Soccer City

I will have to contain my excitement for a moment and tell you about the rest of the weekend before my Sunday night experience of Soccer City! Friday afternoon we headed across the border to Ladybrand for one of our regular bridge evenings. This was however, a bridge evening with a difference... we had a bridge sleep over! We played until 1 am and then again at breakfast, lush! After our leisurely breakfast we made our way to Pretoria. We passed numerous cars and busses with flags flying, heading the other way to Bloemfontein for the showdown between England and Germany. Despite South Africa’s exit from the tournament, the football fever is still running high!

In Pretoria, we caught up with Greg and Elonah, had a braai and watched the two matches on the Saturday. Sunday morning we got up, and headed to the mall to try and buy moustaches and sombreros. We had decided to support Mexico at the match, but unfortunately our shop was unsuccessful. After lunch we headed to Jo’burg and watched the England game round the corner from Soccer City. It was a good game, but a disappointing outcome for England. They performed better than in previous games, but it just wasn’t enough. We then tried to put the setback behind us as we headed to Soccer City.

Shortly after we turned off the highway, the magnificent stadium came into view. The sun had just set, so the lit up stadium stood out in the night sky... it looked impressive! We parked, made the final preparations to our Mexican banditos look and walked with many thousand others to the stadium. There was an amazing atmosphere amongst the crowds. Greg and I had our photo taken with fellow supporters. We made our way up into our seats in anticipation of a great game. The Argentinean supporters were in the majority, but there were plenty of “fellow Mexicans” around too. The match was super! The football was good, the singing and dancing, the vuvuzelas and the hot dogs were all smashing!! We got to see Maradonna pacing in (and out) of his box, Messi was magical, and although Argentina deserved the win, Mexico performed well.

After the game, there was a rush to get back to the car, and avoid hours of queuing. We were stopped by a cameraman who asked if we were Mexican, and our thoughts on the off-side goal! I think he was German, partly because of his accent, but also when we turned the discussion to the Germany v England match, and the need for video refereeing, he stopped filming!! We made it to the car, and it only took 30 minutes to get back onto the highway. A lovely bonus at the end of a great experience. Now I just need to get some tickets for the final, and hope its Netherlands v Germany!