Posts Tagged ‘Rustenburg’

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.

www.flickr.com More in VVorldCup 2010 pool

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.

This time Carl does our stadium intro as we get to see an awesome game with Japan winning.  The stadium itself was not as full as one would have hoped with the placement of a team in a bracket on the line.

But the Japan fans came out in full force.  Carl managed to capture some incredible game pictures as well as fan pictures.  The full set can be found in the VVorldCup photo pool on Flickr. Here are some of our favorites:

The drive itself was the same as last time, but lighter in traffic.  The smoke, however, was constant and almost burning to your throat at some points. They have begun making fire breaks in the land due to the dry winter. Fire breaks can be a wide swatch of land or all of the sides of the road for miles. we were able to see an entire mountain side on fire at one point during the drive making the road an entire fog. Now we get 5 hours of sleep and drive the opposite way to watch Brazil down in Durban play. But, we enjoy it so much.

We left mid morning for the two hour drive (or so) to Rustenburg for the Ghana versus Australia for our second game in World Cup 2010.  We chose to take the back roads to head up and the interstate to come back after.  The countryside was beautiful as we drove through small town after small town.

Part of the way there we started seeing large fires set all over the place. At a distance it looked like forest fires or preventive burning. But, as we got closer to some, we could see them scorching the fields after harvest to prepare the soil again.

We reached the end of the road as we started to see the signs for the stadium and parking.

More on the game itself in another post.