Thursday June 10 – Flight leaves Nashville in afternoon for Atlanta. Spend an hour at airport bar talking to LD’s dad. Nice guy, ex – hockey player. For my one critism of LD, “he passes too much and doesn’t take the shot.” He replies, “That’s the hockey player in him.”

Friday June 11 – 15 hour flight to JNB. Not flown in a long time and having the LCD screen in the headrest in front of you is nice. Movies, TV shows, music. Makes flight much nicer since I can’t sleep in a chair. Airport is easy to get through and bunkmates are there to pick me up. We rented and apartment in Morningside. It’s in Sandton about eight minutes from the Nelson Mandela mall.

Saturday June 12 – GAMEDAY ENGLAND The main reason I decided to come, besides encouragement from my wife was England. This was a game not to be missed and the TV ratings proved it. More people watched the game than game 5 of the NBA finals between the Lakers and Celtics. Kobe would understand, as I’m sure you are aware he’s a huge soccer fan. As most the Lakers (Paul Gasol etc.) are too. The 2 hour drive to Rustenburg was fine and we quickly found our way to Lucky’s. The scene was great. About 20 USA fans and 500 English. Lucky’s is butchery and you select your raw meat and then grill it up. The English fans didn’t disappoint singing Vindaloo, 10 German Bombers, Come on England and being dressed to the hill. My favorite was the “three lion hats” seen over on the right. The amount of beer consumed during the 6 hour pre-game was quite a lot. I did refrain from funneling beer through a vuvuzela. I reserve that for the “Hand of Justice” and if you know what that is then you are a true USMNT fan! It was about a 10 minute walk to the stadium from Lucky’s and the game was a gift in many ways, but hey we took a point off England. We were stoked and if Jozy Altidore finishes one of his two chances who knows. After the game we take the 2 hour dive back to Jozy. I takes about 3 and on the way home we hear people call into the local radio saying they were still stuck in the park in rides. Hey, this is South Africa and things like that are to be expected. I was shocked however, that the scoreboard at the stadium in Rustenburg didn’t work. We asking around how much time is left hoping to hold on for the tie. The ride home had a few stops for passengers losing their dinner. Not me of course ☺. I think if had more to do with altitude than alcohol as no one drank during the game.

Sunday June 13 – Didn’t get started till noon as didn’t get to sleep till 4:30. Went to fan park in Jozy to watch Ghana and Serbia. A small contingent of Ghana fans were awesome. They danced and I learned how to play the vuvuzela. With a “band” leader and people playing in unison its not just noise, it’s music. Also seeing locals play footy and just feeling the I’m proud to be South African vide was great. We ate at Vietnamese restaurant with apps, two bottles of wine, beer, great food and service for $30 per person. So far every meal has been great and cheap. The variety is great. I guess because South Africa has such a variety of influences. English, Indian, African. I’m confident now there is a killer Mexican restaurant. The only downer was there is no free wifi in South Africa. Apparently, there is only one company and it doesn’t matter if you get a card for you phone or laptop goto a internet café or find a restaurant with wifi you get about 15 minutes free and then is one rand per minute. BTW, one dollar equals 7.5 rand. Oh well, no biggie as I just purchased a 200 Megabyte data plan for about 150 rand.

Monday June 14 – went to see Netherlands Denmark in Soccer City. The new 90,000 seat stadium in JoBurg. We drove 20 minutes to the park and ride at WITS university. It is a massive campus. It took 20 minutes from the time we entered the lot at WITS until we actually parked. Another 10 minutes to walk to bus line, 30 minutes to get on a bus, 20 minutes to ride to stadium, where they parked us about 2 miles away and we had to walk 25 minutes to get in stadium. Thus, we missed the first 10 minutes of game. Many others were behind us. Transportation to and from games is the biggest negative of this World Cup. But again, its South Africa. It wasn’t a big deal and in my entire trip I think we only came across half of dozen traffic lights that weren’t working. BTW, they call them robots herer. The Dutch fans are great. Bright orange and crazy outfits everywhere. Denmark had a few sections and the atmosphere was good. I didn’t have a ticket, but demand is way down and I easily scalped one on the way. Then we just walked in and sat midfield about 20 rows up. Ushers here don’t care and there are many empty seats. Saw about 10 Mexican jerseys. How the heck are they everywhere? Seeing a mariachi band in sombreros is ten times worse than vuvuzelas. Ate dinner at an Irish pub full of Denmark fans with two Honduran fans. When one Denmark fan heard I was from Nashville he got a bright face and said, “ The place where Jack Daniels is made!” It’s good to be known for something. Gotta love the world cup. Still working on my vuvuzela skills. One local told me, “You gotta have the lips to play it.”

Tuesday June 15 – Drove to Lion Park where there are a few giraffe, hyena etc., but mainly lions. Dozens of them mostly female and quite a few white ones. There is a place to touch cubs as well. The biggest cub took a nibble on my shirt. Had to get the guard to help get her to let go. Quit a grip. We then went down to try and score tickets for Brazil North Korea. It was so cold I thought there would be plenty. I mean North Korea was good for about 100 fans all of which seemed imported by the government. I liked how some North Korean players were crying during their anthem. People around me were wondering if it was cause they were happy or afraid that if they didn’t the government would hurt their family. Anyway what I didn’t realize was how well Brazil travels. It’s not so much there were tons of Brazilians and there were quite a few, it’s just everyone adopts Brazil as their 2nd team especially South Africans. Even the Chile and Mexico fans were going to watch the game wearing the yellow and green colors of Brazil. So not willing to pay $250 for a ticket we watched at a local bar near Ellis Park stadium called Califonia. It was great. Groups of blacks speaking Africaans as well of groups of whites speaking Africaans. They gave me some good ideas of things to do and places to shop. Also, a group of fellow YANKS from Washington DC.

Wednesday June 16 – Went to Apartied Museum. Very moving. Never seen so many TV screens and videos in a museum before. After that heavy stuff went across the street to casino. Because they wanted a 15% VAT tax to exchange dollars I didn’t gamble. If you knew me you would know this is completely out of character for me. I watched the Swiss upset Spain the 2nd half of which was the best half of football so far at the World Cup. It should get better, but I’m having a blast anyway. After casino we finally had a bad dinner. The food was great, but we ordered a seafood hotplate at a Korean restaurant. It was packed for a Tuesday night with a tour bus of Koreans doing shots of soju. So after two members of our party got their dinner, the waitress comes out and tells us the chef can’t make our dinner or it will take 30 minutes?? We wait and when we finally get it the crab has no meat, there are two giant fish heads and when we ask for rice they say it will take 6 minutes. It comes 20 minutes later when we are done. Oh well, this is the only bad meal we’ve had so far. Lastly, I went to the Fan Park for the Bafana Bafana game and the atmosphere was great despite the result. People were nice and I danced in what I would call a friendly mosh pit to the sound of vuvuzelas. I also found three South Africans sharing a hookah. Of course, I had to partake.

Thursday June 17 – Scored luxury seats to Argentina vs. South Korea. In the box it was filled with red color of Argentinean club Independent. They had tattoos of the best player in their clubs history and were banging drums and singing “Ohhh Argentina” the entire time. They tied flags to the railing and were standing on the top rail leaning over singing to the people below. Security had to ask them to stop. They also had the strange habit of pouring one shot of Coke into their beer. Someone told me this is only really done in Argentina? Some British person in the box next to ours was pissed. Said someone took a pocketbook. I believe him as he was quite angry and they were the only ones wearing red. Basically, these were some hooligans, but it was fun anyway. Guess they needed to help pay for their trip somehow. They got pissed at me when I stood up in front of scoreboard. The Korean fans were far fewer in number and far away but they are great. Singing and waving flags the entire time. They did unleash the biggest South Korean flag I’ve ever seen. It was massive. Even bigger than our big ass USA flag. Not sure how they got it into the stadium.

Friday June 18 – USA game day. Went to American Outlaws pregame and had some great pizza with grilled peppers and onions for breakfast. Decided since I couldn’t remember some of the England game, I wouldn’t drink nearly as much this time. Headed to game and spent hour at California bar watching Serbia upset Germany. USA fans were everywhere. Support is really increasing. Most disappointing first half ever followed by what would have been most memorable 2nd half ever, but the ref screwed us so it will go down in history as just a good comeback, not the best in World Cup history which it would have been as no team has ever comeback from down 2-0 at halftime to win. Awesome dinner watching England game at Mediterrian restaurant. Had fish and some Indian guy from Durban chatted us up. He was flying from one game to another. He bought us a $90 bottle of wine and had a huge bankroll in his pocket. I mean enough to make rappers jealous. Like everyone I’ve met he was just proud for his country and wanted the world to know it’s a great place.

Saturday June 19 – Drove 2 hours to Pilanesburg. Saw, zebra, elephants, rhinos, deer, antelopes, giraffe, razorbacks, hippos. The highlight was 3 cars behind a tour van that was backing up as an elephant was standing in road and coming at them. We sat there for 30 minutes as the elephant remained in the road. Of course this cause a traffic jam of about 25 cars. Two Argentineans got out of cars to see what was going on. They walked al the way up to the tour bus at the front of the line with their cameras. They were maybe 25 feet from the “mad” elephant and about to take photos when the tour guide started screaming at them to get back in their cars. Where is lion when need one?? The elephant came at the cars again but there was no where to backup at this point. It got within about 10 feet of our car as it finally decided to give us back the road. There was quite a lot of poop on the road and I think they prefer going there. I mean would you rather squat on a dirt road or in the grasslands where who know what might tickle your backside. BTW,
the person we bought tickets from to enter the Safari park asked where is Lebron going to play next year?

Sunday June 20 – Went to rooftop market. Lots of tables full of jewelry, woodcarvings, kitchen utensils, paintings, clothing etc. There was a food court as well filled with spices and some very yummy Polish sausage. Didn’t eat as from there we went to brye on Alexandria Street in Soweto. Our waiter named Nice offered to be our guide. The byre was picking your meat and they grill it up and bring it out to you on big platter for the table to share. No utensils as everyone eats with hands. There was also a huge bowl of what looked like mashed potatoes but tasted more like corn meal and a smaller bowl of a vegetable mix called “chocolati”. From there he took us to one of his relatives homes in the shantytown. About an 8×8 room, dirt floor and metal roof. One at least had a laptop and television in it, but the other did not. One included a girl in wheelchair, which has to be a nightmare to try and navigate around the small rocky paths between homes. On the main roads were the few stores which consist mainly of fruit stands and hair salons.
There was a group of about 20 men drinking 40-ounce beers playing some game involving two small dice and poker chips that they were sliding across a game board. People were everywhere. After that went to Soccer City for the Brazil Ivory Coast game. Brazil just rules soccer. The stadium was 90% Brazil and 75% full 90 minutes before the kickoff. People blowing whistles, hitting balloons back and forth, singling and dancing. It was more like the start of a rock concert than a soccer match.

Monday June 21 – Slow day of shopping for gifts for friends back home. Figured I had to get a Zakumi doll for my boys. Zakumi is the mascot of the World Cup. ZA is the abbreviation for South Africa and “kumi” means ten in several of the 11 South African languages. Watched Portugal destroy North Korea. There was serious discussion on what might happen to players when they return home. As sad as poverty in Soweto might be the starving oppressed nature of the poverty in North Korea is even worse.

Tuesday June 22 – Spent the morning at Monte Casino playing blackjack. Actually won a thousand rand so that paid for a very nice lunch. From there went to Fan Park to watch Bafana Bafana play France. It was very crowed. As with the entire trip the people I met were very friendly and proud to be hosting the World Cup. Even though they didn’t make the Round of 16, they seemed satisfied with the win and happy.

Wednesday June 23 – Biggest Win Ever? Went to Hombaze restaurant where the American Outlaws were based. It was right across the street from the US Embassy where another more exclusive pre-game was being held. I suspect Bill Clinton dropped by with Jay-Z. Our party was better as it spilled out onto the streets and parking lot. Only two Algerian fans dared enter to which a chant of “Are you Saudi in disguise” broke out. Even Suni Gulati showed up for 10 minutes. He’s the head of US soccer and quite a controversial figure to US fans. A few started changing curse words at him and “Love the team, hat the Fed”. Gotta give him a little credit for showing his face. Talked to people from Seattle, New Mexico, Orlando, Denver, Washington DC and of course New York and Boston. The march to the stadium was nice as the USA team bus drove by to waving flags and blowing vuvuzelas. The usual suspects were all there. Captain America, the Statue of Liberty, Elvis, George Washington and even a group of NASA astronauts. Good times only topped by one of the biggest goals in US history in stoppage time. The celebration in the stands was incredible. Everyone was so happy. High fives mixed with hugs and tears. I think it lasted 20 minutes before the majority decided to head out for victory celebrations. Now right after the goal I tweeted that it was biggest win in US history. Now you can make a case for beating Mexico in 2002 to make the quarterfinals but I’m still gonna say this was bigger. More was riding on this game. Flame out or advance. The impact it will have on soccer in the United States is hard to measure, but a win guaranteeing another game with a huge television audience and the chance to keep advancing. This was the easiest draw the USA will ever get unless they become one of the eight seeded teams. If they couldn’t make it out of this group it would have been disastrous. Now by winning the group there is a realistic shot at the semifinals. While that’s not likely to happen, the USA avoided Argentina and Germany – they’ve got a shot!

Other Observations

People dress very nice here. At malls or coffee shops they don’t show up in their workout clothes or with a pair of sweatpants. Makes a very attractive scene.

No difference in price of domestic beer (Castle) and imports like Guinness at most places we went. Not sure why that is, but at 12 to 15 rand per bottle who cares.