2010 FIFA World Cup (tm)

It has been about a month now and I think we are over the grief, well most of it anyway. What I am talking about is the agonizing loss of the Dutch soccer team in the 2010 FIFA World Cup(tm) finals against Spain. Though I will admit it was a lousy game to watch as a neutral spectator, Marjolein and really were hoping for a Holland win. But it wasn't to be, and maybe the Spanish were a little bit better. Oh well, at least now you know why this post is in English for a change - it hurts less that way. ;-)

First thing to relate is the awesome time we had during the tournament up to the Finals. When we arrived in South Africa all the buzz was already here: one of the radio stations had a countdown top 100, everyday in the morning show they would play a song with a number in the lyrics that was the number of days until the start of the World Cup. And about one week before the tournament they came to the conclusion that the official countdown clock on the FIFA website was wrong, as that seemed to be counting the days until the opening Concert (Thursday) and not the opening match on Friday. And that with FIFA's headquarters in watch-making Switzerland...

Then there were the scarfs, beanies, tea-mugs, wooden statues, flags, big glasses and car-mirror-covers (those are really cute!) mainly in South African flag patterns. Question one: how many and which colours in the SA flag? Five: red (earth), blue (sky), yellow (gold), black and white (to unite the people). But more difficult: does the red or blue side go on top? We debated for a while and decided to first check before we put our wing-mirror-covers up. It is red on top. But before and during the 2010 FIFA World Cup(tm) you saw street vendors on every corner selling this stuff. And half the country also had a yellow or green Bafana Bafana (the Boys - the SA soccer team) shirt. Which you of course wore on Soccer Fridays - even to the office. For those interested, the other sports teams in this sports crazy country are the Proteas (cricket) and the Springboks (rugby).

But then it finally arrived - the Kick Off concert that is. Pres. Zuma was there, Arch-Bishop (retired) Tutu (see video), some soccer players (including Christian Karembeu who was introduced as a rugby player with a name I've forgotten) and the musical stars: Alicia Keys, Black Eyed Peas, John Legend and Shakira in all her back-breaking Colombian glory. But also a host of African acts, like Hugh Masekela (THE jazz legend of SA), Freshly Ground (we like!), the Parlotones, and K'Naan (remember the Coca Cola commercials? "When I get older..."). Very cool, and all this in the middle of SoWeTo in Orlando stadium!


Now, why do we talk about the 2010 FIFA World Cup(tm) all the time and not just "the World Cup". I don't know, but that is what the guys on radio and TV kept doing. And I saw _a lot_ of matches (nice not to have a job sometimes!) but always it was the same. I swear they even found a way to pronounce the trademark (tm) symbol. Among the rest of the very restricted vocabulary we had "they come onto the field of play" and "the ball hits the back of the net". Even the goals that went into the roof of the goal, still had to be in the "back of the net". I still wake screaming this phrase some nights...

Luckily we had a true World Cup visitor (Nai Jai) to share all this glory with. We went to Netherlands - Denmark (we won!) and Brazil - Ivory Coast, both in SoccerCity - the amazing new stadium. For the Netherlands - Denmark we sat about 4 rows away from the field by the corner flag and had a really good view of the players - see the picture on the left of Sneijder at "our" corner flag. But because we sat so low, trying to figure out how far the players were from the goal was a bit tricky... Oh, and it was cold. Very cold. No, really really really cold. They do have winters here in South Africa, no joking.

And then of course the Dutch team kept winning. So we went to the fan-park in the cricket grounds and lay in the sun. And the Dutch won. And we went to the bar and cajoled the owner on showing the Dutch match on the big screen and Denmark-Japan on the small one. And we won. And then there were the quarter and semi-finals and we kept on winning. So Marjolein starts to get the Oranje-bug _really badly_ and begins to browse EBay for tickets to finals. But all way too expensive and unreliable. Until Saturday morning one day before the finals, when we get woken up by a telephone call at half past seven. Some American she had been e-mailing with: he has just landed at OR Tambo and the guy who was supposed to buy his tickets has bailed on him. If we were still interested?

I don't think anybody has ever gotten into their car and drove to the airport quicker than we did that morning: because the guy was not going to the soccer himself but flying onto Kruger Park in about 1.5 hours time. But we made it and after emptying the ATM (biggest bill it gave was R100 which is about EUR 10) we HAD TICKETS!!! That was a nice facebook status update. So we were there, but not to witness a first win, but the third finals defeat. Still, we will keep the flag flying and who knows: maybe in 20 years time we will win!

Oh, one more thing: things that were a "fail" during the World Cup: Zakumi, Diski (though Marjolein is now learning how to dance it) and body-paint (too COLD). A big win for the Vuvuzela though!