Posts Tagged ‘Teams’

Among the tons of pictures we have taken and uploaded, Carl also managed to be doing a small video at the exact moment we took the free kick that turned into a goal, then a disallowed goal.  You will see Andy’s hand pointing to the huge sign light up GOAL and me pointing the other way at the referee.  Warning, it is also very loud.

As for the sights along the way?  tons of pictures with more being uploaded to the World Cup 2010 stream as I type this out.  We also have some more YouTube coming along as well that we recorded and have to upload through the evening.

Below, Andy welcomes up to our first match of World Cup 2010. USA vs Slovenia for an awesome way to start our game adventures.

The shuttle service worked well.  We parked at a local college and they had thousands boarding buses as seen in other pics.  The same for the return service as well.  Luckily, the parking was close to where we are staying and the stadium not far from the parking.  Costs were cheap as they charged per carload.  It was 50 rand per car.  So just under $7 USD for all of us to go roundtrip.  Well worth it to avoid finding parking there.

The game itself was full of horns.  I donned the ear plugs.  Carl and Andy braved it without.  They claim is wasn’t bad but yelled the rest of the night and complained of ringing.  Might be the noise as we watch the England game right now as well.

More coming with a game tomorrow between Ghana and Australia and more uploads.

Interesting take on the game from two sides of the pond. The USA are treating it like a win, and the English are treating it like a loss. The New York Post even has this great headline:

News of the World headline?

The mistake from Green was a howler, it’s going to be on blooper reels for years to come.  Such a basic mistake and one that on any other day would probably have never happened. Perhaps he thought he was about to be attacked by a swarm of bees, perhaps he had a bet on the game, who knows, it was a howler. The thing was though, the rest of the team played crap. Rooney was no where to be seen, and I’m not even sure Lampard and Terry were on the pitch? On paper England have a great squad, unfortunately they don’t play on paper they play on grass.

It’s a crime how FIFA have totally screwed up the sales of tickets. For tickets being available only on the internet for the majority of the ticket sales phase it meant they excluded a great deal of South Africans that would have liked to attend. I’m sure the internet sales concept came to somebody sitting in a comfy office in Paris, with their 50mb connection, thinking yeah everyone has internet now days.

Hopefully the stadiums will start to fill up, even if FIFA start giving out tickets!

I have to admit, I am very excited about this game. The USA probably have it easier going into the game as there is no pressure to win, in fact pretty much whatever the result (unless it’s 10-0) the USA should be OK. Whereas England, every expects them to win, anything less than a win will be viewed as failure.

The USA have some strong, skilled players now, with many of them playing in professional leagues outside the USA, so their skill level has come up a great deal, which is reflected in their 14th in the world rankings, With US training resources and their “lets go kick some butt” spirit they should never be underestimated.

For England, it will be a case of how well defense plays and if midfield can get it together. On paper England has one of the strongest midfields in the competition, but Lampard and Gerrard have never quite gelled playing together, perhaps now is the time. England often plays better when viewed as the underdog, as the English never wilt in the face of diversity spirit is even stronger than the US kick butt spirit.

Can’t wait till kick off, see you after! Come on England!

The Daily Show covers the World Cup, love the Daily Show.