USA vs. England

The Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg is actually located outside of the city on tribal land and the only way to get there was by shuttle buses provided by the World Cup organizers. The surrounding area was said to be closed off to cars, but when we got there it was a chaotic mess of people and cars. As the evening progressed, more and more people crowded in front of the entrance, waiting for the gate to open so they could go inside.

I had tickets that I had to give to my friend Dave, but due to my phone problems I had not been able to get in touch with him. I wandered around the area with Anthony looking for anyone I might recognize, hoping to find Dave or someone who knew where he was. At one point I walked up to a line of English fans and shouted, "is this the queue for John Terry's wife?" I never did find Dave, and he ended up having to buy another ticket from a scalper.

The line through security moved quickly and we made our way to our seats. We were in the front row near one corner on the upper deck, and the view of the stadium was awesome. We could feel the excitement building. There were several sections full of Americans, certainly a lot more than were in South Korea in 2002 but maybe not as many as in Germany in 2006. But this was USA versus England in the World Cup, a huge match with big ramifications if we could get a result, and the fan support looked as good as it ever had been for the USA.

Jim had made an orange banner that read "MN Vols" and he and Sasha hung it in front of our section with some other flags and banners. I wasn't around to see it, but two English fans tried to hang a big St. Andrews cross over the banners. Jim, Anthony, and Sasha shooed them away.

The match itself was not spectacular but the result was well deserved for both sides. It ended in a 1-1 tie, as you already know. I haven't read any reports but I've heard a lot of Englishmen suggesting it was a gift to the US, due to the botched goalkeeping that led to the US goal. Not true. It was an even match and both sides were fortunate not to see more balls in their own nets.

Leaving the stadium, we had no idea where to meet our shuttle to take us back to the lodge. The stairway out of our section was backed up with people and I heard an English guy bitching at Anthony to get out of the way. It was one of the English kids who had tried to hang the flag in front of us, sore about that incident and the non-win apparently. Right, so when we got out of the stadium there was not much direction and we just wandered around looking for our shuttle. Amazingly, Jim found someone who had ridden on it with us earlier who had been in contact on the phone with the driver. All we had to do was wait a half hour or so and the shuttle would be there. Jim and Steve found a guy who was selling beers on the street and bought a few. The temperature was dropping into the 40s and the crowd was thinning. And then finally the shuttle showed up and we packed in for the hour long drive back to the lodge.