Posts Tagged ‘FIFA2010’
World Cup Final 2010 – Spain vs Netherlands
Last night we attended the World Cup Final at Soccer City in Johannesburg. It felt special to be there, and the atmosphere is something I will never forget. To see Nelson Mandela was something special, and everyone in the stadium gave him the standing ovation he deserves, football players are often referred to as heroes by the media (falsely), but Nelson Mandela is a real hero, and a great inspiration for millions of people.
The game did not flow very well, and compared to football played in the 3/4th playoff game from the previous night was disappointing, but lets face it, if I was only interested in the football I could have stayed at home and watched it on the tele with instant replays, attending the games has been as much about the atmosphere as the game itself. The Dutch played dirty and unfortunately their tournament will probably be remembered that way.
As with our other games, we met people in the stands, took lots of photos and did our regular video introductions…
Alex from the train to Soccer City
Andy introduces the World Cup final (be sure to listen to my score prediction)
Stacie, our gracious hostess, provides the closing comments
Ghana over USA 2-1 in Rustenburg at World Cup 2010
We were lucky enough to get last minute tickets to this game in Rustenburg with USA taking on Ghana. We had seen Ghana play twice already and USA once, knowing both teams would provide an excellent match. We were not disappointed.
Security was the tightest we had seen and we found out later former President Clinton and other stars were there. I am sure adding to the complexity. We made it in just in time for the flags coming out and the anthems to be played after Carl’s skillful driving from Durban. It was a long drive as we fought traffic out of Durban and then the last few kilometers.
The game itself was well played as everyone knows by now. It was the fans that made it for us. There ups and downs emotionally were apparent in sound and facial expressions. Carl captured many fans around us at times of cheer and the same fans at times of frustration. The entire collection is in the picture pool on Flickr.
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The atmosphere after the game was a mixture of cheering for Ghana from both US fans and anyone in South Africa and appreciation to the US team from both US fans and anyone in South Africa.
We have more action and fan shots from the game in the pool and coming in another posting.
Brazil verus Portugal videos from Durban
After some pictures and our written review of the World Cup 2010 game between Brazil and Portugal in Durban, we wanted to make sure the videos were posted as normal. We had a delay as we immediately drove to Rustenburg for USA v Ghana and couldn’t find the required Internet bandwidth until now.
Intro Part 1 with Chris
Intro Part 2 with Carl (See Flyboytyler Flickr feed for references made, mainly this photo)
Outro with Andy
Interviews with local fans after Ghana versus Germany
One of the things I have mentioned on the IdoNotes blog here is how this is a community event. Global community. Countries really do not matter when it comes to who you talk to, walk next to, stand next to our share a bag of crisps.
After the Ghana versus Germany game, we were honored to meet some wonderful South Africans that allowed us to do the following interviews. Carl did the first one, with Andy playing the instrumental.
Andy took on the second interview of a wonderful couple that has traveled the world. They even took time after to teach the Shosholoza song
Ghana versus Germany at Soccer City in World Cup 2010
We raced back from Durban to rest about an hour before heading to the train station for Ghana versus Germany. This promised to be a good game as both teams needed to perform to advance. After our parking experience the other day when catching the train to Soccer City, we learned an important lesson about private garages around the parking zone. Mainly when the main parking is free at the train platforms.
Let me describe free. You are able to park on the street as well as in the lot, no charge for the World Cup event around Park Station. However, when leaving, the staff runs to walk you to your car, make sure you back out correctly even if you are the only car and then expect some form of “tip”. So in essence you do pay to park a small amount, just not officially. The private parking charges unstated pricing depending on the mood and what you are willing.
So we parked on the platforms (the streets were full already) and as we entered the train station we were told that the last train to Soccer City was boarding. It was a good 90 minutes before the game, for a fifteen minute train ride. The end result is we made the train fine with Carl running. Yes. You read what I said.
After we moved with the sea of people, we did our intro video.
Inside it was loud as ever with huge grouping of German and Ghana fans. In the opposite corner of our seats was an entire section of German fans that never sat down and were told to remove some banners. A small disturbance of locals hitting each other with vuvuzelas to our left made the entire game interesting. Yet the fans were wonderful, excited, talkative to each other and just there for a good match.
As you can see, the fans were awesome and we had excellent seats for the game.
See all of our World Cup photos at the group Flickr pool
Restocking and a new offer at World Cup 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.