World Cup - Brazil vs. Korea North

The hostel where I stayed at in Jo'burg

Mexican fans on the streets

I woke up the next day to bitter cold and saw that Fabian had already checked out but left his email address for me. I remembered him saying that he was meeting up with his brother and staying in Pretoria for the rest of his trip. Like for the past few days I did not have a plan when I woke up but came up with one at breakfast with Joaquin and Geraldo (another Argentine). Joaquin had a ticket to that night’s game featuring Brazil and Korea North and that’s the reason the hostel that day was flooded with Brazilians. It was quite interesting to see that one day the hostel was packed with fans of one country while the next day they were packed with another depending on who was playing in Jo’burg. It seemed a constant cycle of people of different nationalities coming in and going out.

With Roger Milla

Passing through the gates

Geraldo and I made a plan to go along with Joaquin and see if we can but tickets at the stadium from ticket scalpers. The match was being played at night so we had most of the afternoon and evening and we decided to go to Sandton (it’s like the Manhattan of South Africa). The streets and malls were all flooded with tourists and fans alike and it was quite a different setting from the streets of downtown Jo’burg but very colorful nonetheless.

Geraldo, Joaquin and I with our tickets

Crowd was overwhelmingly pro-Brazil

Among all the fans I caught the image of one gentleman whom I remembered seeing on TV as an 11 year old. It was 1990 and my family had just bought our first TV so I would watch the 1990 World Cup at home and not spend late nights at my friends place. He was Roger Milla, arguable one of the stars of that edition of the World Cup in Italy. He was the star in a Cameroon team who made the whole world sit up and take notice of African Football that year by becoming the 1st African side to make it to the Quarterfinals of the World Cup. Twenty year on and no other African team has still made it beyond them though Ghana came within a penalty kick away from making the semi finals.

View from our seats right behind the goal


The reason why Roger Milla was so famous in 1990 was not just because he scored 4 goals at the World Cup but he was the first player who would dance at the corner flag after scoring a goal. We have seen so many different celebrations since then but his was so spontaneous and original that he is considered as the father of the tradition of dancing after scoring a goal. For anyone who is interested in seeing a video of his dance you can find it here on Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwM4z8xD_cU). I got a picture with him for my memories and he seemed like a really nice guy.


Maicon's goal

Brazil fans hoping to make it 6


Later that afternoon we had an early supper and decided to leave early for the stadium to see if we could get a couple scalped tickets. We negotiated for a taxi driver to take us to the stadium and were joined by a group of Irish guys decked in colorful Brazilian costumes.

There were not a lot of scalpers at the stadium so went about searching for them in earnest and finally got our tickets at quite a premium. I bought a ticket for $120 while the ticket was originally bought by a South African native for $20 (only a South African resident could get a ticket for $20). I guess it was my way of contributing for the economy of the country :)

Some of the very few North Korean supporters

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All the FIFA match tickets had names of the ticket holder on it but I remembered that nobody checked that when I presented my ticket for the first game. We were however not sure if the tickets were authentic or fake so when we finally got through, we heaved a sign of relief and took a picture with the scalped tickets to celebrate.

The game itself was pretty interesting. Everyone including me thought that Brazil was going to pummel Korea North but by half time the score was 0-0 and I was sitting wondering if I was to witness one of the greatest upsets in World Cup history. Alas, it never came, instead Maicon got a shot in on goal from the narrowest of angles, but it was still very nice to see an unknown team (most people including me could not name a single player from that team) playing with heart and in the end loosing 1-2. Here’s a video I took when Brazil scored their 2nd goal (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfVktLAPJbQ).

Ellis Park stadium in the center of Jo'burg

It was also interesting to note that even though the crowd had a lot of neutrals (especially South Africans) it was more than 99% pro Brazil and there were only about 20-30 supporters who were clad in the North Korean colors. The biggest talking point of the night after the game ended was who these North Korean supporters exactly were since there is a travel restriction on their citizens. The most popular ideas were that the North Koreans supporters were either government diplomats, fans who were sponsored by the government or they were just some South Korean’s supporting their brothers from the North.

It's however interesting so see the game is such a level playing field where countries get to compete on the same level irrespective of their political ideologies (USA, North Korea), religious ideologies (Algeria), financial clout, former colonies and colonial powers (Ivory Coast-France, Ghana-England), population (Slovenia, New Zealand, Netherlands, not withstanding India and China did not even make it). It’s that what makes the game so very interesting from a cultural standpoint.

Coming back with took the buses that were specially commissioned to transport fans to and fro from the games. The bus was packed with Brazilians drumming up for their team victory.

Since that day was bitterly cold I was mentally almost ready to get away from Jo’burg but I had a small matter of seeing Argentina plan Korea South in a couple days time.