What a stadium..

A visit to a large complex known as Melrose Arch on the outskirts of Jo'burg was the first stop of the day on our first full day in the city. This location, like so many others, had the games being broadcasted on a massive screen, where fans from so many parts of the world gather to watch the matches. We enjoyed a nice lunch in the main square before wandering around the various shops and outdoor cafes. At one stage I was approached by a reporter from ESPN-Brazil, who mistakenly thought that my Villa shirt was a West Ham replica and wanted me to do a Robert Green impersonation on a makeshift pitch that they had put together. After politely pointing out that I was a Villa fan and would never subject myself to public humiliation in such a way, I exited sharply.... While eating lunch we watched the Paraguay-Slovakia match on the big screen. I have to say that Paraguay look impressive and may be a team that could advance beyond the round of 16. Apparently they only finished a point behind Brazil in qualifying....
We returned to the hotel at 4pm to catch the Italy-New Zealand game at the hotel lounge. Mikey was suitably unimpressed with his azzuri idols as they stuttered to another draw.....
It was now time to layer up (nights in Johannesburg get into the low 30's) and make our way to "Soccer City" stadium for our third live match, Ivory Coast vs Brazil. We were looking forward to a good game between the five-time champions and a very talented Ivory Coast team.
We had been mistakenly told that we could use the park and ride close to our hotel simply by producing our match tickets. Once we arrived at the lot (with no directions to the stadium) and were refused entry we had a simple choice to make..... "follow that bus!!" A trip through the streets of Jo'burg then ensued as I made sure that the bus didn't lose us..... what i wasn't ready for was the fact that there are lots of bus-only lanes on the streets of the city. A calculated risk was taken..... and we got ourselves to the bus station and general parking area for Soccer City.
The stadium itself is a magnificent structure and seats 90,000 people. In a similar way to our first game, there was a diverse mix of fans with most neutrals expressing a love for the Ivory Coast.
Of the three live matches we've seen, this one had the most goalmouth action with the Brazilians showing some class in front of goal. But give credit to the Africans who certainly made it hard for the Brazilians and can consider themselves very unfortunate to concede a second goal that contained two blatant handballs in the build-up. Kaka was sent off in the final moments as the Brazil team employed some serious time-wasting tactics that verged on ludicrous. Kaka was petulant and unimpressive for most of the game (he must be friends with Wayne) and was lucky to have stayed on the field for as long as he did.... Drogba was impressive for the Ivory Coast as was a central midfielder by the name of Tiote... the game ended 3-1 to Brazil. We collectively agreed that this had been the most entertaining of our games so far.
The shuttle bus service back to the car was efficient but predictably packed! The driver had no concept of standing-only passengers apparently and those of us standing were quickly "introduced" to each other at every turn and braking moment....unfortunately for me, the guy next to me hadn't used the old spice in a few days, yet had no problem extending his arms as high as possible to get a good grip.....not a pleasant aroma!
We finally got back to hotel at about 11:30pm and grabbed a quick bite to eat in the hotel pub before retiring.....
Today we will visit Nelson Mandela square in Johannesburg before another full day of footie. Match 4 is tonight - Spain vs Honduras. A must-win for the reigning European champions, so lets hope there's goals....
Congratulations to France.... :)

Unbelievable......

Where do I start? Well, let's try by summarizing the three games that we saw (two at the fan fest and one live) on Friday, June 18th, 2010......



Game 1. Germany vs. Serbia (seen from a German pub at the V&A Waterfront). The group have decided (against some serious nationalistic pride at times) that we would "support" the team who was playing related to group-member's personal affiliations. So, at 1pm on Friday, I adopted the name Fritz and supported the German team...... what an abjectly poor display of refereeing! Miroslav Klose received two yellow cards to be red-carded inside thirty-five minutes, the clearly rattled Germans, down to ten men, conceded a poor goal (we put out an APB on the centre-backs and are still yet to locate them as the Serbians crossed the ball) and were never able to equalize, despite some clear opportunities and the awarding of a penalty kick. So, the first member of our group was now in a bad mood.....



Game 2. USA vs. Slovenia (seen from the waterfront and the hotel). A horrendous piece of (non) defending led to an early goal for the Slovenians, and a subsequent first-half strike seemed to put the writing on the wall for America and an early qualification for the Slovenians, thus increasing the pressure on England... But nobody accounted for the spirit and attitude of "Team USA" (I hate that term) and Bob Bradley's boys turned the heat up with an outstanding goal by Landy-cakes and an equalizer by Bradley jr. To further dampen our mood however, a perfectly good winning goal was ruled out by another inept referee and the US had to settle for a draw. Decent result, considering the start, and a good scoreline for England too....



Game 3. We traveled to Cape Point stadium with Yours Truly in excited and buoyant mood, anticipating an excellent performance by the Three Lions. Instead, we got 11 pussycats who embarrassed themselves over the course of 90 minutes. Despite massive support from a stadium that was 75% English, this team failed to perform in every aspect of the game. Wingers who can't cross a ball, a right-back who can't defend or pass, and a centre-forward called Wayne who spent the entire 9-0 minutes moaning and strolling around like a petulant school kid. I could give a more in-depth "report" on this match, but I realize that children and families may be reading. let's just say I was disgusted with the lack of passion, effort and desire. Pathetic is too nice a description. England had an opportunity to take control of their group. Instead they now face elimination unless they can somehow perform against the best team in the group..... words fail me....
Group consensus from the game was as follows; Glen Johnson is not an international-class player (something that I've said for a very long time), Heskey and James were the only two England players who showed the passion and work-rate to earn their wages (and no, this has nothing to do with Heskey being a Villa player - everyone around us at the game were saying the same thing). Rooney has an abysmal attitude and deserves to be benched (his performance was summed up in two moments - the first being when Heskey ran fifty yards past him to close down an Algerian defender while he was busy berating a teammate for not fiving him the ball, and second when, with less than two minutes to go he committed a needless and time-wasting challenge).
On return from the stadium we spent some more time at Beluga, had a glass of local wine, and the group generously allowed me to whine, complain and generally feel sorry for myself for a couple of hours.
We awoke this morning to another bright sunny day in Cape Town and made our way to the international airport for an internal flight to Johannesburg. We said our goodbyes to Eliot, who had, by now received a further three yellow cards (one for dissent; the next for claiming Tommy Smyth is a good commentator; and the last one for claiming to have baby-sitted Tommy Smyth's kids). It was great to see Eliot after six years....
We were suitably unimpressed by South African Airways, who charged me a "9 kilo overweight baggage fee" on a bag that weighed 28 kilos. When I asked why I was being charged the fee when there was a large sign at the desk saying "baggage limit 32 kilos per piece" I got three different explanations, including two different limits of 20 and 23 kilos! Notably, Chris and Mike had no problem checking their bags, both of which weighed 27 kilos..... Can someone help me with the math here???
It was "celebrity-spotting" time during this trip as we walked past Steve Nash in the check-in area, then were joined by the immaculately-dressed Arsene Wenger on our flight across-country...
We arrived in Jo'burg and met back up with Barry for a couple of hours before he took a Madrid-bound flight, the first leg of a three-stage trip back to New York. On our drive to the airport to drop off Barry our TomTom routed us through a section of the city that made "I'm from Brooklyn" Mike legtimately cower in the back seat of the rental car.....
On arrival at the hotel we were both surprised and shocked. Once again Mike had come through big-style and selected an outstanding property on the outskirts of the city. However, this pleasant surprise soon turned to mortal shock for Chris when we discovered that we were sharing the property with...... the Serbian national team!!! Chris is already planning a midnight raid on their living quarters for a revenge strike......
Having done plenty of sight-seeing in Cape Town, the plan in Jo'berg for the first few days is to focus on the game and really capture the spirit of the tournament. Just like Cape Town, world-cup fever has clearly taken over here.....

Happy Dingle Day

Wednesday was a day spent doing more coastal driving and exploration. Barry spotted "Sea Lions" in the ocean off a rocky beach and we ventured down to the beach only to find plenty of seaweed bobbing in the ocean..... but at least Chris and Barry were able to have some fun frollicking on the rocks and chasing lobsters... Later we attempted to get to False Bay near Fish Hoek, a quaint bay and fishing village south of Cape Town. Unfortunately the name "false" became the operative word as we drove around aimlessly without ever finding a place anything like a bay..... Barry did, once again, spot a "whale" far out to sea. It turned out to be a group of sea kayakers.....
For dinner on Wednesday we visited "Mama Africa" on Long Street. The carnival atmosphere on the main street through Cape Town was electric, with the host nation playing their second game of the tournament against Uruguay. Televisions showing the match were everywhere, including some old TV's that looked like they belonged in another century...
The less said about our cab ride back to the hotel after dinner, the better. Lets just say that we were relieved to be in one piece after a hellish three mile ride back to our base.
On Wednesday evening another friend arrived into Cape Town to spend a few days with us. Elliot Sykes is a former player of mine who is now in graduate school at the University of Utah. He is spending the summer in Durban on an externship program. He is joining us for our final two days in the area, before we move on to Johannesburg on Saturday.
Thursday was a "rest day" following a fairly late night wednesday in the hotel restaurant. Our Mexican hotel mates departed in the morning and were replaced by predominantly English inhabitants. The virtues of Robert Green, Emile Heskey and others were all discussed fervently with a group of Dubai-based Englishmen, with the entire group coming to the consensus that Robert Green is a numpty.
On Thursday morning we took the long and winding mountain road two-thirds of the way up Table Mountain with the intention of taking the cable car to the very top. The views from our vantage point where we parked were so breathtaking that we decided to skip the two-hour wait for the cable car. We did witness an air rescue operation, as an injured tourist was transported from the top of the mountain by helicopter to a waiting ambulance below. Thankfully, the gentleman seemed to be ok as he was unstrapped from the stretcher.
In the afternoon we visited Hout Bay and took a short boat ride out to Seal Island. As the name suggests, this is a seal sanctuary just off the coast on which literally hundreds of seals live. The large glass-bottomed boat was able to get incredibly close to the rocks and we happily snapped away (see the slideshow).
Barry left us on Thursday evening to continue his African trip before heading back to Europe and on to New York later in the week.
Dinner was spent at Beluga, a very nice restaurant behind our hotel. The meal and service was outstanding and the final bill was less than $150 for four people..... Gotta love those exchange rates!

Card Count Rising
During the lenghty trip from Dubai, the three of us had decided that, in the spirit of the game, we would institute a yellow/red card system of penalization for any member of the group who negatively affected the experience. The accumulation works thus; three yellow cards equals a red. A red card received automatically bans that person from having any decision-making ability for a period of 24 hours. As we approach the end of the first full-week, the card count is as follows:
Chris: 1 Yellow. (Bathroom etiquette violation)
Mike: 1 Yellow. (Innapropriate beverage purchase without consultation)
Gregg: 1 Yellow. (Excessive game-time telephone usage)
Barry: 1 Yellow. (Improper identification of sea-life)
Elliot: 1 Yellow. (Cheering for France)

Today (Friday) is a full day of football. Germany play Serbia at 1:00pm followed immediately by USA-Slovenia. The plan is to watch both games at the Fan Fest location at the V&A Waterfront before moving on to Green Point Stadium for our second live match, England vs. Algeria. Needless to say, yours truly is reasonably excited for tonight. Believe it or not, this will be my first-ever live England match in a competitive tournament (I've seen a number of friendlies, but that's it). Here's hoping that Fabio does the right thing and plays a real goalkeeper tonight!

COME ON ENGLAND!

Wine.....

Today was a day for the vineyards of the Stellenbosch region, about 50 miles to the northeast of Cape Town. Our original plan to visit Robben Island was scuppered by the weather, so we brought the wine tasting forward a day...
In all we visited four different sites, starting at the well-known Warwick vineyards, onto a couple more smaller, but nonetheless great places, and then ending at the Laibach winery. Each location had a fantastic selection of red and white wines, with Chris giving us some much-needed education on how to taste and view various wines (he's very proud of himself that he passed a recent class at Court of Master Sommeliers in New York!). Together with the great wine, the hills of the Stellenbosch region provided some fantastic views of the surrounding region, including a long-distance sight of Table Mountain, which overlooks the city of Cape Town. At our third winery, we were treated to the sight of zebras, Springboks and a couple of wilderbeast in the nearby fields. See the slideshow to the right....
On return to Cape Town we had an early dinner on Long Street at an African buffet restaurant, known simply as "Meat." The restaurant had a fantastic selection of native vegetables and meats and we were quite proud of our willingness to try the various unrecognizable dishes. We were then however embarrassed by the behavior and actions of a small group of Americans who came in to the restaurant, asking loud questions such as "what's that stuff" and then complaining about the system of payment for their meals..... they eventually left without eating, as the wait staff, clearly irritated by the behavior, decided to give them the cold shoulder. When in Rome guys, when in Rome.....
We've now retired for a relatively early night, with the plan of Robben Island and Table Mountain tomorrow....

Goalkeepers in White....

Leading on from yesterday..... last night I went to the Cape Town International Airport to pick up Barry, a former player of mine who is on a crazy three-week tour of Africa. He's spending a couple of days with us here in Cape Town before moving on to Johannesburg to catch a couple more games there. Later in the evening we spent a few hours on Long Street in the center of town. Mike was quite put out by the chanting of a handful of Paraguay and Brazilian fans at the restaurant. I had to explain to him that this was child's play when compared to what he should expect from the invading England fans as they arrive for Friday's match with Algeria....! It's likely that, by Thursday, Cape Town will be "taken over" by thousands of reveller's from the country of my birth....
Earlier on Sunday we saw the Germans dispatch the Australians with consumate ease, and this perhaps was the reason why we slept peacefully this morning, as our Aussie hotel-mates returned with tails between legs....
Due to some uncooperative weather we decided that today would be a low-key day, and after lunch we spent a few hours wandering through the Victoria & Albert waterfront - an area very reminiscent of Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. In the centre of the area, there was a "spectator zone" where the games were being shown live on an enormous screen. It was here that we saw about sixty-minutes of a decent game between Japan and Cameroon.
We returned to the hotel with enough time to layer-up and head down the main street to Green Point Stadium for our first live game of the trip, Italy vs. Paraguay. The interesting thing to see as we walked to the stadium was the massive amount of diversity in the crowd. Instead of being a sea of Italian and Paraguay colours, the crowd was a mixture of every possible replica shirt, flag, banner, and funny hat. Once inside the magnificent structure it was more of the same. A small concentration of Paraguay fans in the section to our right-side was the only sign of any concentrated support. Looking around at the flags, we actually counted more St. George crosses than any other..... Having grown up in England this was a strange sight for me. Simply put, "neutrals" rarely go to matches over there - you're either there to support the home team or the away team, and you wear your colours accordingly....
On to the game, and despite a positive start, this was clearly a much-changed Italian side from the one that triumphed in 2006. Cannavaro is a quality player, but beyond him it was difficult to pick anyone out as having that little bit of class to turn a game. Perhaps the most disturbing sight was seeing Gianluigi Buffon, the Italian goalkeeper, take to the field in all-white, with contrasting black tights. Call me old-fashioned, but what self-respecting custodian wears all-white??? Interestingly, Buffon was substituted at half-time, and we speculated that he'd retained too many grass stains on his immaculate white kit...
The Italians, in a 4-5-1 formation actually controlled the early parts of the game and it seemed a matter of time before they opened up Paraguay for the first goal. But, instead they began to sit deeper and Paraguay started to create chances of their own. From a free-kick late in the first-half the Italians conceded a headed goal from Alcaraz and the teams went into half-time with Paraguay firmly in control.
The swirling wind and rain continued into the second-half, with Paraguay now seemingly content to defend their slender lead. The Italians huffed and puffed without creating too many chances until the introduction of a couple of substitutes and a tactical change. It was a corner that eventually unhinged Paraguay as the goalkeeper flapped at the ball and a gleeful DeRossi nipped in at the back post to score..... Buoyed by the goal the Italians continued to press in the final stages and could have scored a winner with a little more luck. However, overall, the efforts by both teams merited a draw and neither team could have too many complaints.
The noise inside the stadium was deafening at times, not from cheering and singing, but from the hugely popular (and occasionally nauseating) Vuvuzela horns that are being sold in massive numbers all over the country. It was nice to see both anthems duly respected by both sets of fans. I can only hope that my fellow countrymen do the same on Friday.....
No specific plans for tomorrow as yet - perhaps a visit to Robben Island, or across to the Stellenbosch region for a vineyard tour.....

First Full Day....

Today was a day for sightseeing on the western cape. A hotel full of raucous Aussies ensured that we didn't get to sleep in, as four coachloads of sombrero-wearing folks from down-under began their journey to Durban for their group opener with the Germans..... a much-anticpated match for Chris who hasn't removed his Germany replica shirt since leaving New York last Thursday (thank goodness we have separate sleeping areas).
Our Kia rental car meandered it's way down the M6, the coastal road that links Cape Town with Cape Point, the southernmost point of the African continent and the Cape of Good Hope. A stop halfway along our route was prompted by the sight of a family of baboons on the side of the road. The mother baboon showed significantly better handling than Robert Green as she carefully carried her children across the road. We arrived at Cape Point and took the long uphill walk to the old lighthouse that was built in 1911 following the infamous wrecking of the Lusitania a few years earlier. There was a multitude of tourists from all parts of the globe, and some friendly banter ensued....... well except with the French couple who were extremely upset by an unnamed member of our group giving the FFF sign a friendly thumbs-down..... ah well, some people just don't have a sense of humour!
After an hour or two of climbing, walking and picture-taking we made our way back on the opposite coastal road and stopped off at Boulder's beach to view the African penguins in a preservation area. As you can imagine, yours truly was clicking away incessantly...!
BACK TO THE WORLD CUP....
It's clear that world cup fever has truly gripped the nation of South Africa. Cars, homes, hotels, bars, restaurants and public buildings are decorated with flags and murals of the various competing nations and superstars. Big screen TV's are everywhere and every conversation leads one way.... " who do you support, what matches are you going to, who will win???"
We've now arrived safely back at the hotel and are preparing for the big game of the day, Australia-Germany. With Slovenia having taken care of Algeria earlier today, the USA-England group is now wide-open.... I've called Bob Bradley to see if we can borrow Tim Howard for a few weeks...... come to think of it, we'd be happy with Kasey Keller or Brad Friedel.....
You'll see in the picture album posted below, a shot of me with a Brown flag. We'll be attempting to get "seen" by hanging the flag at all of our games - if you spot it on television be sure to let me know!

Here is a list of our upcoming games:

June 14th: Italy vs. Paraguay (Cape Town)
June 18th: England vs. Algeria (Cape Town)
June 20th: Brazil vs. Ivory Coast (Jo'burg)
June 21st: Spain vs. Honduras (Jo'burg)

Arrival In Cape Town.....

Mike & Chris at the spectacular Dubai International Airport

So, after 21 hours on Emirates Airlines we finally completed our long journey to Cape Town International Airport. After a day-long layover in Dubai, we boarded the final leg of the trip, Flight 770 to the western cape of South Africa.

Chris, myself and Mike outside the main terminal at Cape Town.

Travel weary, and in need of a shower we picked up our rental car and headed for our delightful hotel at the Victoria & Albert Waterfront District in Cape Town. After much-needed showers and snacks we settled down in the hotel function room to watch USA-England.
A room full of Australians greeted us, and yours truly, be-decked in England gear, settled down to what should have been a comfortable opening win for the three lions. And then it happened..... Robert Green was the starting goalkeeper! Really???? I mean, REALLY???? David James, the experienced England goalkeeper was on the bench, and Joe Hart, the in-form England goalkeeper was left in the stands. "Oh poop," I muttered to myself as the anthems played.....
England scored early (note the outstanding ball played in by the much-maligned Aston Villa forward Emile Heskey) and the thoughts of "why is Green playing" were on the back-burner....
As the game progressed I really couldn't see where the USA was going to get back into the game. Altidore had the best chance to level the game but failed to connect with his header, and I truly couldn't imagine my adopted country getting a better opportunity. But, then good old RG took the pressure off and simply let a routine "bobbler" slip out of his grasp, and it was honors even....... wow!
As the game wore on you really couldn't see either team breaking the deadlock, although Emile blew perhaps the best chance when clean through. Hearts in mouth each time the ball went near the bumbling England 'keeper didn't exactly help the nerves, but I suppose 1-1 could be seen as a "positive" result for both teams.......
After the match we spent a short time in a fantastic local restaurant and wine bar and have now retired to a night of good sleep. Tomorrow we head for Cape Point and Boulder's Beach........

Here We Go......

It's June 9th, 2010 and I'm taking a quick break from packing. This afternoon I leave for New York to meet up with two friends (Chris & Mike) for our trip to the southern hemisphere for World Cup 2010. To say that I'm excited for this trip would be an understatement...
Over the course of the next two weeks I will be blogging details of our trip to Cape Town and Johannesburg (via Dubai) to take in four group matches and exploration of a country that I visited all-too-briefly in 2005. Chris and I made a "pact" in 2006 that we would make it to South Africa in 2010. Chris must take much of the credit for making this whole thing happen - entering the ticket lottery over a year ago, planning flights and setting up itineraries. Mike has booked the accomodations in both cities and I performed the arduous task (!) of reserving the rental cars (thanks Orbitz...).
Not knowing the proximity and availability of internet access while away, I'm not entirely certain how frequent the blog updates will be, but I'll give it my best shot to do regular updates...