Drive to Jo’burg and Sandton City Mall

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Not an exciting day, just the drive back to Johannesburg and a 2 hour visit to a modern part of the city, Sandton. From what I’ve been told, Sandton is part of Greater Johannesburg and is where most companies relocated to after a massive area with high-rises was developed to move businesses away from the then-dangerous Jo’burg center. In this area is where you will find the Sandton City Mall, which is where celebrities, former players and even the Brazilian team shopped during the World Cup. Before the World Cup, I ran some stuff on the place that the Brazilian press wrote, and they made it seem like this place was the best thing ever invented. Well, I would say that Market Mall in Calgary is way better, so I don’t see where the fuss is. They have some high-class stores and is super busy, but is not very big at all and does not have anything special. I would say that the Gateway Mall in Durban in way better.

The most exciting thing during our visit is that as soon as we got in, we bumped into Oliver Kahn, former German international who the Best Player Award at the 2002 World Cup. I personally thought Rivaldo was the best player, but FIFA gave it to Kahn despite his blunder that cost Germany the World Cup. He’s known as a mean guy, super serious and tough to play against. Janel wanted to know if I wanted to say hello and get a picture with him, but I figured he would either punch me or just stare at me until I left. I chose to leave him alone and continue living. Hehe Actually, I’ve met some famous people throughout my travels, and I rarely approach them if they are busy or are just enjoying their day. With Lizarazu in Hermanus, he approached us.
After the disappointing visit to the mall, we drove to our hostel and watched the 3rd place game between Germany and Uruguay. We were cheering for Uruguay of course, the clear underdog. Germany went up 1-0 via Thomas Muller, one of the revelations of the tournament, who put in a rebound after the Uruguayan goalie fumbled a Schweinsteiger shot. Before half-time, Cavani equalized for Uruguay on a 3 on 2. In the second half, Uruguay came out stronger and went ahead thanks to a beautiful volley from, who else, Diego Forlan. Germany tied it up a few minutes later via Jansen (I think), but Uruguay continue to push for the 3rd goal. Just when you figured that we would go to extra time, Khedira scored for Gemany to seal their second consecutive 3rd place finish.

Even though Uruguay lost, I was happy to see that Miroslav Klose never made it on the field for Germany, meaning he has essentially play his last World Cup game and thus will not surpass Ronaldo as the all-time in World Cus. He will remain at 14, one goal behind the great Ronaldo. YAY!!!! Another thing to note is the we currently have a 4-way for the goal-scoring lead with Villa, Forlan, Muller and Sneijder all sitting at 5 goals. Villa and Sneijder will face off tomorrow in the big Final. My money is on Villa if Torres plays for Spain, because Villa was more effective playing on left wing.

The plan tomorrow is to catch up on some blogging at the airport, look for a tour of Soweto for the next day or the day after, and attend the final of course. I will be wearing my Barcelona jersey to cheer on the Spanish side. It will, without question, be a historic day. I just hope it doesn’t end on a penalty shootout like it did in 2006...that would suck.

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