Oh When the Yanks Go Marching In!

As promised, here is the post about the match. Lots to share, I will try and upload the celebration videos tomorrow. You can already find the photos here.

Wow, what a game. 90 minutes of sheer agony, a game almost stolen nor properly finished again…and then pure, unadulterated joy.

It was happy circumstance that the bus dropped us off right in front of the US embassy in Pretoria, and the Hombaze bar, where a large group of US supporters had gathered, was also right across the street.

During the tailgate, I actually got to do a little interviewing but the most important observation I can make is that there were almost no informal street vendors. A couple young guys came around selling woven yarn bracelets with USA on them. One kid said he normally makes R300 a week selling stuff, but during the cup he was making a R1000. Other than that, unlike in the walk up to Soccer City or even Ellis Park, there were absolutely no street vendors anywhere. Cannot explain why, possibly FIFA used all the embassy’s in the area as an excuse to expand the exclusion perimeter, but we only walked through metal detectors after we entered the gates to the grounds of Loftus Versfeld.

At the tailgate I had a fun time watching people from the parking lot and milling around. There was a Woolworth’s Food in the shopping center so I picked up some lunch and a nice bar of south african fudge for the match 🙂 Hard to explain to anyone who has not had it, but SA fudge is soo much better than its American counterpart. If your nice, you can plead with my mom and she might make some on occasion so you can understand the difference. Anyway, while at the tailgate, we had a few important visitors….

Not the former President of the United States, but pretty cool none the less. More on my encounter with the real President later in the post.

As for Sunil, he seemed pretty nice. The US embassy was having its own party, and as President Clinton was there, I thought it was really nice of him to come over and say hi to the US soccer supporters. Some of the American Outlaws at the bar had some very profane and choice words for him, but I thought it was crass and classless. I think on balance he has made excellent decisions concerning US Soccer. I think the changes to the Youth System are positive and for the best. We are the favorite to win the bid to host the World Cup in 2022. And look how our national team is doing under Coach Bradley. That’s my 2 cents.

I also got to meet the host of www.ussoccer.com studio 90 show and his crew, which was pretty neat. They work hard, but I say its worth it to watch all the games for free and stay at the team hotel.

Then after spending sufficient time at the tail gate, maybe 1.5-2hrs before the match the majority of the US supporters start marching towards the stadium. It was brilliant to see so many US fans at a game all the way in South Africa, marching together, singing and chanting on the way to the stadium. Then the greatest thing possible occurs, the USA team bus with requisite police motorcade drove through our group of fans on the way into the stadium. The photos I took do not do the moment justice but the looks on the faces of the players as the bus pulled through the huge throng of screaming and chanting US fans, they were completely flabbergasted and shell-shocked. I particularly remember the look on Hercules Gomez’s face as one of absolute shock.

Even the ever stoic Bob Bradley looked bemused, as if he did not know how to process the scene. Unconfirmed sources claimed Landon Donovan was curled up at the back of the bus sleeping with a teddy bear. Now those are some nerves of steel. In the photo, if you zoom in closely, you can see from left to right, Hercules Gomez, Ricardo Clark, and I believe Benny Feilhaber. The reflection of the glass makes it hard to tell. The electricity and energy after that moment is difficult to explain, but the US supporters were buzzing all the way into the stadium. I think that in some small way, the fortuitous timing and the sight of so many Americans really galvanized the team. They have the heart, but we reinforced the feeling that their country stands firmly behind them.

My seats were decent. Lower level on the touch-line but higher up, level with some of the broadcast cameras. The USA and Algeria support seemed to meld closer to the field, with the USA more heavily on my side and the Algerians farther to the left.

As for the match itself. I refer back to my description to start the post, 90 minutes of worry, agony, despair, stolen chances, poor finishing, and then the break through I knew we deserved but never was sure would actually happen. At some point, despite my continued yelling, screaming, and cheering, I did not think it was our day. I thought the goal had a bubble that we could not break. I especially felt the urge to grab a linesman’s flag and perform an emergency tracheotomy on the referee. Lets hope the streak of horrendous calls ends at 2 matches.

I will work on editing and splicing together the video of the post-goal, final few minutes, and post-game celebration. If youtube cooperates it should be embedded below soon. That moment was such an intense release of emotions in the stadium. I would say the majority of the fans were American supporters. The Algerians were present but could not match the US supporters, nor players, intensity. (In all its embarrassing glory here’s the goal)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpbvnySKzGI&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0]

Once the final whistle sounded, a great long celebration ensued. I stayed in the stands soaking it in. Looking all around I then caught the most unexpected sight…Ben Carpenter-Nwanyanwu, who was a year below me at St. Stephen’s and who my family hosted. He and his parents used to live and work in South Africa. I knew he was in the country, but I did not have his cell phone number nor knew that he was going to be at the match. In a 40,000 person stadium, I did not expect to see him. However, I managed to catch his attention and make my way over to where he was celebrating with his friend and some other Americans who I had met outside the stadium before the match. Crazy. We then all teamed together to try and head out of the stadium, but we were caught up in the massive celebration that developed (partially thanks to our help) on the stadium concourse. It was a heck of a lot of fun. I eventually had to break off so that I could make it back to the bus on time.

This is where the final really interesting moment of the night occurs. I find myself walking with the couple who I met on the way to Rustenburg who were honeymooning in South Africa. Well we are walking on the side-walk/the side of the road when I suddenly hear this loud police siren wailing from behind me. Finding myself a little too far into the road, I hop back to the side where I see this motorcade start to spirit by me. In the third car, a black or silver SUV, I see the light on in the back seat and a silver head of hair with a pair of glasses on the man’s face, reading some sort of report. I was within no more than 2 feet of President Bill Clinton. I could have touched the car if I wanted to get hit by a sniper the moment I made the move, haha. Quite the way to end the night. In fact, President Clinton thought so much of the US team, that he stayed with them after the match and rearranged his travel schedule so he could come back for the match in Rustenburg Saturday.

That’s all for now. I’m planning on going to Rosebank market by myself to interview the informal traders at the African craft market tomorrow. Max I hope to find your beaded Vuvuzela. I was in TEP today and saw some very good ones, but I will keep looking for that and my American Makarapa. Love to all back home, especially to you bud. Get well soon. Everyone who’s reading this, if you have not had the chance to go visit Max, do so. I’m sure he would greatly appreciate it! I would too considering I wont be back for another 3 weeks. Thanks!!!!