World Cup - South Africa is Heart Broken

Dance practice in front of the Union building

The team posing for the camera

The previous night, Joaquin and Geraldo had mentioned that it would be a good idea to visit the Argentina training base in Pretoria. I had to go there to collect my passport and visa anyway so I agreed to go along. The big question was how to get there. I was not sure that Joaquin and Geraldo wanted to do the local taxi stuff but then a buen onda (good wave) showed up. Joaquin later told me that when a good person shows up at the right moment out of the blue to help he is called as buen onda. This buen onda was Philip who is an Indian friend I met in Liberia. He was visiting Firestone in Liberia a few weeks before the World Cup on a project for his company. He currently resides in Jo’burg and we had decided to meet up in South Africa when I got there. Philip called in and offered to help us go to Pretoria. That was awesome!

Outside University of Pretoria hoping to see
Argentina's practice session

Upon reaching Pretoria, I collected my passport and stopped by the Union buildings so Joaquin and Geraldo could check them out. There we also saw a few South Africans practicing fubol inspired dance to be performed at some function. Later Philip dropped us off at the city center and we proceeded to the University of Pretoria where the Argentina team was based.

When we got there we were stopped at the gate by the police and told that only authorized persons were allowed. There were scores of other Argentines who showed up hoping to watch the team practice. Alas, they were turned down much the same way that we were. The Argentines are so passionate that they even got all their flags with them and promptly proceeded to tie all the flags all around the gate and neighboring trees. Too bad the police forced them to remove flags.

Fan Fest...public viewing stations put up by FIFA

I did not feel there was much point in staying back and hoping they would let us in but Joaquin and Geraldo wanted to wait. I told them I wanted to visit the Cradle of Humankind (system of caves where multiple hominid fossils were discovered) and told them I would catch up with them back at the hostel that night.

Crowd gathering at the Fan Fest to see the
South Africa vs. Uruguay match

When I got there I was told it was too late to visit the caves. The bad thing was I learnt that there were no public modes of transport from that isolated place at that late hour and the taxi that dropped me had already left. So I had basically 2 options, ask around if I could spend the night at someone’s house which where more that a few kilometers away or hitchhike which is difficult late in the evening because of safety and since that place was isolated. I was however fortunate that the fourth car that I sought a lift from were kind enough to let me hitchhike. They were so nice that they actually dropped me off at the hostel in Jo’burg.


Jubilant South African fans


Since I got to the Jo’burg much earlier than planned and it was still 7pm I went to the FIFA Fan Fest to check out South Africa play Uruguay. That game was crucial for SA to atleast get a point off if they wanted to have any chance to proceed to the next round. There was a noticeable buzz around the town about the game and no matter who I spoke to, they were all pretty confident that SA was going to win the game. I loved this unbounded optimism from the home supporters but I had a feeling that the home team’s chances were pretty slim.

There were more than 20,000 people who showed up at the fan fest (giant screens) to cheer their team. Their team though did not give anything back to their supporters who turned up braving the extremely cold weather as they lost the match 0-3 and with no a lot of chances created. All around me was a feeling of being deflated and I started to wonder whether the home team going out would dampen the spirit of South Africans and World Cup would be a lot less fun now. The South Africans would later prove me wrong which made me think what it would have been had they made it to the next round

As I sit down to write and look back, I think this was the easily the worst day of my whole travel to South Africa. We got turned down at the Argentine training camp, I was too late to see the caves, the home team lost and I was still cold. I was really glad that they next night was going to be the last one in Jo’burg. I was absolutely ready to get out of the city.