I think today is a great day to be young, Australia, and rich in faith. It's World Youth Day down in Sydney, Australia, and it's a great day to be a young Australia boy or girl. And it's not just because of His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI presiding over the pilgrims who descend on the largest city in OZ. A young group of footballers brought home what the Bedlam reckons as the first piece of hardware for the country as a member of the Asian Football Confederation.
First, a little take on World Youth Day 2008 from Sydney.
Pope Benedict XVI will meet thousands of young Catholics from all over the world in Sydney
Faith Central: Gangster who found God to speak at WYD
Billed as the largest youth event in the world, World Youth Day’08 is a five-day long international Catholic youth rally, where young people gather to meet Pope Benedict XVI. It begins in Sydney, Australia on Tuesday July 15 and ends with a Mass said by Benedict XVI on Sunday July 20. The Pope arrived on Sunday, July 13.
Around half a million young people are expected to attend the closing Mass, while around half that number are expected in the days before the Mass.
To date, there have been ten World Youth Days since the initiative was begun in 1986 by Pope John Paul II. He invited young Catholics to meet with him on a regular basis, approximately once every two years, for a gathering of worship, prayer, talks, Mass and teaching. Each WYD is centred on a Bible passage. The passage for WYD 2008 is "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses" (Acts 1, 8).
The largest WYD to date took place in Manila, the Philippines, in 1995 and was attended by 4 million young people. Nearly half a million are expected to attend the closing Mass at WYD08 on July 20, 2008. Approximately 2,000 have come from the United Kingdom, including Rick Brewin and Rebecca Coyne, who are providing an online diary of WYD08 for Faith Online.
WYD08 has attracted criticism over the cost of the event, paid out of the public purse although the major expenses will be paid by the Catholic Church, and also from protesters who plan to highlight their opposition to Roman Catholic teaching on sex, and contraception by handing out condoms to pilgrims. They also object to a new law introduced in New South Wales, banning protesters from “annoying” World Youth Day pilgrims.
Articles from Google
And some of the football:
| BULUT GIVES AUSTRALIA WIN IN GRAND FINAL | |
| |  JAKARTA (19 July 2008) – Kerem Bulut made all the difference when his sudden death penalty conversion gave Australia the crown in the AFF Under-16 Youth Championships here this evening at the Stadion Lebak Bulus.
The score at the end of regulation and ensuing extra time was 1-1 with Ali Muneer Redha scoring first for Bahrain the 44th minute before Marc Warren headed in the equaliser three minutes to the end.
“We started pretty slowly all week and we were a little nervous but these boys are still growing up and they have to learn the need to settle early,” said Martyn Crook, the head coach for Australia.
“But we settled down a bit and I believe that the team will just have to grow with this tournament.”
Bahrain came out with all guns blazing and dictated the early rhythm as Australia do much of the defending in the opening quarter.
In the 13th minute, Bahrain created a double chance off Ali Habib Haji and Ahmed Isa Ali but Australian keeper Lawrance Andrew Thomas was up to the task.
Five minutes later, Australia came back with a one-timer from Nikola Stanojevic which narrowly missed the top right hand corner as the game then fell to a midfield battle.
In the 30th minute, a bad pass from Australian captain Brendan Michael Hamill almost gifted Bahrain the goal while a minute later, a header from lanky defender Sayed Hashem Adnan Mahfood went well over the crossbar.
But there was no denying Bahrain the lead when off a quick counter-attack a cross from Ahmed playing the ball to Ali Habib before Ali Muneer came in from the blind side to slam the ball home.
The break brought a change to the Australian game where they pressed Bahrain much to their own half.
And they created several chances with Kerem Bulut going wide on 53rd minute while in the 70th minute; Million Mwenge Busthire had his attempt saved by Naser Mahboob.
With Bahrain defender Sayed Hashem doing a great job to shut own Bulut, the goal came late in the game off a defender.
Three minutes to the end, a corner from Kamal Ibrahim saw Marc Warren jumping high for a looping header which went into goal to force the game into extra-time.
After yet another half hour of deadlock, the penalty kicks saw both captains – Australia’s Brendan Michael Hamill and Bahrain’s Salman Ahmed Aldakheel missing their kicks.
With the penalty level at four apiece, the miss by Bahrain Abdulla Khalifa Mohamed allowed Bulut to place the ball to the left of Bahraini keeper Naser for the win.
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE and RESULTS
09/07/08
AUSTRALIA 2 BAHRAIN 1
SINGAPORE 0 MALAYSIA 2
11/07/08
BAHRAIN 1 SINGAPORE 0
INDONESIA 0 AUSTRALIA 6
13/07/08
AUSTRALIA 4 MALAYSIA 1
BAHRAIN 2 INDONESIA 0
15/07/08
MALAYSIA 2 INDONESIA 0
SINGAPORE 1 AUSTRALIA 1
17/07/08
INDONESIA 1 SINGAPORE 1
MALAYSIA 1 BAHRAIN 1
19/07/08
(Third/Fourth Placing)
MALAYSIA 3 SINGAPORE 0
(Grand Final)
AUSTRALIA 5 BAHRAIN 4
Score at end of extra-time 1-1
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ASEAN Football Federation
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