World Cup 2010

This is my final post for our World Cup 2010 Blog.  After traveling for 52 days I arrived home, which means back to paying bills and house chores.  I also get to reflect on my travels and the World Cup, which I have started to watch replays of that were recorded on the DVR.  First off the entire trip was awesome!  Everything worked and happened according to plan and I could not have met more friendlier and kinder people in both South Africa and Italy.  As for the World Cup, I am excited that there is a first time winner.  Both teams, Spain and the Netherlands were stacked with talent and for both teams it was either now or never.  Spain has some of the highest paid players in the world playing at club level and the pressure to perform was very high.  The Netherlands had been close to winning a final several times, but could not get the job done in the end.  Bother Spain and the Netherlands have very good youth programs to develop players, which takes lots of investment and time to see a return on investment.  If you watched the final game, Spain dominated the Netherlands.  It was not until extra time that they were able to seal their fate and win their first World Cup.  I must admit, I was rooting for the Netherlands.  After having traveled to Spain last year and watching on TV them lose to the USA in the Confederations Cup , I did not think that Spain could pull it all together for the entire tournament.  My hat is off to Spain, the new world champion, the Netherlands, runner-up, and South Africa, the host, who despite media reports during the tournament, were wonderful hosts.  I will end my last post with three video clips.  First is the singing of the South African national anthem.  This is a beautiful national anthem and it was being played and sung everywhere, not just at the games.  The lyrics are sung in Afrikaans one of the official languages of South Africa.  The next video is for Turkish Airlines, the official sponsor of the Barcelona Football Club in Spain and features many of the players on of the winning Spain side.  I first saw this commercial in Italy on the BBC.  It has very catchy lyrics and music to match and shows the financial impact of world football as an airline from Turkey is sponsoring a football team from Spain.  Lastly, I have included Shakira’s official World Cup 2010 theme song, Waka Waka.  This song became an overnight success.  I knew nothing of this song until the second game that I saw between Italy and Paraguay when they played it on the big screen at halftime.  After that it was being played on every radio station and every TV station http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waka_Waka_(This_Time_for_Africa).   It was also being played in the airports and even in the grocery store in Rome.  However it has not yet broke the Top 40 here in the USA!

  The chance that a South American team would win the World Cup in 2010 looked promising going into the quarter finals.  However, now only Uruguay stands as the South American representative in the games as three strong European competitors, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands look to bring home the trophy as well.  I went 3 for 4 (75%) in the quarter finals and the big upset if you see it that way, was the Netherlands beating Brazil.  I had either Brazil or Italy winning the whole tournament, so now I will have to get on board with another team.  Aaron and I missed the Brazil vs. Argentina game as we were in the air en route to Addis Ababa on Ethiopian Airlines.  However, the result of the match did make its way to and through the plane somehow.  On arriving in Addis Ababa at Bole International Airport, the sixth largest airport in Africa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bole_International_Airport) at 8pm, Aaron and I enjoyed some local eats: rice, beef, and potatoes at a café inside the terminal, which also had an antique big screen TV.  The TV is the most important piece here as we were able to watch Uruguay take on Ghana.  Ghana represented the last sliver of hope that an African nation would continue on in the tournament, therefore most of the tourists and workers were rooting for Ghana.  The game was very slow until the end when there was a red card for an intentional handball on the goal line, a missed PK that would have gave Ghana the win, extra time, and then a PK shoot out, which was won by Uruguay!  Very suspenseful watching the game and keeping track of the time, so we did not miss the place, which was scheduled to leave at 12:50am, but did not really leave until 1:45am.  When in Africa, do not be in a hurry!  The other games saw Germany hammering Argentina and Spain beating Paraguay.  We landed in Rome at 5:50am after taking the “red eye” from Addis Ababa.  What a change in climates from South Africa.  It is HOT in Rome and does not get dark into 9:30pm.  We decided to start our sightseeing adventure in Rome by visiting the Colosseum and the Stadio Olimpico (pictures above).  The Colosseum is where gladiators fought and the Stadio Olimpico hosted the 1960 Summer Olympic Games and is now the home AS Roma and Lazio soccer clubs.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadio_Olimpico) We will be touring the Colosseum later this week, but went to Stadio Olimpico looking for a tour.  Guess what, no tour was offered!
  Onto my picks for the semi-finals:
Netherlands over Uruguay
Germany over Spain

Our time in Cape Town is almost up.  This month has gone by very quickly and each week has brought us something different to do.  From getting the lay of the land on foot, going to two live soccer matches, and driving around the peninsula in a car it has been a great experience.  Up to this point, I have not mentioned anything about where we have been staying.  Our guesthouse is located in the Cape Town suburb of Meadowridge, which is on the other side of Table Mountain, about 30 minutes from downtown Cape Town.  The guesthouse is owned by Ron and Lynette Knott, who have both made our stay the most enjoyable and have provided us with whatever we need.  From directions, to clean towels, and even rides to the train station they have taken the extra steps to make sure we are comfortable.  The whole Knott family is involved in making a pleasant stay, including the children and grandchildren who would pop in every now and again to say hello.  I have attached the web address for their guesthouse if you would like to check out more pictures: http://www.capestay.co.za/knottsflatlet/. The picture below is of their pool.  Unfortunately for us it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere, so no swimming, but this guesthouse under the summer sun would be awesome!  Now onto Italy for a wedding.

The Round of 16 provided some good soccer to watch.  The USA should have beaten Ghana, which was the only game that I did not pick correctly, but my average for the Round of 16 went up.  I correctly picked 7 of 8 team to win or 87.5%.  The USA gave up a goal early, which meant they had to play more offense to make up the difference.  The only way they scored was on a PK and 5 minutes into extra time Ghana scored, which meant that the USA had to rush everything to find the counter goal, which they could not do in the end.  The other big game was England vs Germany.  Since we are in South Africa, most people were rooting for England.  Although there was a goal that was not, England really did not do anything special and lost to a much better team.  But as the press said, “Germany gets lucky, beats England.”  If you watched the news on TV from Europe the English fans were so sure that they were going to beat Germany they were predicting a 5-0 England win.  Right now heading into the Quarter-Finals the strong teams are starting to emerge, which include Argentina, Germany, Netherlands, and Brazil.  Here are my picks for the Quarter-Finals:
Uruguay over Ghana
Germany over Argentina
Brazil over Netherlands
Spain over Paraguay

Group E:
The Netherlands were the first team in this World Cup to qualify for the Round of 16.  They did not lose a match and at times looked very good.  They will be one of the teams to watch as the tournament moves on.  The Netherlands did not have a great deal of competition in this group.  Cameroon continued the lackluster performance of African teams by not winning a single game and scoring only two goals.  It all came down to Denmark v. Japan in the last game.  Whoever would win, would move on to the next round.  Japan was victorious, beating Denmark 3-1.

Group F:
New Zealand did not lose any games in the group stage, but also failed to qualify for the Round of 16.  Paraguay won the group and continues the strong performance of the South American teams, who at the time of writing this, will all make it into the Round of 16.  The big news coming out of this group of course is the fact that the defending champs, the team I was following, Italy have been eliminated.  This means that there will be a new world champion at the conclusion of this World Cup.  There is not much that you can say, except the older Italian squad did not have it this time around.  They were outplayed in every game and in the final game were shown up by a much younger squad from Slovakia, losing 3-2.  Slovakia played hard and got the job done to move into the Round of 16.   

Group G:
Group G had the distinction of being the “Group of Death.”  Brazil and Portugal made it out, while the Ivory Coast and North Korea go home.  North Korea started off very strong with a 2-1 lose to Brazil, but after that it was downhill.

Group H:
Switzerland had a chance to move on with an early win over Spain, but could not win any other games.  Honduras did nothing in the tournament and Chile was atop the group stage when they lost to Spain, but were still able to move on second to Spain. 

I finished group stage action by picking 12 of the 16 (75%) teams that would advance into the Round of 16.  Obviously the fact that France and Italy did not make into the next round hurt my average and if I had it to do all over again, I would still find it hard to bet against those two teams not to make it out of the group stage!

Onward we go!  Here are my picks for the Round of 16:
1.  Uruguay over South Korea
2.  USA over Ghana
3.  Argentina over Mexico
4.  Germany over England
5.  Netherlands over Slovakia
6.  Brazil over Chile
7.  Paraguay over Japan
8.  Spain over Portugal

The train system in Cape Town is very easy to understand, because it really only travels north and south.  It runs from the main station in downtown Cape Town to Simon’s Town, which is located right along the beach.  Compared to other trains that I have been on, which is very few, these trains are for the most part clean, except for the graffiti.  There are security guards at the stations as well as on the trains looking for hooligans and free riders.  Each station also has a bathroom and usually some sort of concession stand and trains usually run twice or three times an hour.  Overall you feel safe when you are waiting in the station or on board.

in Cape Town is a visit to the top of Table Mountain

Group A:
As the group stage comes to an end, I would like to give my two cents on the winners and the losers.  In Group A, Uruguay and Mexico made it while France and the hosts South Africa failed to advance.  France for the most part imploded.  They could not do anything with the ball and only scored 1 goal over three games.  The coach and players were bashed in the media when they refused practice, a player was sent home for clashing with the coach, and now an investigation awaits the whole team when they return home as to why they did nothing in this World Cup.  The hosts, South Africa looked very strong in their opening match against Mexico, but lost to Uruguay in their second game.  Under the final scenario South Africa would need to score 4 goals to move, but in the end they were only able to score 2.  Uruguay and Mexico move on with Uruguay getting the job done in the group stage, taking the most points and at moments looking like a good team.  They will play South Korea in the first round of 16, which will be a tough match for them.

Group B:
Argentina and South Korea move on and Nigeria and Greece go home.  Argentina by far was the most dominant team in the group and is looking like a World Cup winning team after their slow start in qualifying.  Nigeria was in the position to move on after not winning their first two games, but drew with South Korea which ended their chances.  South Korea did just enough to get into the round of 16, but always play tough soccer with a fast pace, which can make it difficult on the competition.  Greece looked competitive early one, but faded and finished second to last in the group.

Group C:
USA, USA!  The USA waited to the last minute of the last game of the group stage to seal the deal.  The USA tied England in the first game against England, which was seen as a victory for the US in the eyes of the world press.  The USA then tied Slovenia and won against Algeria.  The USA will play Ghana in the first round of 16, which will be a very good game.  England looked lackluster in their 3 games of the group stage.  England almost imploded like France, but were able to keep it together and make the round of 16 in which they will play Germany.  This match up could be the most physical of the round of 16.  Slovenia and Algeria shinned at several points during the group stage and made it difficult for the two big teams. 

Group D:
Ghana became the first African country to make it into the round of 16 with Germany.  Both teams did just enough to get through and battled hard with Australia and Serbia.  Both Serbia and Australia looked like they had a chance, but could not get it done.  If Australia would not have gone down to Germany 4-0 they might be moving on.  Serbia had one of the biggest upsets of the tournament by beating Germany 1-0.

1.Penne with sauce, 2.Mexican, 3.Chinese/Thai, 4.KFC, 5.Scooters Pizza
We have had no problems finding something to eat!

According to the Red Line bus tour the picture below of the grain elevator built in the early 1900’s and located on the V&A waterfront along with the great pyramids of ancient Egypt were the tallest buildings in all of Africa well into the mid-20^th Century.

Decided to rent a car for a week to see sights just outside of walking distance.  Yes, they do drive on the right hand side of the road, which has taken some time to get the hang of.