Safari

This morning, we did the typical thing all tourists do when they visit Africa: we went on a Safari. We woke up at 6am and drove two hours north of Cape Town to a private game reserve called Aquilah. The safari took about two hours and we saw lions, zebra, rhinos, hippos, crocodiles, elephants, wildebeasts, and baboons. A very nice experience. The rhinos were our favorite. They got very close to our car and were checking us out. We passed their smell test.

Tonight we watched Brazil Ivory Coast at a local restaurant in Camps Bay. Ivory Coast started well but were unlucky when Fabiano scored a spectacular goal. At the beginning of the second half, Fabiano scored again. This time, however, he clearly used his hands to get control of the ball. The goal should have been disqualified. The game got ugly as there were lots of fouls and Kaka got a red card. I think many of us have underestimated how good the Brazilians are. They are bound to go far into the tournament.

Now we are halfway through the first round and some trends are emerging:

People here are very disappointed how poorly the African teams have performed in the tournament. Right now it looks like that of all the African nations only Ghana will qualify into the next round.

The South American teams have been impressive and will have a major presence in the round of 16. In addition to Argentina and Brazil, the smaller countries such as Chile, Uruguay, and Paraguay have been very good. Additionally, Mexico is bound to qualify for the next round.

It looks like the players are getting more used to the new ball. They are controlling it better and there are not as many wild shots and goalkeeping gaffes as in the early games of the tournament.

In the first week, the referees were very good. Recently, we have had some scandalous refereeing performances including USA-Slovenia and Serbia-Germany.

From a fan´s perspective here in South Africa, the games have been going smoothly. People have been in good spirits and friendly. It has been wonderful to see so many people from all over the world. This is truly a World cup. In our safari today, there were fans from many countries. We saw American (there are a lot of Americans), Chilean, Japanese, English, Spanish, and some Greek fans, for example.

The ticketing to these games remain a mystery. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to what you paid for the ticket and where you sit in the stadium. We got our tickets through the FIFA lottery. Benni and I had great seats for the England Algeria game which were in the cheapest category (Category 3). For tomorrow´s game between North Korea and Portugal, we paid more (category 2) but they are not nearly as good as the ones for our first game. We have seen a number of empty seats at the stadiums here though FIFA claims that nearly all the games are sold out.

Sometimes nations live up to their stereotypes. The South Africans have a big game against France on Tuesday and in typical French fashion the French team is up in arms. The French players have staged a mini revolution against their coach and refused to train today. One player (Anelka) was sent home today for refusing to apologize to the coach. In order to advance to the next round, South Africa has to win by at least 4 goals and hope that either Uruguay or Mexico lose. Since the French team is in such disarray, perhaps the bafana bafana can pull off an upset.