Aussie Cheers at Jakarta Stadium

By Michael Quin

Outnumbered and outcheered, on a night when their Socceroos were outplayed, Australian fans at Wednesday's Asian Cup qualifier had a big task ahead of them in raising a cheer.

Indonesia played an attacking game, especially in the first half, stirring the local crowd into a frenzy. Shouts of "Indonesia, Indonesia" shook Jakarta's Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, while the drumming section from the cheer squad hammered out it's beats.

Australian coach, Pim Verbeek, said the Indonesians were particularly difficult to beat at home with their noisy fans.

Meanwhile, just over 100 Australians - and one inflatable kangaroo - grouped together near the gate one section to muster what noise they could. Cheers of "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi" started several times but petered out quickly.

Rory Carroll of Sydney spent much of the night starting chants from his front row seat, trying to lead the group. It was a tough job.

"There's not much chanting from the crowd so far," he said at half time.

"They're trying to get into it, but there are only so many Socceroos supporters here."

Kevin Thompson of Brisbane was one of the few die-hard Socceroos fans that were there.
After 17 years in Jakarta, Thompson said he'd been waiting a long time to be there among the Australian crowd watching the Socceroos.

"The Aussie crowd's pretty small, but everyone's behind their team, it's a good turnout," he said.

At half time the mood in the Australian section was tame, reflecting not only the small number of supporters, but also Australia's on field performance.

At half time, Tina Walton of Cootamundra in New South Wales wanted to know why the apparently fit Australian players seemed so flat-footed.

"The Australians are looking a bit slow, a bit lackluster out there. What's wrong with them?" she said.

Rory Carroll, between attempts to raise cheers from the quiet group, admitted he too was disappointed with the the first half.

"We're not playing the total football that we've been playing during the qualifiers," he said.

Matthew Hogben of Perth was also unimpressed, describing the game so far as lackluster.

Tina Walton was more upbeat at half time.

"We can kick their ass!" she said.

"The Soceroos just need a bit of home town support. They know the Aussies are here, when they came out onto the pitch they acknowledged us. They need that little bit of support," she said.

Sure enough in the second half the mood did lift as the Socceroos took a more aggressive approach against their fading opponents.

But several tense moments in front of goal at both ends bore no results and the Australian crowd resigned to the fact their would be no victory for their small party to celebrate.

Greg Redden of South Australia said even with a nil-nil result it had been a good game, with plenty of action in the second half keeping it interesting.

"I thought we'd win but that's okay. It was well played, fast and open," he said