Boring Game, Great Time

I don't like soccer - it ranks somewhere between curling and the lumberjack games on my list of favorite sports to watch.  Every four years, I try to get into the World Cup, but my interest is spurred by patriotism rather than the game itself.  Given how much effort it takes to watch games that actually matter, I never thought I'd care to go to a game that doesn't matter, called "friendlies" by soccer fans.  However, when we found out that the USA squad was coming to Cape Town to face South Africa, we couldn't turn it down.  How many chances are we going to get to support our country (yeah, I'm actually Canadian, whatever) in a sporting event nearly 8,000 miles from home?

Nearly all the volunteers we live with also got tickets to the game, and we got into the mood by painting our faces.  Most of the other volunteers (who are from Canada, the UK or Norway) painted their faces with the South African flag, but the 3.5 Americans plus an Australian painted their faces with stars and stripes.  There would be no hiding from opposing fans.  We immediately mixed it up with the South Africans, chanting "USA! USA!" and getting booed off the shuttle bus to the stadium for singing the "Star-Spangled Banner".  Their fans were great, taking everything in stride and throwing it right back at us.  Many of them took our picture and we even got interviewed by the press (if you happen to see a clip of a late 20s male with the American flag painted on his face saying he thinks the US will win by one or two touchdowns, that's me).  Just outside the stadium, I heard everyone around us laughing, and I turned to see Magge engaged in a bizarre dance with a South African fan, where the two ladies were bumping butts.  I turned to the person next to me and said, "Yeah, that's my wife".

Yeah, that's my wife

Us with Will, one of the two other Americans, prior to the game

As usual in this sport, nothing happened for most of the game.  Once in a while the crowd would break out in huge cheers just because the ball entered the general vicinity of the American net, but other than that it was a long, real life game of Pong with a vuvuzela soundtrack.  When the US finally scored late in the game, I was more relieved that something had actually happened than excited that we took the lead.  The Americans hung on to win 1-0 (also known as the "standard soccer result"), but the South African fans were still great to us afterwards.  The game itself was boring, but the experience was fantastic and it was one of the most fun nights we've had over the past year.

Surrounded by the enemy

The ubiquitous and terrible vuvuzelas

Action (or inaction?) on the field