Archive for June 21st, 2010

It seems Carl offered his spicy salty balls previously, and today we restocked.  It seems I was up first and then Carl with a brand new offer.

Yes, this will be the end of these posts.

We had our first World Cup 2010 game at Soccer City last night with the excellent game between Brazil and Ivory Coast.  We were curious to see how the flow getting into a stadium of 90,000 people would be so we took a drive to a local train station.  From there the trains were running direct to Soccer City for free.  First up is our video from inside the train station:

The train was smooth, not overly crowded and everyone was quite talkative. We met an older gentleman that actually played years ago (so he says) and he had wonderful stories.  A nearby passenger soon confirmed he did play for the team long ago.  The man was from Rustenburg where we ended yesterday for the Ghana and Australia game.  Everyone is moving all around South Africa and it doesn’t matter where you are from.  Conversation flows even across language barriers.  We made it to the Soccer City stadium, and all I can say is wow.  Here is that video where we snuck into the TV camera area to use their lights and do a mock interview.  No one bothered us but many people stopped to watch our quick interview.  We almost needed two takes as some guy named Andy kept jumping in the shot.

Inside the stadium pics can be found over on Flickr in our VVorldcup pool. It was immense, loud and unbelievable fun. We sat in a large section of Brazil fans chanting, beating drums, blowing horns and reacting to every play in the game. Here is our view as the flags enter.  See the rest on Flickr.

In a bit I have an opinion posting on the crowds and interaction.  I also have a cross post coming on TheSocialNetworker about social media presence in South Africa.

Fans can act together, no problems, no issues.  It can happen.  Everyone is here for the games and the teams representing their country.  Not to see some individual player that makes tens of millions in pro leagues.  This is about community.

This video was us live at the Ghana vs Australia match on Saturday as the giant FIFA flag gets passed around.

Note how everyone works together?  Who cares what country you are from.  Who cares where the person next to you is from.  World Cup 2010 is a community event.