Friday, June 11, 2010

We're Off!


Oh, so close to a glorious win for Bafana and Africa. Still, a point from the opening game is a great start for South Africa.

You always want the host country to do well -- especially this time with the WC being held in Africa for the first time -- and it would have been a real blow had South Africa lost the opener.

Great atmosphere during the game, I thought. My personal favorite was walking the ramps zig-zagging their way up to the media tribune before the match and listening to the deafening noise from inside the stadium. Goose bumps. (Apparently Bafana keeper Itumeleng Khune disagreed. He said he was disappointed with the home support, and even complained that the vuvuzelas were not loud enough!)

Happy President Zuma called it an AFRICAN world cup in his introductory speech.

Not sure if TV pictures picked up the empty seats inside the stadium. Attendance was only about 84,000 in a stadium that holds over 90,000. The shortfall may be due to the horrendous traffic in the city before the game. It was completely stuck for hours. I only made it after joining a police motorcade driving 80 mph on the shoulder of the freeway. Some journalists I spoke to were stuck in traffic for almost 4 hours.

Off to Rustenburg tomorrow for England-USA. Bummed to miss Argentina-Nigeria.

Looks like Drogba may be fit for Portugal.

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