Spain Holland

I predicted this would be the final game before the tournament started. These are two good teams and deserve to be in the final. In my view, the Spanish achilles heel is their left back, Carpevilla, who has to face and cover the most dangerous Dutch player, Robben. I expect that the Dutch try to capitalize on that weakness and send many balls down the right wing.

But the game will come down to the play of Spain's Xavi, Iniesta, and Villa. Their short passing and penetrating runs, backed by the intelligent play of Xabi Alonso, will create nightmares for the Dutch midfield who are more physical and not as fast. The Dutch may get an early goal but I predict that Spain will score two goals and eventually win 2-1. I will be rooting for the Dutch but I think the Spaniards are just too good for Holland.

Benni and I will be on a traditional Turkish boat called a gulet sailing somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea. We do not know at this point if there is a tv on the boat or whether we can dock to see the game. So there is a chance we'll miss the finals after having followed the tournament closely so far.

Semi Finals

Benni and I watched the semi-finals in the Cappadocia region in Turkey which is in the central part of the country. The landscape is highly unusual and this is where the early christians built underground cities to protect themselves from Roman persecutions.

The Holland-Uruguay game was a pretty good game. I had predicted 3-1 for Holland but the Uruguayans scored in injury time to make it 3-2. The Dutch are a very strong and well-balanced side. They have had some lucky breaks so perhaps this is the year they will go all the way.

The game between Spain and Germany was not as exciting as was expected. The Spaniards slowed down the game with the flurry of short passes that had the Germans playing catch up the whole game. It was a shame that Muller had to sit this one out because he would have opened up the game for Germany. Podolsky played in a defensive role and it was basically only Ozil how threatened the Spaniards up front. The Germans can be very happy with the tournament and be optimistic about their future.

Amazing Quarterfinals and Incredible Germans

The Quarterfinal matches were exciting and incredibly dramatic. It is a good thing that I do not suffer from a weak heart condition while watching the end of the Uruguay-Ghana game or Spain-Paraguay. The other two games were upsets even though I had predicted that the Dutch would prevail. I predicted three of the four matches correctly so I feel pretty good about myself.

The Germans proved me wrong, however. I should have listened to my cousin Gunnar Már who predicted that the Germans would go all the way this year. After seeing them dismantle both England and Argentina, I wonder how the German speed and counter-attack will match up against Spain, who possess the ball brilliantly and play back and forth. The Spanish are fairly slow at the back (Picque and Puyol are not the fastest) and the Spanish forwards (aside from Torres) are short and will struggle against the tall German defenders. That said, I think the Spaniards will frustrate the young German side. The Spaniards will be patient and nibble at the German defense and eventually find an opening. Torres is a shade of his former self and the Spaniards definitely need more of a presence in the middle. My prediction is a 1-0 Spanish victory.

I really do think that the referee should have allowed the Ghanaian goal against Uruguay. The ball was basically inside the goal when Suarez made the save with his hand. The Uruguayans unfairly benefitted from the play. Of course, Suarez did get the red card and will miss the game against Holland (he plays for Ajax in Holland so this would have been a great game for him to play). Therefore, Uruguay´s chances are quite slim. I predict a Holland victory 3-1.

Currently in Istanbul and have been enjoying the sights, sounds, and smells of this charming city. Staying at a hotel in Taksim Square near the bustling Istiklal Street, which is a major shopping street. When we first walked down Istiklal, we thought that there was some major holiday or celebration because the streets were so crowded. But it was just a normal Friday afternoon. We also visited the Sultan Ahmed area and toured the Hagia Sophia. We watched the Germany Argentina game with a former Williams student Toygun Altintas, class of 2008, who is currently living in Turkey after finishing his masters degree from the University of Chicago.

Last Day in South Africa

Benni and I leave South Africa this afternoon. We have had a fantastic stay and a very memorable visit. I have been very impressed with what South Africa has to offer and would definitely come back if given the opportunity.

We leave for Istanbul and will spend the next two weeks in Turkey. I will continue blogging but the blog entries will be less frequent.

Upcoming games and Predictions

The quarter finals will be very exciting with some classic match ups! Here are my predictions:

Uruguay-Ghana

We saw Uruguay play against South Korea. The Uruguyans have two attacking studs - Forlan and Suarez and their defense is formidable. Two of the Ghanaian players (Ayew and Mensah) picked up yellow cards against the US and will miss this game. Even though most of the people at the stadium will be rooting for Ghana, I think Uruguay will prevail. Uruguay had a easy time with South Africa in the qualifying rounds even though the whole stadium was rooting for the Bafana Bafana. I predict a 1-0 victory for Uruguay.

Brazil-Netherlands

It is too bad that these teams are meeting in the quarterfinals since both teams deserve to be at least in the semifinals. Both teams have been criticized back in their homes for being boring and workmanlike. They are not playing with the same sort of flair that has characterized these teams in the past.

Generally it is foolish to pick against the Brazilians in any World Cup game. But this time, I will go with the Oranje. The Dutch have a well-balanced team. They have a good combination of strong holding midfields (De Jong and Van Bommel) and strong attacking players (Robben, Sneijder, and Persie). Robben will give the Brazilians a lot of trouble. I predict a 2-1 classic Dutch victory.

Germany - Argentina

Wow! These have been the two most entertaining teams in this year's World Cup. The German team has surprised me with their flair and open style of play. The commentators here have made much ado about the fact that this team represents the "new Germany", similar to how people talked about the French team in 1998. They point out that many of the stars on this team are immigrants or second generation Germans. For example, the team features players of Polish, Ghanaian, Turkish, and Tunisian descent. Perhaps people are making a big deal of the ethnic composition of the team because it is Germany. Yet we do not hear the same about the British, American, or French teams. Those who make these comments have obviously not been to Germany recently. Nevertheless, this team does not play like the German teams of old. They have a very good young goalie, a solid defense, exceptional midfielders, and two forwards who tend to score in big games. Ozil is really emerging as one of the stars of the tournament.

Yet this promising and young German team is no match for Argentina. Argentina is on a roll. They have great team spirit and their attacking trio (Tevez, Messi, and Higuain) is one for the ages. I think Argentina will win 3-1.

Spain - Paraguay

Spain is lucky to be meeting Paraguay at this stage. This will be an easy victory for Spain. In addition to their outstanding players, it is remarkable that Spain has only picked up one card in this whole tournament (Alonso got a yellow card against Portugal). So they play exceptionally well and they are also very clean! Spain wins 2-0.

Portugal Spain

We were happy with the results of the game but the game itself was not that exciting. The Portuguese had a few chances to score but the Spaniards totally dominated the game. It says a lot about the Spanish team that both Silva and Fabregas do not make the starting 11.

Seeing the Spanish team play live it is clear that they are a very organized team that is full of self confidence. Their central defenders, Puyol and Picque, do not mark the opposing forwards but play more of a zone defense. For example, in the Portugal game they allowed Ronaldo to roam freely and did not shadow him. They managed, however, to completely close Ronaldo down and he was a non-factor in the game.

Xavi is the bread and butter of the team. The local papers here call him the Einstein of the team since everything starts and ends with him. I would agree with that but Busquets also plays a much more central role in the team than I realized. He typically picked up the ball from the defenders and started the attack. Xavi would then eventually take over the ball. So if Xavi is the Einstein of the team, Busquets is Bohr. Watching the Spanish team play, however, raised some questions about their ability to score. They are great with the ball covering about 90% of the field but need someone to finish. They really only play with one true center forward - Torres.

Torres is still far from his usual self and was subbed with about 30 minutes left. His replacement Loriento was much more dangerous. So who will score the Spanish goals? David Villa had some great runs and Iniesta roams all over the field so they certainly have players that score. But they need that player to score the simple put in. I still think they have a good chance to win it all.

I was surprised by the number of Spanish supporters at the game. We had been told that the Portuguese fans would dominate. There was an awful lot of yellow at the game. Perhaps most of the neutral supporters were rooting for Spain.

It was our final game here at the World Cup. We had great seats and enjoyed ourselves tremendously. Afterwards, we had dinner on Long Street. In order to celebrate the Spanish victory, we decided to do what the Spaniards do - have dinner at midnight.

My friend Kiddi and his kids left for Iceland yesterday. We had dinner with Willams student Faisal Khan last night.

Dot Com

One of the things that has surprised us attending these games is how commercialized the World Cup has become. I guess one shouldn´t have been so surprised given how professional sports have developed over the last decades. But we have been taken aback by the level of commercialization. We have asked ourselves whether the purpose of the tournment is to promote and celebrate soccer worldwide and to determine which country has the best national team or whether it is merely a cashmaking machine for FIFA, the world soccer association. Of course, the FIFA website ends in dot com and not dot org which suggests the orientation of this company.

FIFA is very concerned with its brand and operates as a franchise similar to McDonalds or Subway. For example, we went to the Fanfest here in Cape Town yesterday and it was all about promoting Coca Cola, Sony, or Hyundai, FIFA´s main corporat sponsors.. There was very little at the FanFest to suggest that we were in Africa or in Cape Town. It was a standard, sterlie environment. We saw a live camera shot from the FanFest in Brazil and it look exactly like the one in Cape Town. When we were at the Stadium in Port Elizabeth, all the stalls and vendors looked exactly the same as in Cape Town. It would have been much more interesting and worthwhile to allow local vendors to sell their merchandize and food at the stadiums.

Yesterday, we went on touristy boat ride from Hout Bay to Seal Island. It was an hour boat ride to see some seals sunbathing. It was a ripoff and our only disappointment in this trip. In the afternoon, we went swimming in the sea (the weather was pretty good). Last night, we went to Long Street, which has lots of restaurants and trendy clothes stores. We went to a local culinary institution called Mama Africa which was great. It had live music (a great marimba band) and the menu featured "ethnic food" such as grilled ostrich, springbok or crocodile. A bit touristy but the atmosphere was great and the place was packed even though it was a Monday night. We are going to return there tonight after the game. We watched the Brazil Chile game there. We started chatting with two women sitting next to our table who were from Tanzania. They were on a business trip in Cape Town. As it turns out, one of them studied at Williams College at the Center for Development Economics! Quite the coincidence! She graduated in 2000 and will return to Williamstown in October for the 50th anniversary of CDE. We know a lot of people in common after her year in Williamstown.

Today, we are going to Spain Portugal. The weather is miserable. It is windy and rainy and the forecast calls for more rain. But we have great seats and this should be a cracker of a game. We bought Spanish flags yesterday and Benni will be wearing the Spanish team shirt. People predict though that the audience will be 80% Portuguese and 20% Spanish. Supposedly there is a huge Portuguese community here in Cape Town and they are coming out in droves for this game. I predict Spain will win in an attacking game.

Our next game

Our final game will be a mouth-watering match up between Spain and Portugal here in Cape Town. We have great seats to the right and behind the substitute benches on the second tier.

We are looking forward to seeing Spain play that we predict will go all the way. They are getting better and better and this should be an open, attacking game. So far the round of 16 has featured exciting games with lots of goals so we are optimistic that we will see a good game.

AfriCAN

South Africa is proving all the naysayers wrong. So far, the tournament has been a tremendous success. Prior to the World Cup, people were predicting that the games would not start on time, that there would be chaos at the stadiums, and that the visitors would be robbed left and right.

On the contrary, we have had nothing but positive experiences so far. The venues have been very well organized and things have flowed well. Everything is well marked and user friendly. Our only complaint so far has been the strange ticket policy which is not something South Africa organized but a process that FIFA oversees.

The locals here are really embracing the tournament and have been very friendly towards the visitors. We have sensed that there is somewhat of a racial divide. There are some (not all) white South Africans who are ambivalent about the tournament and see this as a celebration of the new South Africa that they do not care for. Overwhelmingly, however, the nation is behind this and if anything this will have a more unifying effect.

This World Cup is proving to be a great advertisement for South Africa in particular and for Africa in general. As one T shirt here states: World Cup 2010 - AfriCAN.

Africa CAN get things done if given the opportunity.

Uruguay-South Korea and USA-Ghana

The game we attended in Port Elizabeth was Uruguay vs. South Korea. We were not particularly optimistic before the game that this would be a good match up but the game in fact was a great one. Uruguay has a great attacking tandem in Forlan and Suarez. After their early goal, the Korean attacked ferociously and were unlucky not to score more goals.

We were very surprised to see that the stadium was only about 80% full. We spoke to some locals and they said that it was almost impossible for them to get tickets to the games in Port Elizabeth. Nearly all the hospitality suites and VIP lounges were empty. I would estimate that there were about 5000 South Koreans at the game and perhaps 4000 Uruguayans. The South Koreans all wore red and draped the biggest flag I have ever seen during their national anthem. The atmosphere during the game was fairly good especially since it was such an exciting game.

We then watched the USA Ghana game on tv at a cafe at the Boardwalk in Port Elizabeth. The result was disappointing for the US since they played well and were organized as a team. They lost their concentration twice that lead to the Ghanaian goals. All the locals here supported Ghana so I think Ghana definitely had a home field advantage. Afterwards, the media was salivating over the Ghana team and they are now the great African hope (being the only African team to advance). Ghana´s success is no coincidence since they have had tremendous success recently in youth tournaments. So their success now is a result of an impressive soccer development program. The papers here are also pointing out that Ghana was the first African nation to acheive independence so perhaps it is fitting that it takes the lead soccer wise as well.

Garden Route and Port Elizabeth

Sorry for the lack of updates but we have not had internet access for a few days. Early Friday morning we left for Port Elizabeth which is about a 10 hour drive from Cape Town. But what a drive it is! The scenery in parts of it were breathtaking! The scenery was a combination of southern Iceland, Route 1 in California, and the French Alps. It was majestic, raw, powerful and beautiful. We passed through places called Wilderness, Plettenberg Bay, and stopped in a beautiful town called Knysna (where the French and Danish team stayed during the tournament). We saw the world largest bungy jumping site (I thought about trying it for a moment) and stopped at an elephant park and got to feed the elephants. We also stopped in a small animal park near Port Elizabeth and as a good parent I did allow Benni to go into a cage with lion cubs and he petted them and scratch behind their ears. I wasn´t scared at all... Pictures will follow! On the way, we watched the Brazil Portugal game in a nice little town called Jeffrey Bay where they claim they have one of the best surfing spots in the world.

The city of Port Elizabeth lacks charm. It is a big industrial city and really nothing special. We stayed in a B and B in a suburb called Summerstrand. They have a disneyesque boardwalk that was overtly commercial. The stadium in Port Elizabeth was ok but nothing compared to the stadium in Cape Town. It is situated in a run down neighborhood and the atmosphere surrounding the game was not as festive as in Cape Town. It seemed second rate. However Cape Town is such a spectacular and fun city than anything compared to Cape Town will pale in comparison. I guess we have become spoiled by staying in Cape Town.

Hup, Hup Holland!

The Holland-Cameroon game that we attended tonight was amazing. The stadium was floating in orange as the Dutch supporters were there in droves (there were only a handful of Cameroon fans). The atmosphere was great with lots of singing and vuvuzuelas blowing. It was by far the loudest game that we have attended and much more energy than in the other games. The Dutch fans were very colorful often in very amusing outfits. The game was pretty good with the Dutch dominating from the first minute. They played crisp and clean soccer. Van Bommel plays an unsung role in the middle and Sjneider roamed freely around the midfield and upfront. With about 15 minutes left, Arjen Robben entered the game. It was clear that he is the leader of the team. Before coming on, he got lots of cheers from the fans as he was warming up (he has been out with a hamstring injury). His teamates on the bench cheered wildly when he entered the game. Once he was on the field, he was active and had a great shot into the post which eventually resulted into a goal. It is amazing that the Dutch had such an easy time in their groups with Robben only playing fifteen minutes.

The big news of the evening was that the world champions Italy were ousted from the tournament. They had a worse record than New Zealand in this year´s World Cup which is pretty amazing. The Danes also go home.

Tomorrow, we leave for Port Elizabeth Bay and we´ll stay there the next two nights. It is a 8 hour drive along the garden route which is supposedly a very beautiful drive. We hope to stop somewhere on the way to see Brazil Portugal play on tv. On Saturday, we´ll see Uruguay play South Korea. Our seats are behind the goal about 14 rows up.

Zulu princess and car museum

While in the Paarl Valley, we had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Cynthia Zulu-Kabanyane, who is a Zulu princess who runs an ngo that helps promote Zulu culture and the empowerment of Zulu women. We bought a beaded vuvuzuela from her foundation. We also stopped by and visited the Franzhoek Car Museum which has a small but very impressive collection of vintage cars including Model T Ford, Bugattis, Mercedes Benz, Ferraris and MacLarens. Well worth visiting.

Pregnancy and Adoptions

We went to the Paarl Valley yesterday which is South Africa´s wine country. We visited an Icelandic couple (Kolbeinn Kristinsson and Ruth Gylfadottir) that lives there and spent the day and night with them. Ruth has stared a very impressive non-profit that works with women who give up their babies for adoption called Enza (enza.is). We visited Mbekweni township where she is building a shelter for these women. Construction is under way and the plan is to be able to house 4-5 women at this shelter. There is a lot of unwanted pregnancies here and many women have to give up their children for adoption. Enza will work with the women after they have given birth and are recovering from giving their child away. They will provide support and some job skills training for these women. This is a very novel and worthwhile project and I hope to support it in one way or another in the future.

We then watched the USA and England games at their home switching back and forth. The US team has shown a lot of resiliency in the tournament. They came from behind to tie both England and Slovenia. They did not allow that disallowed goal to have an effect on them going into the Algerian game. The Algerian team was a tough team that played tight so this was a great victory for the US.

In the evening we watched Germany vs. Ghana at the Seitelberg winery in the Paarl Valley. The owner and many of the workers are from Germany and there was a German world cup buffet featuring bratwurst and potato salad. The Germans were lucky to qualify into the round of 16. The match up vs. England should be a great game and so will the game between Ghana and the US. I think the US have a wonderful opportunity to make it into the quarterfinal.

Tonight we´re going to Holland Cameroon. We are seeing Oranje everwhere!

Banfana Banfana win but...

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!

Rain, Rain, Rain...Raining in Goals!

Benni and I saw the magnificent seven!

As we walked to Green Point Stadium early this afternoon, it was raining lightly in Cape Town. There were thousands of Portuguese and other international fans proceeding in good spirits to the game. When the game started, the rain really started coming down. The game was even to start with and North Korea showed some good attacking flashes. They also played Ronaldo very well and did not respect him at all. People in the stands were wondering whether they even knew who he was. The pitch was very wet and slippery and the players had a difficult time controlling the ball. At half-time it was 1-0 for Portugal. At half time it basically stopped raining. But then the fireworks started and the Portuguese started to rain in goals.

In the second half, Portugal added six more goals. With each goal the noise in the stadium increased. If the noise level started at one on the Richter Scale it certainly was at 7 by the end of the game. The atmosphere in the stadium was fantastic. There were hardly any North Korean fans at the game. Usually each side gets allotted a number of tickets for their home fans. But since not many supporters coming to South Africa from North Korea, they could distribute more tickets locally. Therefore a number of South African school children were at the game. The game started at 1:30 pm so they probably got the afternoon off to go to the game. They were at least still in their school uniforms. Throughout the second half, they were dancing and singing and blowing the vuvuzuelas. Since there were more South Africans at this game than at the first game we attended (England-Algeria), the vuvuzuela sound was much different. In fact, at this game it was quite festive and nice. In fact, it was enjoyable (I was wearing earplugs however). It was synchronized and melodicand not as constant. Blowing the vuvuzuela is actually difficult and it takes time to master. So in the later games, I think the foreign fans will get a better handle on it.

The Portuguese played great. Seven different players scored which is very unusual and they will now face Brazil later this week both self-confident and optimistic. I met my student Faisal Khan, who is a rising senior at Williams College, at the game. He is here in South Africa doing economics research. Benni and I left the stadium in high spirits since we realized that we just saw a historic game that will be one for the books.

There is more talk here about the referees. They have been very generous with the red card. For example the red cards that Klose (Germany) and Kaka (Brazil) received were ridiculous. They are really not tolerating any pushing or pulling. In some respects that is good. At the same time, they are not allowing the players to play the physical game they are accustomed to.

In reading the newspapers in the States, I know that there has been a lot of talk about the disallowed US goal against Slovenia. It was gotten some press here but has really drowned in all the other World Cup stories and controversies. So it is not a major issue here nor are the other foreign fans talking much about it. . The major issue here today is South Africa´s game against French. Supposedly a number of French players will refuse to play tomorrow.

We will be watching the South Africa game in Kalk Bay, which is near Cape Town. My colleague David Eppel, in the Theatre Department at Williams, lives there in the summer (he is South African) so we will watch the game with him and some of the locals in his hometown.

Monday´s game: Portugal vs. North Korea

Benni and I will be attending Monday´s game between Portugal and North Korea. Portugal really needs to win this game if they want to qualify for the next round. The North Koreans looked pretty good in their last game against Brazil, so we think we will see an exciting match.

Our seats are behind and to the left of the the players benches directly above the corner spot. We are curious to see how many North Korean fans will be there. I am hoping to see a Williams student, Faisal Khan who will also be at the game.

It will be interesting to see Portugal´s Ronaldo in action. He is a magnificent player but not our favorite. He is a diver. At the last World Cup in 2006, we had a nickname for him: Fancy Dude. We didn´t like his attitude. He has grown up since then so now he is Less Fancy Dude.

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.

History, nature and some soccer squeezed in

We woke up early this morning to catch the 9am ferry to Robben Island. That is where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned during the 1970s and 80s. The ferry ride took about 30 minutes and you get to see a great view of Cape Town and Table Mountain. It was moving to visit the Island and to see the prison and Mandela´s cell. Our tour guide was a former political prisoner himself (for a 6 year period in late 80s) and got quite emotional when he described life in the prison.

After we returned for the Island we drove via Chapman´s Peak towards Cape Point, where the Indian and Atlantic Ocean meet. It was a stunning, mountainous drive. Along the way, we stopped for lunch and watch Holland Japan. We were impressed with the Japanese team. They certainly have the most interesting hair styles in the tournament. Soccerwise they are also quite good and should have tied the game instead of losing 1-0. We then drove to Boulders Beach Penguin Colony and saw a lot of cute penguins that reminded us of Icelandic puffins. From there we stopped at Cape Point Ostrich Farm. Ostriches are probably the ugliest animals around. And not the brightest. So what is going for them? Is it enough in this world to be fast? Then we drove back via Scarborough to Cape Town. The landscape in this part of the Cape, especially the rugged mountains, actually reminded all of us of the landscape back home in Iceland. So we felt quite at home.

Now we are at home watching Cameroon and Denmark. We are all rooting for Cameroon. We haven´t forgotten that the Danes, our colonial masters, sold us spoiled flour back in the 18th century.

Tomorrow we´re waking up early at 5am to go on a short safari to Aquilah park which is about a 2 hour drive from Cape Town. We are aiming to be back for the big match up tomorrow between Brazil and the Ivory Coast.

Soccer celebrity sightings!

Didn´t realize Green Point
Stadium was a dive...but former
German Coach and player Jurgen
Klinsmann was there. And below
is Alan Hansen, the former
Liverpool player, with my friend
Kristjan´s daughter, Lara.