Leaving the Cup, but the Cup's not leaving me...

Saturday, June 19, 2010 

Match 24
Durban
Netherlands 1 – 0 Japan
Place watched:  OR Tambo International Airport bar

We checked out of the Morulana Guesthouse at 11.  Colin, the owner’s daughter’s boyfriend transported us to the airport.  Along the way, Colin talked about the Springboks—South Africa’s rugby team immortalized in the movie Invicticus.  They are SA’s pride and joy.  The Bafana Bafana captured the imagination of the public for approximately 5 days—from the draw with Mexico on June 11, until the loss to Uruguay on the 16th.  Now most of South Africa was more interested in the Springbok’s friendly match against Italy today, than the World Cup.

Upon arriving at the airport, we searched for the Iberia Airlines desk, but found out they did not open until 4pm.  We had hoped that we could check our bags and then take the Gautrain to Sandton, where we had transferred to a shuttle bus a few days earlier.  It had looked like an interesting place and the train was very speedy, so we thought we would return to check it out during the 9+ hours we had until our flight left Johannesburg.

Forced with the reality that we would have to keep our bags with us, the idea of schlepping them to Sandton and back was less appealing.  We found a bar that was showing the match, so we settled in to watch.

Once again, the Netherlands won in a less-than convincing manner.  They have not yet conceded a goal, but have also not yet put in a dominating victory.  Perhaps they are building up to that…


Match 25
Rustenburg
Ghana 1 – 1 Australia
Place watched:  Intercontinental Hotel conference room

After the match, we were able to check our bags and get our boarding passes.  We then made our way to a hotel we could see through the large windows close to the Departures entrance to the airport.  At the main restaurant, we asked where we could watch the match, and were led upstairs to a conference room.  There were about 25 chairs set up and roughly 12 guys watching a large TV.  Eventually everyone filtered out except for 7 of us… all Americans.  We were all thinking the same thing:  we didn’t travel halfway around the world to NOT watch this match!

Soon after my friend and I sat down the Australians scored.  As poorly as they had played against Germany, they were outplaying Ghana in this game.  Unfortunately, their efforts were about to come undone.  Harry Kewell, their creative striker, was called for a hand ball in the box and sent off.  The resulting penalty kick was converted and the teams were level at a goal each, but Australia would have to seek a win with 10 men.

A lot of times when a team goes down a man, they bunker in and try to counter-attack.  Not the Socceroos!  They continued to attack with numbers, making for a highly entertaining match.  Ghana could not score against the strong Australian resolve.  Unfortunately for the Socceroos, they were also unable to find the net.  The match ended in a flurry knotted at 1 goal.


Match 26
Tshwane/Pretoria
Cameroon 1 - 2 Denmark
Place watched:  Did not watch

When the final whistle sounded, we made our way back to the airport and went through security.  Neither of us had anything to declare, so the process was quick and easy.  Approaching our gate, we looked enviously at a gate where the departure flight was to New York City.  How great it must be to fly only 15 hours to NYC… until we got closer and realized that every passenger was being thoroughly searched.  Actually, the space violation would have been a small price to pay for such a shorter commute—unlike the actual price of that flight, which was surely not a small price.

The boarding was quick and easy, but the flight did not take off from Jo’burg until after 9pm.  Hopefully we can make up the time in the air because we have a short hour and half layover in Madrid.  Then we make our way to London where we will have 3 hours to kill.  Hopefully the time will go quickly; I am ready to be home!

It’s Ayoba time!

Friday, June 18, 2010


Match 21
Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth
Germany 0 – 1 Serbia
Place watched:  At the MTN booth at Ellis Park [their slogan is in the heading above]

Another stroke of good fortune occurred this morning.  We had finished breakfast and had moved over to the couches in the common area to fire up our laptops to find the best way to Ellis Park.  An older couple came in to wait for their room to be cleaned after checking in.  We chatted a bit and discovered that they were going to the same match that we were plotting our course to see.  Since they had rented a car, they offered to take us as far as the Park & Ride at Ellis Park.  This is purely speculation, of course, but it seemed like they wanted to have us in the vehicle for protection.  Or because they thought we were slow…  Whether it is wild animals, or thieves, you don’t have to be fast in a bad situation, you only have to be faster than someone else in your group.

Meanwhile—and this is the part you have all been waiting breathlessly for, I am sure—my friend fired up the bunny suit.  I will post pictures here, but you probably already saw him on TV.  With this get-up, it will be impossible to keep us off the airwaves!!!

Match 22
Johannesburg – JEP
Slovenia 2 – 2 USA
Place watched:  Ellis Park- Johannesburg, South Africa

Dude.

We all did a fair amount of shouting during this match, but could no better than a draw.  When the US hit the net for the 3rd time, our section was dancing and singing and shouting, it took at least 45 seconds to figure out the goal had been disallowed.  We still don’t know what happened.  Some say there was a foul, others say offside was the call.  Either way, the goal didn’t stand and here we are.  We will have to beat Algeria on Wednesday to go through.  This seems so discouraging familiar…


Match 23
Cape Town
England 0 – 0 Algeria
Place watched:  Cappellos / Morulani Guest House common area

The last match of the night was sure to be a blow-out.  England would certainly lay a beat-down on lowly Algeria.  The pundits would likely need an electrified adding machine to tally all the goals England would score.

…Or it would end in a nil – nil draw with England looking awful.

I am not sure how, but the second thing happened.  Star striker Wayne Rooney looked average, at best; and their whole attack lacked purpose.  Thankfully for the Brits, their defense held or they would have been on the outside looking in as we reach the final match in the group stage.

Whatever the cause, this result benefited the Unites States.  We need to win on Wednesday, but we now hold the tie-breaker over England because our draw was at two, and theirs was at zero.  Hope still reigns in the States!

Back in Jo'burg

June 17, 2010

Match 18
Argentina 4 – 1 Korea Republic
Johannesburg - JSC
Location watched:  Soccer City Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa

We woke up this morning at 4:35 so we would have plenty of time to get ready to leave Cape Town.  Our driver was set to arrive at the guest house at 5:15, so we didn’t want to leave him out there in the cold, dark night.

Everything went well in our departure procedure, wrapping up our first stress-free excursion ever!  To make matters even sweeter, the driver who picked us up from the guest house was the same driver who had dropped us off 2 days earlier.  Daniel (not Dennis, as someone in our group repeatedly called him) was a good chap who had made a special trip to the airport to retrieve a certain jacket and specific hat with a particular sporting event commemorated.  He had put up with all sorts of abuse from the British Airways Lost and Found representative.  She was only during her job, but his story was pretty awful…

After landing in Jo’burg, we took a taxi back to the guest house where we had prematurely stayed a few nights earlier.  Pleasantries were exchanged, and we were soon on our way to the train station.  I had read nothing but horror stories about the train system in Johannesburg, but this particular line was part of the infrastructure upgrades completed for the Cup.   We had intended to take it to Soccer City on the 14th, but it was not running on that day, for whatever reason.  Today, however, it was.

From the destination train stop, we took a shuttle to a bus line.  The bus took us directly into Soccer City.  It was fairly efficient; however, it took us over 3 hours from door to door.

The match was fantastic.  Despite the final score, South Korea looked dangerous in spots and could have equalized at 2 – 2 early in the second half, but the final strike hit the wrong side of the net.  Every time Korea started to make some headway, the match got a little Messi…

We have been fortunate in the last 2 Cups we attended to see the match that produced the most goals.  This will surely be the case with this game.  What a performance by Argentina!


Match 19
Greece 2 – 1 Nigeria
Mangaung / Bloemfontein
Location watched:  Spotty updates on the way back from Soccer City

The trip back from Soccer City was quite an adventure!  It actually took an hour less than the trek out, but contained all of the elements of an international thriller.  I won’t bore you with the details as a Stephen King might.  You all can thank me later.

Match 20
France 0 – 2 Mexico
Polokwane
Location watched:  Cappellos – Johannesburg, South Africa

My friend and I got back to the guest house just in time for dinner at 6pm.  We had spaghetti and a nice salad and both went back up to our room to get our laptops.  Morulana Guesthouse, the last of our places to stay, has free internet, but it only works in the common area next to the dinner room.   

As we worked, the power suddenly went out.  Ilana, the guest house’s manager, lit some candles and offered to take anyone who wanted to see the match out of the compound to a restaurant.  We ended up at a place called Cappellos—an Italian restaurant with multiple big-screen T.V.s.  Even though we had just eaten, we didn’t want to take a table without ordering anything, so we decided to compare the calamari here with that we had just tasted on the Cape.  Um… it was ok…

The power came on just before half time, so Ilana’s husband Colin returned to pick us up to take us back to the guest house.

As I write this, my buddy is crashed out on the sofa in front of the television in the common area.  All of the other guests returned to their rooms (including the 2 Mexican guys), so I am watching the match in solace.  It is definitely relaxing.

Here we go again

Monday, June 14, 2010 

Match 9
Netherlands 2 – 0 Denmark
Soccer City Stadium – Johannesburg
Location watched:  Soccer City Stadium – Johannesburg, South Africa

Monday dawned crisp and cool.  I woke up earlier than expected and took my laptop down to the common area of the guest house.  While setting up, I met Latitia, the owner of the guest house.  I introduced myself and she asked how we would be covering the rest of the money owed for our stay.  I said my friend had paid half as a down payment and I would cover the rest.  She took me to the back and printed out a receipt.  It was many times what I expected to pay.  This is where things started to go pear-shaped…

We discovered that our itinerary had been out of order and we had stayed at the wrong guest house.  Latitia called the place we were supposed to have stayed and said that Ina from Sunrock would be over shortly to pick us up.  We scrambled back to our room to hastily reassemble our baggage and get ready to leave.  Ina was there quickly and we rushed out to her waiting vehicle.  We explained our confusion and thought all was well when we had been checked into the flat at Morulana.  She said that she had dropped some Dutch fans off at the airport to get their match tickets at the FIFA kiosks.  We told her we had to do the same thing, so when she picked them up, we leaped out of her van and hurried to get our tickets.  She returned to pick us up and we rushed back to the guest house where there was transport waiting to take us to the match.

All the rushing around paid off.  We easily made it to the match and had time to soak up the atmosphere before the match began.


Match 10
Japan 1 – 0 Cameroon
Mangaung / Bloemfontein
Location watched:  Periodic Blackberry updates on our way from the match to the guest house

When Ina’s husband Arthur had dropped us off at the match, he told us to meet him at a Shell gas station about 3 miles from the stadium 2 hours after the match ended.  We trekked up the hill and waited for him in the fading daylight.  Sometimes it is easy to forget that Africa is rapidly approaching winter.  This was not one of those times.  Sitting on a rock on top of a hill as the wind picked up and the sun was going down proved to be quite chilly.  Feeling somewhat apprehensive about finding our meeting place, my friend and I had not wasted anytime leaving the match, so we had about an hour to wait for the ride back to the guest house.

Arthur eventually showed up and our group piled into the transport van for the return journey.  Three of our companions on this part of the adventure were from Japan.  They took turns dialing into the match report to follow their home country.  When it was announced that the match was final, they whooped it up the rest of the way to the guest house, chanting and celebrating.


Match 11
Italy 1 – 1 Paraguay
Capetown
Location watched:  Common area in the Sunrock Guesthouse

After arriving back at the guest house, my friend and I had about an hour to kill before dinner would be served.  We fired up our laptops looking for internet service.  Here, like almost everywhere on our trip, the service was not free.  It was also not cheap.  He paid for another block of time to finish some work-related duties, while I remained offline to chronicle the trip so far.  Then I saved a text document to a flash drive and uploaded it from his machine.  In other words, if you have sent me a message, I have not been able to access my email or Facebook since leaving Minneapolis on Thursday afternoon.  I am so sorry for not getting back to you.

We soon ventured back out into the cold to make our way to the common area of the guest house.  It was beautiful!  There were flags of the 32 World Cup countries lining the walls and ceilings.  The game trophies on the wall were of animals not common in North America.  There was a full bar and food service area along one wall and a huge projection television on the other.  There were plenty of seats and I would estimate room for around 50 people in this building.

The food they had prepared for us was delicious, and we finished dinner in time to see the last match of the day on the big T.V.  When Paraguay scored first, the room erupted.  Apparently there is quite a bit of resentment towards Italy around the world.  The Dutch fans were high-fiving the Chilean contingent.  The group from Japan hugged the guys from El Salvador.  It was massively joyous in the room.

Italy equalized midway through the second half, but it did not dampen the mood, but there was definitely no celebrating as with the first goal.  When the match ended in a draw, everyone seemed quite happy with the result.

We were leaving for Capetown early the next morning so we secured our ride to the airport and made our way back to our room.  As we did so, we discussed the heavy rains we had witnessed during the match which took place in Capetown.  If the bad weather continued, It would be the first inclement conditions we would experience while in South Africa.

Stay tuned to this channel to see how it turns out!

Johannesburg, here we come

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Match 6
Algeria 0 - 1 Slovenia
Polokwane Stadium
Location watched: Listened on radio after leaving the guest house in Rustenburg

After the match, we struck out in search of a taxi. After searching in vain, we approached a police officer to ask where the taxis queued post-match. We were told that they stopped running at 9pm—30 minutes after the match kicked off. We asked how people were getting back to Rustenburg’s city center and were told that they would take the buses that dropped them off at the match. That didn’t sound good for those of us that had ridden a bus from Jo’burg, but were staying in Rustenburg. Again, I will save time here by jumping to the part where the traffic police officer, after dealing with hundreds of irate fans heaping abuse on her for the buses being full, offered to take us to our guest house.

When we pulled up in front of the guest house, lights flashing so she could get around the massive traffic jam, the wife of the guest house owner rushed out yelling “what did you do?” I am sure she was thinking she would have to bail out the drunk, violent Yanks she had agreed to let stay with her. Even after the officer left and we explained what had happened, she and her husband were still incredulous at what had happened. It was quite amazing…

Meanwhile, at the guest house, they had overbooked the rooms. They politely explained that my friend and I would be joining 2 English fans at a place they called "the farm." We smiled and nodded while thinking that they were shipping us off to heaven knows where, leaving the other guests in the spacious guest house. We could not have been more wrong. The farm was beautiful! Tommy and his wife Nicolene were very hospitable and had dinner waiting when my friend, Nick, Johnny, and I arrived about 1:30am. Not taking no for an answer, they fed us, made sure we had plenty to drink, then sent us each off to his individual room. The farm ended up being the better option of the two.

In the morning, Tommy took the four of us out onto his land which is home to many different types of deer, zebras, and an odd leopard. We did not see any predators, but took many pictures of other wildlife.  At one point, the 4-wheeler suddenly accelerated throwing us into a rock wall and tree.  It turned out that Nick, who was sitting in the middle of the front seat, had his foot slip off of its perch and onto the accelerator.  It was frightening, yet hilarious.

When we returned, Nicolene had an incredible breakfast waiting for us. We left well-fed. We gladly accepted and started off for Jo’burg.


Match 7
Serbia 0 - 1Ghana
Tshwane/Pretoria
Location watched: FIFA Fan Park – Pretoria

As we headed back to Jo’burg, we realized that we would not make it back in time for the mid-afternoon match. Approaching Pretoria, we decided to stop in to check out their fan park.

Inside was a festive atmosphere as we had come to expect during this trip. There were many Ghanan fans inside the park and when they scored to take the lead, dancing broke out all around us. One could not help but get caught up in the revelry.

After the match, Nick and Johnny dropped us off in Johannesburg at our guest house. We checked in and rushed upstairs in time for the evening match.


Match 8
Germany 3 – 0 Australia
Durban
Location watched: Morulana Guest House, Johannesburg, South Africa

Settled into our room, we watched the match and quickly went to sleep afterward. It had been a hectic schedule to this point and it was nice to just relax. We would be here for two nights, so we spread out the contents of our bags and made ourselves at home.

We made it!

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Match 3
Korea Republic 2 - 0 Greece
Johannesburg - JEP
Location watched: Periodic updates via iPhone en route to Rustenburg

Our odyssey continued after we arrived in Johannesburg. Surprisingly, the 10 hour flight from Madrid was pleasant. Neither of us expected to be fed on the flight, but Iberia Airlines provided both a dinner (served at 3:30am local time, of course) and a breakfast (about 6 hours later). We were seated in an exit aisle, so we had plenty of leg room. Additionally, we were in a section of the row that only had 2 seats—my buddy was against the window, and I had an aisle seat—so we were quite comfortable.

The flight had a very festive atmosphere. We saw national team shirts from Group C opponents Algeria, Slovenia, and England. Other shirts on board included Argentina, Germany, Brazil, Spain, and Chile. I am sure there were others, but those are what come instantly to mind. We were all in high spirits and looking forward to good times in South Africa.

Landing in Jo’burg was a lot like landing anywhere, really. We made it through Customs very quickly, which was both nice because we were pressed for time, yet terrifying because we breezed right through security. The process was very orderly and easy to follow.

The airport was awash in color and sound. We were greeted by a man wearing a “Porter” shirt and whisked to the upper level to get our match tickets. While I was in line at the ticket kiosk with all of our luggage, my friend went in search of an ATM to get our first Rand—the South African currency.

Now it was onto Rustenburg!


Match 4
Argentina 1 - 0 Nigeria
Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth
Location watched:  Periodic updates via iPhone en route to Rustenburg

We set off in search of transport to our match in Rustenburg.  The match started at 8:30pm, and it was now roughly 1pm.  We had to find our guest house to leave our bags, so there was an additional level of complexity.  We secured passage via a bus that would travel from the airport in Johannesburg to the stadium in Rustenburg.  My friend was certain that the guest house was fairly close to the stadium, so we felt we had plenty of time.

Then the trek started to come off the rails.  Firstly, we waited in the transport area for an uncomfortably long time.  When the bus started out towards Rustenburg, our driver became disoriented and took the wrong exit causing alarm throughout the cabin.  There were both US and England supporters on board and the various epithets emanating from the aisles of the bus painted a rich tapestry of obscenity never before witnessed by this author!

He figured out the proper route and we were soon back on track.  This proved to be short-lived, however.  Arriving in Rustenburg, we pulled into a mall parking lot to wait for the other buses from this transport company to arrive so we could continue to the stadium.  We waited.  And we waited.  Then we waited some more.  We were quickly running out of time.

Eventually, the other buses arrived, and we set off for the stadium, disembarking a mere 2 hours before kickoff.  My friend and I found a policeman and asked how to get to the address on our itinerary.  He told us it was back in the main part of the city, about 10 kilometers away.  We tracked down a cab, and told him we needed to take our bags to the guest house, then return to the match.  For the sake of time, let me just say we arrived back at the stadium with 15 minutes to spare.

… Whew…


Match 5
USA 1 – 1 England
Rustenburg Stadium
Location watched:  Rustenburg Stadium

After our harrowing journey, we were content to just find our seats immediately rather than soak up the atmosphere as we usually do.  The seats were on the far side of the stadium, behind what turned out to be the goal the US defended in the first half.  Within 5 minutes of finding our seats, the teams took the field for the anthems and kickoff.

The US started the match very shakily.  It appeared they were suffering from nerves.  They did not settle in until after England had scored in the 8th minute.  While not controlling the match, the US did enjoy some periods of possession and had a couple scoring chances in the middle part of the first half.

We finally caught a break.  A classic Clint Dempsey move freed him to shoot from about 22 yards.  His shot was struck at Robert Green, the England keeper, but hit the slick turf in front of him.  Green mis-handled the ball, then flailed at it as it squirted past him into the goal.  We had equalized!

England were stunned, but not as much as their supporters around us.  There was a stony silence followed by heaps of abuse.  These did not let up until the whistle sounded, ending the half. 

The second half produced more chances by both sides but no goals.  For the US, it was a fantastic result.

Now it was back to the Guest House for a good nights sleep—our first in almost 3 days.