1. Brazil vs Ivory Coast - I got a seat directly opposite the camera that records the match and telecasts to you all. The Soccer City stadium is HUGE. It can seat 90,000 people! So it has quite a big number of rows and my row was 3rd from the last. This gave me a panoramic view of the stadium. The drawback of this is, it is hard to recognize any player. I was surrounded by thousands of Brazilian fans. Believe me, Brazilian girls look hotter than they look on TV or photos!!
And I could see how dirty the Brazil team plays (apologies to Brazil fans). Whenever there was an attack by Ivory Coast with more strikers than the Brazilian defenders, the defenders would simply fake an injury. Sometimes the referee would signal to continue play because the Ivory Coast striker wouldn’t be at fault. That’s when the Brazilian would not get up and pretend as if he is hurt. Then other Brazilians would stop playing and point the fallen guy to the referee. Now Ivory Coast has no option but to stop their attack and kick the ball out.
Sometimes, the Ivory Coast guys would get distracted and stop. Then a Brazilian defender would sneak in and take the ball in his control. Then the fallen defender would suddenly come back to life and the game would resume with Brazil attacking!!!
This happened so many times that it was frustrating to watch. I was happy to see Kaka sent off (although I didn’t know why, because the ball was elsewhere and you tend to watch where the ball is, and Kaka's so called foul took place elsewhere on the field). Later I found out that it wasn't entirely Kaka's fault. Yet, Brazil got a taste of their own medicine. But it was already late. Brazil needs an opposition that can give them this treatment right from the beginning.
And the sound of vuvuzelas isn't a problem in the stadium at all. When you hear the sound on TV, it is monotonous buzzing sound (like a bee's buzz). But in the stadium, the frequency and amplitude keeps varying. Frequency variation because of different sizes/shapes of vuvuzelas and amplitude variation depending on how far from you a vuvuzela is being blown.
Also, there was only one Mexican wave. It had 3 iterations before it died down. The problem with it was, the seats would fold back the moment you got up, so you have to turn yourself after the wave passes you and open the seat again.
My seat was between two old men and they were boring. Luckily there was one empty seat next to my one German colleague, so i joined him. Most people didn’t bother to sit and they stood on the aisles, so there were many empty seats.
The travel arrangements to the stadium are excellent. There is no car parking in the stadium. But there are many options: one option is to take one of those special buses to the stadium directly from certain points in the city. They drop you to one common point called west gate (common between Ellis Park and soccer city stadiums of Johannesburg). From there are dedicated buses to the stadium. Costs 50 Rands per person.
Another option is to park and ride. There are some places within 5 km radius of each stadium and you can park your car there and take a bus. This is cheaper, costing 50 Rands a car. So if you are 5 people, it is just 10 rands per person. But driving to park and ride facilities is a pain. It is bumper to bumper traffic everywhere and the jam even affects the motorways.
For this match, we (my 3 German colleagues and me) took the first option. But while coming back, the bus went through the city roads and not on the motorway, as it had to drop people. The match got over at 10.15 pm and we reached our hotel at 12.15 am!!
2. Spain vs Honduras: this was in Ellis park stadium. An old stadium and much smaller (60k capacity). Fortunately, my seat was on the 14th row from the arena, and again directly opposite the camera. And exactly on the midfield line. This means, I am sure I came on TV. But u sure can't spot me when i am surrounded by Spanish fans and a few Honduran fans here and there.
It was a do or die match for both teams, but Honduras hardly gave any fight. The players' body language showed that they had given up hope already.
On my left were a few oriental men and they just sat there and watched. But on my right were a few Spanish men who didn’t seem to speak English. And the guy sitting next to me would scream 'ole' every now and then in different tones. The tone varied depending on whether he was happy, angry, sad, delighted and all, but the word remained the same.
When Spain got a penalty, everyone stood up and an old lady behind me tapped on my shoulder and told me to sit down so that she could sit and watch. I told her to stand up, because people in front of me were standing and I didn’t want to miss the penalty kick.
But David Villa missed it. After scoring 2 field goals, he could easily have converted this and had a hat trick against his name. Dumb guy!
For this match, I had to go alone, because my German colleagues' boss had plans to take them and he had no place in his car. I opted for the park and ride option, so I had to go back to my hotel to collect the parking entry ticket (it is a silly thing, to buy the ticket online, and go to their shop and actually receive the ticket and their closest shop was near my hotel). While leaving from the hotel, I met another guest, a Spaniard looking for a ride. He joined me, and we left from my hotel at 4.45 pm. by the time we parked the car, took the bus and reached the stadium, it was 7.30 pm. and the stadium is just 9 km away from the hotel!!!
The return trip was easy. It took only an hour to exit the stadium and drive and reach the hotel.
3. Ghana vs Germany: This time I took the option of park and ride, and parked the car in a place called Gold Reef city. It is a mall with casino and Fun Park and all, and is built over an abandoned gold mine. It is in a place called Soweto (short for South Western Township, as it lies in the south west of Jo’burg).
I left from office at 4.45, changed my clothes from business formals to sportswear in the car and it took me an hour and 45 minutes to go to gold reef city that is 3 km away from office!!!
And from Gold Reef City to soccer city stadium, another half an hour. So I was at the stadium more than an hour before the proceedings could begin. The food, drinks and beer at the stadiums are expensive. Coke costs 15R, sandwiches cost 30R and Budweiser beer costs 30R. A rand is 6 Rs. For the lifestyle and economy here, perhaps a multiplication factor of 3 seems good. That is, multiply any rand value by 3 and see if the price makes sense in rupees, go for it. Well, to me, Budweiser didn't make sense at 90 Rs. I would rather pay 15R for sparkling water which tastes the same!!
There is nothing much to say about the match. The match began in a lame way and continued in that fashion and ended in that fashion. It seemed like both teams were looking for a draw. There were hardly any fouls. Germans play clean and Ghanaians are strong men who don't give a crap for small or medium injuries and continue their play as if nothing happened.
There were probably six or seven fouls in the whole match. And yet, one player from each team did receive yellow cards. I am sure the referee was bored, that's why he gave those yellow cards.
My one observation about the way the Germans play. Whenever there are a few defenders and one defender is controlling the ball and is attacked by opposition, he immediately passes the ball to the goalie. As no attacker can go close to the goalie (because he is the last in line, and any pass to the attacker by his teammate results in off side), the ball remains in Germany’s possession. But there was one close call for Manuel Bauer when a pass to him almost resulted in a Ghana striker stealing the ball. Luckily, Manuel managed to clear it before there was any risk.
And it didn’t seem like any German or Ghanaian played to their potential. The Ghana striker Gyan had to be replaced. German mid fielder Schweinsteiger (funny name, I think it means someone who jumps over a pig) also had to be replaced.
4. Brazil vs Chile (pre-QF): A friend of mine gave me a call and said he'll buy tickets. I didn't ask him which countries would be playing :-D
Somehow, Brazil seemed to play a much fairer game. There were very few drama incidents, and also the referee seemed to know Brazil's tactics, so he chose to ignore the fallen drama queens writhing in pain.
Yet, Brazil won the match. So, they can still win without cheating!!
The night was colder than usual. I had worn an extra t shirt than usual. So, even with 3 t shirts and a sports jacket, it was quite chilling. My seat was close to an open area from where wind blew into the stadium.
I borrowed a vuvuzela from the friend who bought my ticket. I am really proud of my lungs. I had blown about 25 balloons while 3 other guys could manage another 25. That was to welcome the newlywed friends to their house.
Well, I could blow the vuvuzela throughout the match. The guys around me (quite a few Brazilian fans) had given up already.
I will next try to inflate a car tyre.. HAHAHAHAHAHA..
