when the penalty occurred. Then, moments later, a man from Sydney got sent off. It was all happening, the crowd were cheering like crazy.

Sydney got a goal back soon after their man got sent off and the crowd was silent. The scored stayed at 2-1 at half time. After half time, Melbourne got a third goal with a great long lob pass. However, Sydney did not lie down and got a second goal to make the last 10 minutes of the match interesting still.

Below is a video of a Mexican wave by the crowd whilst waiting for a Sydney player to get stretchered off the field.

After the match, the group of us went walking around the city and going from bar to bar. We must have covered most of the city square having gone from Telstra Dome down to Swanston and Flinders and back. It was fun at the start and I thought the Golden Monkey bar was alright and comfortable. We went past Adrian's work place and he said that it was all a bit too close to work for his liking (he works some very long hours as a lawyer). You can see a picture of his office below, its the middle building about 15 floors up.

The pub crawl got worse for me by the end of the night as I started to sneeze with my allergies. I couldn't breathe and was getting tired and had had about enough for the night. After being refused entry to this apparently "hip" club because the bouncer was having a "power trip" session and acting all high and mighty (or maybe he was racist, who knows) we went to Bar Hum Bug for one last drink and called it a night. Overall, it was fun, but I think I would have had more fun if I was sneezing for the latter half of the night.