Things don’t always go according to plan in Cambodia. The plan: two teams, one venue, four quarters. Not so much.
Background
This was an important game for the Eagles. We were putting out what we thought was our best team yet. We were playing on our brand new home field. And we were competing against our rivals, the Vietnam Swans, who had beaten Cambodian football teams five times in a row in their most recent meetings. Though it was not said explicitly, we all knew that this game had the gravity to greatly affect the course of Cambodian Australian Rules Football, for better or worse.
Friday night
After leaving late from Saigon, the Swannies showed up at their hotel a little after 11pm. Glenn and I represented the Eagles and met them as they got off the bus. A few of them had a solid stumble on already, the bus trip already having been very alcohol-infused. My goal, get them as quickly as possible to a place with more booze and girls. While most of our team was in bed dreaming about footy, I wanted the Swans’ minds to be, well, elsewhere. As we approached Rose Bar, there were some rumblings about being hungry, blah, blah, so we ended up in Pickled Parrot for a relatively quiet meal and a couple beers. Boys headed home soon after except for the guy that I was to be covering the next day. Dropped him and a young lady off at a club at about 2amish. Generally a fail though.
Game Day
Most of the Eagles were at the field by 1pm to talk strategy and warm up. The Swans were nowhere to be seen though. It seems that the bus that the Swans were on took them to Olympic Stadium, exactly not where our game was. Eventually they were set straight but were not allowed to drive across the Japanese Bridge for some reason. Then they were, with, from what I heard, no bribes being paid. I’m still not sure how this happened. Swans finally arrived 130ish (this, like all other numbers in this piece, may not be right, but they sound right to me) for a 2pm kick off.
Game on, we came out strong after the first bounce but were not able to get a major score on the board, the Swans worked back to our side of the field and kicked one through. Then another. Maybe another after that. Not the start we wanted. Nonetheless, the 200-ish supporters who had come out on this toasty day did not give up on us, even though we went into the first break down convincingly. But it was only one quarter. Our coach pounded one message into us. Stay on our men. There were too many loose players. Yes, that’s what we needed to do. Though it wasn’t clear who exactly had been letting us down, we were all determined to improve our defense. The second quarter, though, was not terribly different from the first. We fought hard but went into halftime a few goals behind.
I felt I was doing reasonably well. The player I was assigned had only taken one mark, though the Swans had sent a number of kicks his way (he took a kick at goal but came up short, it was a long kick). I had taken a defensive mark myself and kicked complete to another player. His name is Dukesy. He plays for the Swans. Not the first time I had ever kicked to him. He took the mark. Ran off of it. Then kicked a booming goal from the sideline. Kinda absurd.
Halftime instructions. COVER YOUR MEN. Why couldn’t we understand? It was so simple! They were still open. Though we were down, we were still confident. If we could play them even in the third quarter, in which we were playing upwind, we felt that we could win it in the final one.
We fought our asses off in the third. They may have kicked one more, but we felt good about the way were playing and felt that we had had our first even quarter with them.
Or was it. As the third quarter came to a close, our team trainer noticed something rather interesting about the game. The Swans had 18 players on the field, and we had 16. While 18 is the standard number of players for an Australian Rules Football side, rarely do we play 18s due to field and team size. Somehow, that we wanted to play 16 on 16 had not been communicated clearly, or had not been understood by the Swans. Our defensive lapses and their open men seemed to have a different cause than mental and physical errors by our players. They had two extra men!
So what do we do now? It was determined that the scores would be swept clean, and that we would play two 15-minute halves, and that would be the game.
Eagles vs. Swans, let’s try this again.
You can imagine what was going through the minds of the two team. The Eagles had fought hard for three quarters and felt that they were playing the Swans close to even. Upon hearing that they had been playing on the light side of a lopsided field, their confidence flew. If they can play even against an 18-person Swans team, what will they do against a 16-man squad?
What about the Swans? They had also fought hard for three quarters and were on their way to a convincing win on the Eagles’ home field. Then they were told that the work they had put in was for naught, and they were going to have to beat the Eagles again.
The two teams come out onto the field for the 4th quarter/1st half and their play reflected these attitudes. The Eagles came out flying assisted by the advantage of playing downwind. The guys on the ball loved the extra space they were given and clearances came often. Quickly the Eagles were up two goals. The Eagles kept pushing and the Swans were flat. They fought, but could not put up much resistance to the Eagles’ momentum, which was magnified by loud supporters shouting slurredly at Eagles, Swans, umpires, eachother… all who would listen. We came to the end of the 4th quarter/1st half with the Eagles up like 4 goals.
We had been here before. Leading at the half was no guarantee of any sort for the Eagles, having lost halftime leads many times recently (see my Indochina Cup Write-up). Having the wind in our face and playing against a team with a lot of firepower, we knew that no lead was safe. As the half started, we buckled down. They had a couple chances for goals, but their kicks drifted off-center for behinds. Our defense bent, but did not break. Late in the final period they put in their first goal, but it was far from enough. The Eagles had won. We had beaten our rivals. Gotten our first victory over anyone in many months.
Smiles all around. Though the Swannies had had a tough day, they were gracious in defeat and congratulated us on our performance. Players limped from the field to the coolers and cracked beers which had been calling our names for hours. The best on field awards did not surprise anyone, going to Dukesy of the Swans and Fitzy of the Eagles.
After the Games
The party left the field and moved to Kingdom Brewery. An amazing barbecue buffet and bottomless beer hit the spot for players and supporters alike. Drinking games commenced and drinking accelerated.
The next stop was Sharky’s. The bar was even more packed than usual, as they were having their first “Punk and Disorderly” night, showing off some of the best hard rockin’ talent coming from both the Cambodian and Expat communities. And there were USD1 tequila shots. Ouch.
Next stop Heart of Darkness. Of course. Hard to believe the Swannies would have come this far without at least one stop at Phnom Penh’s infamous late night haunt.
A hardcore crew of Swannies and a couple Eagles then continued well into the night…
While I was sleeping in, my spies reported that the next day, the Swans’ bus coolers had been refilled and a new bottle of tequila had been purchased for the ride home. The aches from the day (and night) before were going to be managed by ice cold beer and Mexican medicine. ‘Cause that’s how footy players do.
The Eagles will be headed back to Saigon for the return match later this year.
Thanks to the Swans for a hell of a battle and great weekend.
