Gotta start with the Brazil vs Chile game on Ellis Park. Building up to the game we have watched the Durchies beating Slovakia at a tough match b 2-1 margin. Holland still does not convince me to win the WC with their performance but there is no shortage of talent in that team. True tast is against the samba boys on Friday. Speaking about the Brasileros as much as I am an Argentinian fan and don't necessarily care about them they do have the best the most upbeat fans for sure. They have turned the Ellis Park into a carnival town. Luis Fabiano, Kaka and rest did start rusty against Chile but as they say here 'one goal changes everything' one goal did change everything indeed. A simple corner kick ended up in the back of the net by Juan's header. Fabiano and Robinho made it easier for fans to watch the last half our as they are in Rio at the carnival. Entire stadium was blue yellow and green with a few pockets of Chilean fans singing Ole Ole Ole Chile
Chile. Summary of this game a team with a good finisher beats the team with a not good finisher. Brazil deservedly goes to quarters to play with Holland. Knowing that the semis will be againsrlt Uruguay or Ghana this will be their Sem Final game actually. I'm all orange for that game!
On Monday we also changed our location and moved to our new place Ball n Kicka. One smart guy turned the dorm of a run down university house into a football fan village. We got excited about this place and for the price we paid we are not necessarily grtting our moneys worth but all we care is games and there is no shortage of the excitement at this place. Brazilians partied until 2 in themorning. At one point I wasn't sure if I was dreaming with the samba drum on the back ground but it sure was interesting to fall a sleep on this kind of atmosphere. The place is tubby bunch of young football loving peeps and we got our basic needs in this place.
For day 4 we started our day ealyish. We arranged our trnasport to the Pretoria stadium for the least exciting game of all times Paraguay vs Japan. It was our first daytime game and third different stadium. There were total of 8 other unlucky fans that ended up with this games tickets that wanted to take off from our hostel to the stadium. Our car had me Thomas Enzo from Napoli and Simon from Munich and our driver from Joburg. Continuing the intl vibe we were dropped off a mile from the stadum at Hedfield Square. The place is full of bars and restaurants and the people were gettinginto the excitement of a second round game. I was surprised seeing moreJapanese fans than Paraguay ones. I was rooting for Japan for my buddy David. Knowing that he is married to a Japanese woman made him a more fanatic than a native Japanese I liked the blue samurais with the blonde leader they have got there in he name of Honda. The funniest sign that I saw so far read: " I
love my Honda. This is not an advertisement".the guy who was wearig the tshirt was basically saying to FiFA that your main sponsor Korean carmaker Hyundai can not compete with my Honda :)
The game went to overtime and the excitement picked up in the stadium during the extra times. Witnessing my first live penalty shootout I was so excited for my Honda & co. Losing the game on penalties hurts regardless but losing it with a only 1 miss which hit the post did hurt more. It must have felt like an earthquake in Tokyo but knowing how down to earth and respectful Japanese are they stood up and congratulated every single Paraguay players burrying their curren temotion in their hearts.
At the end of this game as we were leaving the stadium we thought of a crazy idea and if things work ou with selling the quarter final tickets that we had for Paraguay and make our way to Cape Town for the craziest of all games Argentina vs Germany. We didn't know we would sell all four tickets we will have for RND 6000( $900). This opened the doors to the trip to Cape Town. After getting back to the hotel Thomas got glued to the Internet to do all the rasearch on Capetown. In one hour we booked our hotel and flight to the Cape. Someone sAid " you would not visited South Africa if you haven't seenCape Town". I guess we are making it happen and we dint have to break the bank.
Oh by the way you may wonder whether we have tickets for the crazy game.Simple answer is no. But I have no doubt that we will be in the stadium in Saturday night cheering for Argentina. History is not written onhow we will make it bappen but we will!
By the way after finally finding a wirelless connection at the hostel I realzed I have been blogging for the past 2+ hours. We have caught up fough.
Let the spontaneous lifestyle continue!! Tomorrowis a rest day for World Cup. Notmuch rest for us I don't think. We will search for the tickets at Sandton, rent a car for a day, go to Monte Casino for some entertainment and have a party at ou rlocal friends house having BBQ. Not a bad rest day eh...
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