Saturday, June 12, 2010

Day 2: The Tijuana of South Africa

Today was a momentus day.  As most of you already know, USA tied England 1 to 1.  The game was great, but the day was long.  Here we go...




We woke up early and everyone got on their best USA garb.  After a picture-taking scene that would rival most suburban prom pre parties, we left for Nelson Mandela Square where we met up with 350 other USA fans.   We proceeded to fill 6 buses and 1 short bus for the seemingly endless trip up to Rustenburg, armed with 4 different cases of beer (variety is important).  The rest of the drive was spent drinking, cheering, and singing along to Miley Cyrus "Party in the USA" with our fellow Yanks.  Don't worry, all beer cans and empty bottles were "recycled" and untilized to their fullest extent during the 3 hour bus ride.

We finally made it all the way to Rustenburg.  The town itself looked ok, but the stadium was in the middle of nowhere. The stadium itself is extremely old, and surrounded by dirt.  That being said, it was a great atmosphere when you get inside.  We were split up amongst the different buses, and of course I had tickets for people that didn't arrive in my bus.  After several phone calls, Bill, Alli, and I literally had to sprint probably a good half mile to meet them on the other side of the arena.  For those of you that know me, you can imagine what my undershirt looked like.

The game was everything I could have wanted in my first World Cup game.  The US crowd fell silent after the early Gerrard goal, but luckily Robert Greene had been playing with butter before the game and let Dempsey's long shot trickle through his hands. 

We didn't end up getting home until 4:30 in the morning and I'm still up now at 6:00 AM.   As soon as I can get some sleep, I'll post pictures from yesterday.

Goodbye for now.

-Ryan

3 comments:

  1. Sounds epic. Amazing. The best is yet to come.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Only one thing I want to know: which fashion and/or lifestyle magazine has kept Cammy company during the soccer and fantasy soccer talk? The June Vogue looked promising.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Only real men listen to Miley on the way to a football match. Impressed.

    ReplyDelete