Last night was the first time I’ve been inside Soccer City. It was my first time driving in a crowd of 75000 people to a stadium to watch 11 men kick a ball around on a grass pitch. I can’t express sufficiently how unbelievably ecstatic I am that I forced myself to mission through the nearly 2 hours of traffic to get there. Johannesburg is ready for the 2010 Fifa World Cup, South Africans are ready and let me tell you so is Soccer City.
The drive to Soccer City in Soweto may have been epic in proportion but there was not a single minute that I didn’t have a smile on my face. People all around me where hooting in beat with other cars, blowing vuvuzelas, whistles and singing. This is in the street, on the highway, I’m not in the stadium yet.
I’m going to try and be as frank as I can about my experiences and preconceived perceptions going in to the game. I was incredibly nervous going in to the experience that I was over-hyping everything. That I would be looked at funny and frowned upon because I didn’t know enough about the team and players, because I was wearing the wrong thing, saying the wrong thing or because I was white. I was wrong, on all accounts.
We parked (that’s an entirely different story that includes my car being parked in by over 20 other cars!) and walked from the Nasrec Expo Center. We then joined masses of people in the walk down Nasrec Road. We were in the middle of the Shosholoza crew it seemed. They sang and sang and sang until we arrived at the stadium itself.
The Vuvuzelas are epic, unrelenting and extreme energy creators. The crowd too was relentless and exuberant. The didn’t stop for a single second, whether we were down, up or on a par with Columbia there was a song going, a Mexican wave flowing or tune blowing from a Vuvuzela.
With that said though, I must admit that I found the crowd to be extremely disinterested in the actual game being played. They watched and waited for the big moments, the free-kicks, the goals and penalties but not for the moments of flair and brilliance that one needs to pay attention to notice. There weren’t many occasions when good play was applauded, with thanks to the Vuvuzelas whether their were applause or not, you wouldn’t have heard them. So that’s my only criticism I think; I wish the crowd would have paid more attention to the game.
But all in all I was incredibly proud to be a part of that crowd, to be a part of this nation and to call myself South African. If ever there was doubt about whether we were ready for the World Cup, let me put many concerns to bed. After what I saw last night, we are ready and waiting. Bring it on and welcome to Africa.
Oh – yes, Bafana Bafana won in a relatively controversial game of 3 penalties (4 if you include the first one being taken twice). What a great way to open Soccer City to international Football, a victory much needed!
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May 28th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
BUFFOONA BUFFOONA!
What a great night it was: a stadium filled to 75% capacity, power failures throughout Sun (mind the irony!) City, 3 killings in the vicinity of the stadium, 200 reported robberies (including players of the guest team). To ease the agony of TV viewers after the punishingly lame first half, the power failure stopped all transmissions to the rest of the strafed land.
Add 3 pre-arranged penalties to at least put some score up on the board and you have an evening wasted.
May 28th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
Elgar – this comment of yours is entirely out of relevant context and fails to make your desired point. You just look stupid actually. Only 75% of tickets were put on sale, hence 75% filled. What do power failures in Sun City have to do with my experience at the match? Please explain…
Please can you quote me a source or two for your statistics that you put in your comment? I’d like a viable source. I’m not denying that there is crime in South Africa. But this post of mine was focusing on, wait for it, a positive experience that I had in the stadium. No matter I was going to write you were going to badmouth it. If I had written that there was a riot you would have said it was the most violent in the world, if I had said it was terrible you would have applauded. You want bad things to happen.
Why do you even bother to comment on SA Rocks? I don’t get it?
Also – please stop inserting links to your own blog in every comment, I’m just going to moderate the link out.
May 28th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Nic,
I come in here because I enjoy your site and, while usually disagreeing, find it interesting and curious often. That is not negative, nor should my input here be seen as such; rather as a balancing act.
Nobody should take away your exhileration that you experienced watching “11 men kick a ball”, it only leaves me wondering how you can block out the other 11 who frolicked on the lawn?
On the fact sheet: I am correct when I muse over “crowd of 75% of capacity”. I find it miraculous that the tickets even reached the fans, given the daily blunders and general chaos in the allocation of tickets over the past few months (up to earlier this morning, as the media lambast). The crime stats are from a reporter at SABC who is personally known to me and who is virtually every day in contact with me.
I make no secret that I resent the WC2010 to take place in South Africa: we cannot afford it, and should have spent the money for much more urgently needed projects. Billions have been wasted, ZAR 11 billion of new debt to mainly Swiss and German bankers, who coincidentally bankroll FIFA. I cannot enjoy a tournament that is so costly, extravagant and without merits. But that is not something you should take as personal attack but merely as a balancing account of fact for you and your readers.
Finally, I don’t WANT bad things to happen; but I SEE bad things happening and describe them occasionally.
May 28th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Thanks for sharing this Nic! I felt the euphoria come through your writing all the way here in Baghdad! Yes, last night made me super proud too. I can’t wait to get back for it, soccer fever has hit me hard! It will be a month to showcase a positive South Africa to the world. SA Rocks!
Serena
May 28th, 2010 at 6:08 pm
@Nic,
why so sensitive bro? Elgar is a good balance. Your site needs it as many of your postings are one sided and you miss the points completely. Sometimes I think you are just a basic racist ( I have read some of your posts and just do not have the energy to quote all your mistakes and attempt at racism) or just not well informed and yiu push your uninformed opinions on others.
I agree with Elgar. RSA needs to fix their own issues and stop allwing others to explore (&rape) it.
And btw, I am still not even convinced yiu are a Full RSA dude as you have EU passport.
Nic, get off your arse and help fix RSA. Post balanced, informed posts. Or Just go back go the EU.
July 16th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
Nic, I to get sensitive when people lambaste my beautiful country! Fact is, there will always be people who find their cups 1/2 empty, Elgar is! There are problems world wide! The World Cup was incredible! I am one of those insanely proud Safricans!!! However, human error is universal, so problems with ticket sales etc etc can happen anywhere and does…Lets see how Brazil handles, then again, I don’t wish bad on anyone, because I’m one of those determinedly positive people! Bottom line, if you don’t have faith in South Africa – GET OUT!!!! Then again, you will never be happy anywhere! Thanks Nic for an incredible site! South Africa really does ROCK!!!
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