Day 2 Sunday 6/27 - Two Big Games

So we had some Internet challanges hence the delay in the blogs. We don't want to miss out on the coverage of two crazy games on Sunday.

After having our first sleep in Joburg and some catching up on on jet-lag we started our day right away with heading to downtown. Now that we know what the locals do with the minibus we learned our way to the fan fest in Newtown which is right by downtown Joburg. Thomas was with his Germany jersey and I was wearing my blue & white stripes of Argentina jersey for the two exciting games scheduled today.

At the fan fest we must have pissed offf many English fans by our chants and we made friends with some other Brits. England vs Germany game was well covered by the local press and was an amazingly exciting game. As the young German squad piled the goals back to back to the English net the entire fan fest was going wild. All the local south Africans who were initally supporting England started to cheer for Germany. After the 4th goal and Thomas getting delirious i realzed that Germans will be hard to beat. They may lose on inexperience but may also go to the Finale on July 11th.

After partying for half our we wanted to make our way to Soccer City Stadium for the Argentina vs Mexico game. We took the train to the stadium and it was a long trip down to Soweto. We made it somehow on time after a long walk to the stadium. Now i understand why they give so much break time between the games. Seeing rows of Argentinos walking down the road with some Mexicans singing their Mariachis. Argentina was the favorite before the game but the way Mexico played made me worries about how Maradona's amigos will show up on tonight game. Mexicans started tough on couple of long range shots but it took Tevez & Messi co to score the first goal. Second goal made Higuain one of the contenders for the golden boot with 4 goals in 3 games that he played. Second haf goals from Tevez and J. Hernandez made the final score 3-1 for blue and white.

Being in the stadium and watching Messi dribbling 100 meters from me made me insane. I was right there feeling the entire action. Paying Category 1 tickets actually makes a difference apparently. We were feeling the sweats of the players.

I have to touch on the vuvuzelas of course. I bought mine as well and tried to blow it but it takes couple of practices to get the hang of this crazy bee sounding toy. In the stadium there were a few times where the entire 85,000 fans started blowing the damn thing and there was no way any player could hear any whistle from the ref. As much as it is part of the culture here in SA for me it will be a good souvenior from here. After couple of games you get used to the sound but I would doubt in 2014 in Brazil the samba dancers would appreciate the bee buzzes. FYI, vuvus are going for RND 50, apprx $7 and almost everyone has one.

After the game we met up with our Aussie friends who were staying at the same hotel as we were and also came to watch the game. We went to Melville bar once again that we visited yesterday to grab couple of drinks. It was to hang out with Aussie boys. Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi is the chant they taught us. My boy Harry Kewell and Lucas Neill from Australia national team is one of their fav players as well.

Gotta love the international vibe at the world cup! We met so many people from so many different pockets of the world that I can only imagine it getting better as the final game approaches.