KE NAKO

Ke Nako....Wow…a week to the end of the world cup and I thought by now I would be trying to decide who to support in the final stages but yay, actually double yay, as my two teams are still in the world cup and looking strong! Netherlands and Germany … woohooo!!! I think I might even find myself in the horrible situation of having my two favorite teams in the final but that would be totally cool.

I managed to book tickets for four games and thanks to my brother, I managed to watch another two games live. It was unbelievable. The count down to the start of the games. People putting the SA flag on their cars and flags of other countries they were supporting. The vibe on the day of the opening….words can not explain it. South Africa has been unbelievable and I am proud to be a South African.

I rooted for South Africa since it is my home country, and I was extremely proud of our boys. We didn’t get far but they played well. Netherlands and Germany were my other two teams I rooted for, and then I made sure I choose a team for every game I attended.

My first game wasn’t hard to know who to root for as it was Netherlands vs Denmark. Netherlands won (2-0) that day and made the start to my world cup live games great. It was held at Soccer City! What a beautiful stadium! WOW, very impressive.

My second game was USA vs Slovenia at Ellis Park. I went with my American coworker Ryan Seal and we were rooting for the USA. It was definitely one of my most entertaining games mainly because Ryan made it entertaining, but USA sure played well. To be 2 – 0 down and come back to draw the game was unbelievable! They should have won but we won’t go there. =)

The very next evening I went to Loftus with my two brothers and oldest nephew to watch Cameroon vs Denmark. It was my first of three late night games for me. It was a good game too. Both Cameroon and Denmark lost their first games so both teams had to win. Unfortunately one team won and the other team knew they were out of the world cup. Denmark won 2 – 1 and Cameroon knew their world cup was over. After the final whistle some Cameroon players fell to the ground as reality hit them.

My forth game was Germany vs Ghana!! I was a bit bummed because I wanted to see Klose play, but he got red carded in the previous game and had to miss it, but it was still a good game and another late night. Stephan, who got to the game late, couldn’t remember where he parked his car, because he parked it, locked it and started running to the stadium….so the two of us walked round the dust trying to find his car….so the early morning, around 1:30am Stephan dropped me off at home.

Two days later I was off to another late night game. This time I was the driver as I drove my sister and a friend, Dylan, to the Spain vs Chile game. I wasn’t too sure who to root for in this game, but when a Chilian guy walked up to us and asked if we all had our tickets and us staying yes and him looking at me saying, are you sure, I realized my ticket had fallen out my pocket and freaked….then they guy pulled out a ticket and asked if it was mine. I was relieved when I saw my name on the ticket…and could have kissed the guy…

Anyway, it was a dirty game first half and we were so sure that we would have a fist fight in front of us, but thankfully there wasn’t. Spain beat Chile 2 – 1. Again, I got home after 1am.

That was supposed to be my last game but the next day my brother phoned me and said he had a spare ticket to the England Germany knockout game, was I interested? Was I interested???? What a question! I had really liked to have seen Rooney play and now was my chance. Not only that, but Klose would be playing for Germany. So my two brothers, my dad and I had a road trip to Bloemfontein for the game. It was a FANTASTIC game, and seeing Rooney playing live was special even if I was rooting for Germany. Klose scored the first goal and I was extremely happy. It was great game. We had left home at 7:30am on Sunday morning and my dad and I got dropped off at 12:45am Monday morning so it was a VERY long day for a game, but oh so worth it. It definitely became my best live game.

And so that is my update of my live games. Since its late, I’ll have to blog again another time to mention the players I really enjoyed watching play live… …in the meantime, my bed is calling.