Forget the club leagues for a moment. At 7am, Australian Daylight Savings Time, Uraguay will host Australia in Montevideo in the first leg of the play-off for a World Cup spot.
In 2001, Australia went into the return leg in Uraguay with a 1-0 lead, but were overrun in the 2nd half of the return game, losing it 3-0, thereby giving the WC place to the South Americans on aggregate.
Originally, the game was meant to start at 9pm local time, but Uraguay, after failing to secure a chartered flight to Australia, complained to FIFA about the advantage it would give Australia, who HAD managed to arrange a chartered flight home, just hours after the final whistle. So now the game is at 6pm local time.
Despite all the mind games leading into this 2-leg series, by 10am there will be a clearer picture of just who is more ready to head to Germany next year....c'mon boys, this is the year, 32 years after the last success!!
All the best.
