Anyway, I need to focus on one story at a time. Ben and Chris took off from work around noon so that we could get some lunch and make it to the game in plenty of time. We ate at Nando’s…a chicken place. Don’t be confused, my friends, I had a salad and fries- NO poultry! I was most impressed by the roses they handed out to the ladies. That was a nice surprise! Ben says it’s the reason we ate there….hmmm…..I guess I’ll give him that. After lunch we made the 30 minute drive to the “park and walk” area near the Ellis Park stadium in Joburg. So much better than a 3+ hour bus drive with crazy drunkards! Once our car was safely parked, we began the mile plus hike to the stadium- still not bad compared to our Rustenburg experience last weekend! As we walked along, we even discovered a patch of ice on the sidewalk. That proves to ya’ll just how cold it really is here. The closer we came to the stadium, the more street vendors we saw. Impressive! I was tempted by the scarves and funky hats, but we held off to buy souvenirs inside the stadium.
The lines for souvenirs were much better and the staff much more organized. Sadly, they were out of the America scarf and pretty much everything else American. Boo hoo. Oh well, at least we were able to make it to our seats an hour before kick off! We sat, waiting for the game to begin, listening to vuvuzelas blow, people cheer, songs play. Ben even blew a vuvuzela we purchased at the request of my brother, Brock. Brock’s currently finishing up his tour of duty in Iraq with the Army and he has been watching the World Cup games. We promised to blow his vuvuzela at the game so he would know one of the vuvuzela’s he heard was his J
The one downfall to this stadium would be the bathrooms. There simply weren’t enough for the magnitude of fans. I did my best to time my trips to the potty so that I might get there ahead of the crowds. For the most part, I was successful. However, for some reason they did not have toilet paper or hand soap. They did have plenty of condoms. Now where is the logic in that?
Back to the game. Did I mention we were playing Slovenia? It would be typical of me to leave out that detail. My viewing of the game was pretty much the same as last week. Confused. As usual, Ben did his best to narrate. I must say, I am not a fan of this game. I don’t like how they aimlessly kick the ball down the field when they could dribble (is this the correct term??) it down the field with much more accuracy. It appears to me that 90% of the time they power kick the ball down the field, it ends up in the feet (or heads) of their opponent or out of bounds. I don’t see how that makes sense. I’ve never been a football (American football!) fan, but I must admit that I think the game of football is much more coordinated and technical than soccer. Maybe Ben strategically planned to take me to soccer games so that I would allow him to watch football back home. Because I have already promised him he can watch football on Sundays as long as we don’t watch every soccer game here in SA. (He’s having difficulty agreeing to this deal…I don’t understand! At least I have this recorded so he can look back and see the deal he passed up…) Anyways! The game. Slovenia was ahead for most of the first half, scoring 2 goals pretty early on. The look on the faces of the American fans was pretty sad. You could just see the let down and disappointment as they stood in their goofy hats, flag painted faces and red, white and blue get up. I was also amazed at the amount of times the Slovenian players got “hurt” and had to be carried off the field on a stretcher. It started to get a little old after awhile and it felt like more of an act than anything. I took a photo so you could see their “playing” methods.
Towards the end of the first half, I decided to go get myself a hot dog. Just as I was leaving the stadium, I heard a roar. America scored a goal! I quickly purchased SA’s version of a “chili dog” (a hot dog with peppers inside of it) and a Sprite and headed back to my seat just as the half time crowd flooded out. I balanced my hot dog and Sprite in one hand while shielding my baby bump with the other. The protectiveness I feel for my baby girl is quite intense, even though she is protected by my belly at this time. Almost to my seat, a jerk bumped into me. HARD. He spilled my Sprite all over me. I stood there and yelled. Then I called him a jerk. He didn’t hear me. (The cops were nearby). I finished my trek to my seat, fuming mad from being pummeled by the guy. Ben just stared at me as I angrily spewed out my story. I explained to him that he will understand the protectiveness when he holds our daughter in his hands. Then I ate my hot dog.
America quickly caught up, scoring 3 goals later in the game. However, a brand spanking new referee decided he didn’t think America deserved that last goal, so he stripped it off our backs. That was a sad moment. The game ended in a tie, 2-2 even though it should have been 3-2, America. It was later determined that the referee indeed made a bad call and his refereeing career is now finished. That’s right, don’t mess with America!
No comments:
Post a Comment