We watched the South African team defeat the French this afternoon in a beautiful small fishing village called Kalk Bay which is a suburb of Cape Town facing the Indian Ocean. Kalk Bay is where my colleague David Eppel lives for half the year and he was a great host. We watched the game with a number of Banfana Banfana fans in a sports bar right next to the ocean. The tv was on one side and the waves were crashing onto the wall of the bar on the other. It was quite the setting. I am getting the hang of blowing the vuvuzuela and blew it several times inside the bar. If you blow it hard enough it really leaves your lips tingling. Not sure how people can do this throughout the game since me lips feel very strange now.
Even though the South African won the game, they are of course eliminated from the tournament which is a big disappointment. They played well and were unlucky not to win by a bigger margin. People here knew that the chances were very slim. One person told me before the game that the chances were low for South Africa to get through to the second round "but then again Moses did part the Red Sea so anything could happen." Alas, a miracle did not happen though in general people were quite happy that the South Africans did get a victory in the tournament.
Tonight, we learned that the round of 16 game we will see this weekend in Port Elizabeth will be Uruguay - South Korea which should be a good one. I was disappointed to see the Nigerians not make it to the round of sixteen. They should have easily scored 2 more goals. The TV here showed the reaction in Lagos Nigeria and the fans there were livid. Most blamed the Swedish coach Lars Lagerback and also the Nigerian politicians who are constantly meddling with the soccer team.
Tomorrow we will go to wine country, or the Paarl Valley and visit some Icelanders that live here. We will watch the USA and Germany games there and probably stay overnight. I am not sure if I´ll have internet access for a few days.
On Thursday, we will go to the Holland Cameroon game. We have great tickets, which we got throught the Icelandic soccer association. We will be sitting 14 rows up right above the players benches or just above where the players walk out of the tunnel onto the pitch. So look out for us!
A cheer from Massachusetts --- U-S-A! U-S-A!! What a nail biter of a game. I am so glad I won't have to hear myself complaining about refs calling back goals anymore.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm also sending a cheer to Magnus for removing the "profile" requirement that made posting a comment cumbersome. Margaret