Opportunity Lost…

So just to get it out of the way I will talk about the USA loss in Rustenburg against Ghana. The simple summation of the game is we had chances and didn’t finish, they had three clear cut chances and finished two. Simple as that. I may be in the minority saying Jozy played well this tournament, but I cannot deny he needs to improve immensely. At the end of the day, strikers are there to score goals, his hold up play, foul winning, and chance creation was very good, but he never finished. We really missed having Charlie Davies and a healthy Gooch. I think Dempsey played well in the final game, but it just was not enough. Landon has matured into a world class player, but he needs support. Michael Bradley was excellent in the center of midfield but without a settled partner, he could not develop enough of a creative rhythm. I could continue but 2000 words later no one would read about what I’ve actually been doing.

Funny story, when we met for the US supporters Bus in Nelson Mandela Square, it was hilarious how many British fans were trying to sell us tickets to the match. So arrogant and certain they were going to win the group…hahahaha. (Sorry schadenfreude is all we have left right now.)

The atmosphere before the match was different but fun. The US bus I took stopped a few kilometers away from the stadium at the dive of all dives called “Lucky’s Bar.” Stevan, our awesome bus organizer had to convince the cops to let the bus drive to the bar because security was much tighter for this game than for England-USA. He managed after being threatened with arrest if we drove to the stadium, so we drove to the bar with a police escort. Then 4 hours later drove close to the stadium, no problems! The bar was real Africa. They had a butchery where they sold you the raw meat that you went and braai’d (BBQ’d) yourself. (Knock on wood no adverse effects, I made sure to cook my lamb kebabs and beef boerewors close to a crisp). The atmosphere was great and outside the annoying local hustler trying to get everyone to buy him beer and the high pitched shrieks of “Show them Ghana, Show them” and “Make my circle bigger” (???)–which even makes USA-USA-USA sound halfway creative–it was a great time. We watched the South Korea-Uruguay match thinking the winner would be our next opponent, well too bad for us.

About two hours before the match we drove over nearer to the stadium and parked, with a nice tip to the house owner so that we could park in front of his place. I purchased a US flag on a pvc pipe for R50. Then I nearly lost it to a South African girl who claimed that she was an American fan but she had a Ghana flag painted on her face. I said if she washed off the Ghana flag and found me I’d give her the US flag…she found me. I was done, I had to give up my new flag.

However, I was rescued by a nice American I was talking to. She was there with her husband, her brothers, and some friends and I was joking about what happened and she offered to get my flag back. I flippantly said sure thinking no way, the girl won it fair, I’m not getting it back. Then about a minute later she is walking back with the flag pretending to be both my sister and my girlfriend (she messed up her plan and first claimed girlfriend, then sister, and then tied herself in knots explaining the two) but she somehow managed to get the flag back. I was surprised and nearly dying laughing because the story she was weaving was ridiculous, but I decided I’d keep the flag and give the South African the free Vuvuzela I had just picked up earlier thanks to Castle Lager. Seemed a fair trade, and the yellow matched her Ghana outfit better.

My seats to the match were amazing, 7 rows from the field I was really lucky to have them. In the first match I had the same category of ticket but in a much worse location, 2nd deck on the corner flag. I would have sat behind Shaq standing the whole match if we could have won, but it was a great experience non the less. Left the stadium heartbroken, wondering what could have been.

I’ve posted photos from the pregame and the match here

So in the interest of brevity I will take the next post to update more completely on my research and update on Cape Town. I went to Rosebank Market in Johannesburg last Friday and managed to get 11 different interviews, so I was proud of my industriousness. The answers were a mixed bag, from some feeling very negligible change, to others tripling even increasing 6 times over their sales during the World Cup. The majority were experiencing a benefit, but of varying degree.

I also met an interesting young man, Tedious, who was working the stall because he needed to pay for his school fees. He had to flee Zimbabwe right before his final year of school and so in South Africa no credits transferred and he has to start from the beginning at UNISA. He is going to pursue a tourism management degree. He was the most helpful vendor, actually spoke to me twice with no reservations. But most were nice and willing to speak to me, even though the market was quite busy.

Cape Town update to come. Later yall.