The live experience
After yesterday's match in Durban, we've now been to seven of the ten World Cup stadia and seen eight matches in total. Thoughts on these as follows:
Royal Bafokeng stadium, Rustenburg
Basically a provincial athletics stadium which somehow holds 40,000 people (the minimum required for World Cup matches), with no video screens or working scoreboard when we were there. From our seats right near the front behind the goals (for England v USA), we could barely see what was going on at the far end of the pitch and couldn't see the near touchline because of the athletics track and advertising hoardings, hence we only worked out that Robert Green had let Clint Dempsey's tame shot go underneath him by everyone else's despairing reactions.
Plus, as recounted elsewhere, the organisation for the park and ride after the match was an absolute shambles. Frankly, an even worse football ground than Brighton's comical Withdean stadium, which was never intended to be used for this sport in the first place. Royal Bafokeng was only used because of its proximity to Johannesburg, but it's still bloody miles away from its actual "home city" of Rustenburg, which happens to be a complete dump also. Appalling.
Green Point, Cape Town
A large, welcoming bowl, designed to blend in with the spectacular Cape Town cityscape - a complete contrast to the above, in other words. To be fair it is rather grey and concretey, but its central location was a major plus and the "Fan Walk" to and from the station was well-marked and lined with fire dancers, marching bands and suchlike. A proper festival atmosphere, then.
For Italy v Paraguay we cheekily moved seats in order to be as close to the media section as possible, ending up in the row behind Alan Shearer. Earlier I'd seen Mick McCarthy exiting the toilets but was far too overcome by nerves/awe to say "keep up the good work Mick!!", or something equally embarrassing. Basking in the reflected grow of celebrity, I really enjoyed this game, although I suspect watching it on TV would have been a somewhat dourer experience. We also saw England v Algeria here a few days later, but it's probably best for all concerned if we pretend that match never happened.
Nelson Mandela Bay stadium, Port Elizabeth
We spent no time at all in the town itself other than driving to the park and ride and back, which thankfully operated far better than in Rustenburg in that it had an actual element of organisation rather than just leaving everyone to a free-for-all. It was a nice day, the England v Slovenia game turned out okay (relatively speaking) and the stadium itself was perfectly functional if unremarkable, so no complaints.
Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
A pleasingly old-fashioned rectangular brickwork stadium complete with narrow tunnels and pitchside walkways, which makes a welcome change from the at times soulless modern concrete constructions. Paraguay v Japan was sadly rather underwhelming, despite the presence of Japanese fans whose polite brand of intensity provides an intriguing contrast to their European counterparts. I did at least get to see a penalty shootout for the first time, which somewhat compensated for the 120 minutes of mostly defensive football that had preceded it.
Soccer City, Johannesburg
A beautiful stadium, even more striking than Wembley in terms of size and spectacle. Our national stadium does have escalators rather than ramps and perhaps slightly wider walkways, but Soccer City counters this with its distinctively bulging, illuminated and multicoloured exterior. It also has bright orange seats with a few black stripes, perhaps intended to bring to mind a tiger - an animal that doesn't exist in the wild in South Africa, but never mind. One caveat was the park and ride/park and walk system in Joburg, for which you have to buy tickets in advance at a designated supermaket rather than at the parking itself. Were it not for the Japanese guy who we were sharing the house with (long story) informing us of this beforehand - he'd been to an earlier game not knowing this and had a terrible time trying to rush to the nearest shop to get his ticket - we would have been similarly screwed. Thanks Fifa - a bit of advance warning might have helped.
Uruguay v Ghana, which we ended up getting cut-price tickets for despite it not being on our "official" itinerary, was in danger of petering out after the Uruguayans equalised, at least until the second period of extra time during which Ghana, roared on by the hugely partisan crowd, poured forward and created a host of chances, in the end only being denied by Luis Suarez's outstretched hands. This was one of the more thrilling games I've ever seen in the flesh, seeing as I'll forget the boring bits. Sadly, we all know what happened next, and Africa's dream of getting a semi-finalist was over. Uruguay had somehow defeated a whole continent, curse them.
Ellis Park, Johannesburg
was the venue for Paraguay v Spain, a somewhat soporific contest apart from a two-minute spell in the second half which contained three penalties, none of which resulted in goals. I was looking forward to seeing the Spaniards in the flesh but Paraguay nullified them pretty well and if they'd had even slightly more ambition going forward they might have sneaked the win. Ellis Park itself is another older ground, shabby and claustrophobic with low ceilings in the walkways and the rock-hard plastic seats offering next to no legroom. It's also in a decidedly sketchy area of central Joburg, which at least gave us an opportunity to see some proper "gritty" inner city thoroughfares from the safety of our park and ride bus. It was kinda like driving through Brixton, only less African.
Moses Mabhida Stadium, Durban
From watching earlier matches on the TV, this place with its Wembley-apeing arch which leaves a missing chunk in one of the stands looked like it was trying a bit too hard. Initial signs weren't too promising either, as the park and ride involved taking TWO separate buses and then a long walk to the stadium. Appearances can of course be deceptive - the walk, down a long straight road which again seemed to be inspired by Wembley Way, gave you an end-on view of the arch and enabled you to see right through the missing chunk of stand into the ground itself. In its own way, this was every bit as impressive as Wembley, although you are seated a fair way from the pitch.
Germany v Spain was a tricky one, as on the one hand watching the Germans win would be awful, but on the other a Germany-Holland final had the potential to be very tasty indeed. As it turned out, this was Spain's best performance of the tournament so far, making their much-fancied opponents look very average indeed as they struggled to get anywhere near the ball for long periods. Watching Spain is very much like watching Arsenal, mind you - why do a simple cross when there's a 5% chance of setting up David Villa with a spectacular backheeled volley from the edge of the area? The fact that they had what felt like 80% of the posession but could only score from a set piece speaks volumes, and they'll need to be a bit more ruthless in front of goal against the Dutch, I reckon. Bring on the final.
Royal Bafokeng stadium, Rustenburg
Basically a provincial athletics stadium which somehow holds 40,000 people (the minimum required for World Cup matches), with no video screens or working scoreboard when we were there. From our seats right near the front behind the goals (for England v USA), we could barely see what was going on at the far end of the pitch and couldn't see the near touchline because of the athletics track and advertising hoardings, hence we only worked out that Robert Green had let Clint Dempsey's tame shot go underneath him by everyone else's despairing reactions.
Plus, as recounted elsewhere, the organisation for the park and ride after the match was an absolute shambles. Frankly, an even worse football ground than Brighton's comical Withdean stadium, which was never intended to be used for this sport in the first place. Royal Bafokeng was only used because of its proximity to Johannesburg, but it's still bloody miles away from its actual "home city" of Rustenburg, which happens to be a complete dump also. Appalling.
Green Point, Cape Town
A large, welcoming bowl, designed to blend in with the spectacular Cape Town cityscape - a complete contrast to the above, in other words. To be fair it is rather grey and concretey, but its central location was a major plus and the "Fan Walk" to and from the station was well-marked and lined with fire dancers, marching bands and suchlike. A proper festival atmosphere, then.
For Italy v Paraguay we cheekily moved seats in order to be as close to the media section as possible, ending up in the row behind Alan Shearer. Earlier I'd seen Mick McCarthy exiting the toilets but was far too overcome by nerves/awe to say "keep up the good work Mick!!", or something equally embarrassing. Basking in the reflected grow of celebrity, I really enjoyed this game, although I suspect watching it on TV would have been a somewhat dourer experience. We also saw England v Algeria here a few days later, but it's probably best for all concerned if we pretend that match never happened.
Nelson Mandela Bay stadium, Port Elizabeth
We spent no time at all in the town itself other than driving to the park and ride and back, which thankfully operated far better than in Rustenburg in that it had an actual element of organisation rather than just leaving everyone to a free-for-all. It was a nice day, the England v Slovenia game turned out okay (relatively speaking) and the stadium itself was perfectly functional if unremarkable, so no complaints.
Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
A pleasingly old-fashioned rectangular brickwork stadium complete with narrow tunnels and pitchside walkways, which makes a welcome change from the at times soulless modern concrete constructions. Paraguay v Japan was sadly rather underwhelming, despite the presence of Japanese fans whose polite brand of intensity provides an intriguing contrast to their European counterparts. I did at least get to see a penalty shootout for the first time, which somewhat compensated for the 120 minutes of mostly defensive football that had preceded it.
Soccer City, Johannesburg
A beautiful stadium, even more striking than Wembley in terms of size and spectacle. Our national stadium does have escalators rather than ramps and perhaps slightly wider walkways, but Soccer City counters this with its distinctively bulging, illuminated and multicoloured exterior. It also has bright orange seats with a few black stripes, perhaps intended to bring to mind a tiger - an animal that doesn't exist in the wild in South Africa, but never mind. One caveat was the park and ride/park and walk system in Joburg, for which you have to buy tickets in advance at a designated supermaket rather than at the parking itself. Were it not for the Japanese guy who we were sharing the house with (long story) informing us of this beforehand - he'd been to an earlier game not knowing this and had a terrible time trying to rush to the nearest shop to get his ticket - we would have been similarly screwed. Thanks Fifa - a bit of advance warning might have helped.
Uruguay v Ghana, which we ended up getting cut-price tickets for despite it not being on our "official" itinerary, was in danger of petering out after the Uruguayans equalised, at least until the second period of extra time during which Ghana, roared on by the hugely partisan crowd, poured forward and created a host of chances, in the end only being denied by Luis Suarez's outstretched hands. This was one of the more thrilling games I've ever seen in the flesh, seeing as I'll forget the boring bits. Sadly, we all know what happened next, and Africa's dream of getting a semi-finalist was over. Uruguay had somehow defeated a whole continent, curse them.
Ellis Park, Johannesburg
was the venue for Paraguay v Spain, a somewhat soporific contest apart from a two-minute spell in the second half which contained three penalties, none of which resulted in goals. I was looking forward to seeing the Spaniards in the flesh but Paraguay nullified them pretty well and if they'd had even slightly more ambition going forward they might have sneaked the win. Ellis Park itself is another older ground, shabby and claustrophobic with low ceilings in the walkways and the rock-hard plastic seats offering next to no legroom. It's also in a decidedly sketchy area of central Joburg, which at least gave us an opportunity to see some proper "gritty" inner city thoroughfares from the safety of our park and ride bus. It was kinda like driving through Brixton, only less African.
Moses Mabhida Stadium, Durban
From watching earlier matches on the TV, this place with its Wembley-apeing arch which leaves a missing chunk in one of the stands looked like it was trying a bit too hard. Initial signs weren't too promising either, as the park and ride involved taking TWO separate buses and then a long walk to the stadium. Appearances can of course be deceptive - the walk, down a long straight road which again seemed to be inspired by Wembley Way, gave you an end-on view of the arch and enabled you to see right through the missing chunk of stand into the ground itself. In its own way, this was every bit as impressive as Wembley, although you are seated a fair way from the pitch.
Germany v Spain was a tricky one, as on the one hand watching the Germans win would be awful, but on the other a Germany-Holland final had the potential to be very tasty indeed. As it turned out, this was Spain's best performance of the tournament so far, making their much-fancied opponents look very average indeed as they struggled to get anywhere near the ball for long periods. Watching Spain is very much like watching Arsenal, mind you - why do a simple cross when there's a 5% chance of setting up David Villa with a spectacular backheeled volley from the edge of the area? The fact that they had what felt like 80% of the posession but could only score from a set piece speaks volumes, and they'll need to be a bit more ruthless in front of goal against the Dutch, I reckon. Bring on the final.
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