Iain Fyfe is DISGUSTING

I ventured home from Stadium Australia the other night with mixed emotions.

For the most part I was thrilled - I had just witnessed two of the most fantastic footballers of a generation. One of them was a star of the English Premier League and the winner of no less than a FIFA World Cup, having played a key role for Brazil in a number of matches throughout the 2002 tournament. The other has been capped 99 times for England, (many of those as Captain), has 6 Premier League Titles, one UEFA Champions League and a host of other titles to his name.

As a lifelong football fan, the opportunity to watch Juninho and David Beckham live in my own back yard was absolutely surreal.

As I'm sure 79,999 other people did on Tuesday, I watched Beckham like a hawk for 90 minutes. This was a player who only six months ago was in the first team at Real Madrid, where he was integral to their success in the run in to the title. This was a player who no less than six days earlier, was playing at Wembley in a competitive international for England. His better years may be behind him, but let me tell you, not by much.

There were two things apparent to me on Tuesday night regarding Beckham. One was that despite him cruising around at times, he is an utterly magnificent footballer - head and shoulders above anyone else on the park. He may have his flaws, for example a reasonably weak left foot, but when you have a right foot as good as his, do you really need it?

He still has plenty of pace, evident on the occassions in which he actually broke in to a sprint. From memory he lost the ball from one short pass all night (funnily enough from which Sydney went on to score), and I only recall one long pass that went astray. His ability to take one touch and pick out someone on the other side of the pitch fifty yards away was simply astounding.

And the free kick, well all I can say is WOW. I get the impression that people take his record for granted, and that they expect him to score from every free kick he takes. Unfortunately it is not as easy as that, but the one he took on Tuesday was indeed special, and will no doubt be talked about for years to come.

The second thing that struck me about Beckham was his ticker. I will admit to having fears that he would only play his contracted 55 minutes and be substituted, but despite being clearly hurt he battled on for the full 90 and I admire him for that.

You could also see that it meant something for him to be out there when he bollocked Middleby, followed by a solid get square hack about ten minutes later. I absolutely loved it. The appreciation I already had for the man just tripled.

But I'll tell you what - if Beckham hadn't been so awesome, I would have gone home from Homebush Bay a shitty, shitty man on Tuesday. Why is that you ask? Two words: Iain Fyfe.

If anyone out there has read any of my earlier posts, you may or may not have noticed an extreme hatred for this supposed footballer. What was Iain Fyfe's first pass on Tuesday night, you ask? A deft touch straight to the feet of an L.A. Galaxy player. Excellent work, Fyfey.

By his own standards, he had a terrible match. But something happened towards the end of the fixture which I am just too upset to go in to great depth about. He scored. It was nightmare-ish. Iain Fyfe, obtaining the adulation of 80,000 screaming fans for a tap in? The 80,000 people should have been silent, save for a collective "What the fuck just happened?"

All in all though, Tuesday night was a resounding success, and a fantastic advertisement for football in this country. Despite Fyfe's existence, I did leave Homebush absolutely chuffed. Seems to be the case whenever I'm there - the last time I was was on a certain 16 November 2005. That is another story...