World Cup

Landon Donovan's late goal on Tuesday to put the US at the top of the group set off a celebration in the stands. For a good hour, a few hundred US fans partied in the stands and out on the concourse. It reminded me of the scene in 2002 after the US made it through to the second round, but this time there were several times as many Americans in attendance.

The logistics of getting to Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg were much simpler than with Rustenburg. The stadium is near the city center, and about an hour and fifteen minutes drive from our lodge. Again we had the lodge owners shuttle us to and from, and this time we chose a bar called Pete's Pub as the rendezvous point.

Pete's is within a few blocks of the stadium. It turned out to be the location of choice for a lot of US fans. The place was packed and the parking lot out front was also full.

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.

The time is near when we will find out which cities our teams will be playing in next summer. The draw will be televised live on ESPN2 at 11:00 AM CT (12PM ET/10AM MT/9AM PT) and also on FIFA.com. I'll be watching at Sweetwater, so please join me there if you can.

Nick Green of 100 Percent Soccer is reporting that the draw for the hexagonal round of CONCACAF qualifying will take place on November 22 in Johannesburg, the same time and place for the FIFA Confederations Cup Draw. So we will know the USA's qualifying and Confed Cup schedules on that day.

FIFA has released a few details on the availability of tickets to fans (as opposed to corporations). Most notable are that public sales will begin in February of next year and the amount of tickets allocated to each team's federation will increase from eight percent to 12 percent.

Read the full article at FIFA.com.

In Germany in 2006, I brought my RAZR phone with me and bought a SIM card from the European operator O2 for it. It is simple to switch them out and you pay by the minute, adding more minutes as you go. I had a German phone number too. It was a great way to stay in touch with people, and I am hoping to do the same thing in South Africa.

This is a bit old, but I wanted to post something to get myself thinking about planning. FIFA and the South Africa 2010 organizing committee released the official logo a few months back.