Millions of eyes were on SA mid-2010. We hosted one of the biggest (if not the biggest) sporting events in the world... and I was there :-) I dont' really watch soccer or know much about it but there was just so much gees, you couldn't NOT get involved. Thought I'd share some of my favourite memories. Oh, and by the way, I drew Spain in a fun random selection game we played at work and won 600 bucks GO SPAIN!!!
This was the first game I went to. I was kinda down coz the ONLY game I got tickets to, it decides to rain :-( But the game itself and just the atmosphere made up for it. Portugal beat Korea 7-0
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Blowing my vuvuzela at the Portugal VS Korea match |
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Must be a huge soccer fan |
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Cape Town Stadium |
Some people went all out with their supporter gear. This is a buddy of mine I happened to bump into at one of the matches.
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A Spain supporter, I take it? |
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Go Spain! |
After all the African teams were out of the game - Ghana remained. We all backed Ghana so that at least one African team made it through. They lost. It was the "Suarez Handball" game. Ghana was about to score and Uruguayan player, Suarez, put his hand out to stop it. Naturally, we were all pretty mad about that. Ghana got a penalty - and they missed it. Pity poo. After that - we all wanted Uruguay out of the game.
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Me showing my support for Ghana |
Here we are backing The Netherlands when they played Uruguay. After the Suarez handball, we backed The Netherlands with all we had..hahaha. It was fun - and we had front row seats to this match.
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Netherlands vs Uruguay |
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My boo :-) |
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Proudly South African |
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Cameroon VS The Netherlands |
Just being inside the stadium was a really amazing experience. Even if you couldn't get tickets to the games, the vibe everywhere else was fantastic. People dressed up, blew their vuvuzelas and were just really happy. It felt like New Year's Eve every day :-)
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Inside the stadium - will send chills up your spine!! |
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The gang |
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Friends and enemies |
When we didn't have tickets to games - or if the games were played in another city, we'd make plans to meet up at a public screening area or at someone's house. Any excuse to get together...hahaha
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Watching one of the matches at Adidas Three Stories |
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The day I backed Zee Germans |
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Front row seats, baby! |
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That's how close we were - FRONT ROW. Uruguay vs Netherlands |
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Zakumi! |
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Some colleagues learning the diski dance |
And when it was all over...we had serious withdrawal symptoms. No more excuses to hook up and celebrate, no more shouting and making weird noises for no reason (and being able to make a noise was really fun) and no more fan walks to the stadium. It was great while it lasted. Brazil 2014 might just be on the cards ;-)
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The day of the first match - SA vs Mexico |