World Cup Final

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We didn’t do too much today before the game. We met Edi, a Mexican who is staying at our hostel, and went for lunch with him to a place where we can use internet for free. We ate and tried to post a few blog entries, but ran out of time and left for the stadium. We wanted to be at the stadium around 5pm to check out all the festivities on the outside and be in our seats for the Closing Ceremonies. We left the restaurant in large part also because I was pissed off at the Travelblog site, which was giving me problems renaming pictures and with the descriptions I typed in for each picture of the semi-final game. I wanted to throw the notebook in the garbage, really, but instead, decided to drive to the stadium without a map. That turned out to be a little nightmare as well because the signs on the side of the road were just telling me where to go to get to Ellis Park, the other Jo’burg stadium. After seeing over 20 signs for Ellis Park, I wanted to punch (nicer verb suggested by Janel hehe) FIFA. On this big day, it sucked a little bit that I got so annoyed by these little things, but it all worked out in the end.

The Soccer City stadium is awesome, looks really cool close up. We took some pictures and then went inside to see if we could buy a t-shirt of the Final. They usually sell t-shirts that have the flags of the playing countries and the date, but none were to be found today. Cape Town had them, so did Port Elizabeth (and Germany 4 years ago). I was not happy because I wanted to get the shirt for a Spanish friend of mine back home.

The Closing Ceremonies were cool to watch...it had some cool lighting, jets that did a fly-by, Shakira (yeah...not for the music of course!!!!), etc... We were sitting by a corner flag, 14 rows up behind the touch line (end line of the field). Because we were so low, it was tough to see all the images that were being displayed on the massive mat that covered the field, but all we had to do was look at the big screens. The ceremony went from 6:30pm to about 7:15pm, so we had about an hour or so to get some food and get ready for the warm-ups and the game itself.

And here’s where Soccer City failed MISERABLY!!!!! The stadium of the Word Cup Final ran out of food before the game started. No hot dogs of any kind (regular, cheese or chilli), and by half time, you couldn’t even get potato chips. All they had was Coke products, tea, coffee and beer. I wasn’t too impressed; by now, I was wishing we were back in Cape Town, in a city with a real stadium. Hehe

Food shortage and missing game t-shirt apart, the stadium is massive and it looks as though any seat in the house is a nice seat with a good view of the game. I thought attendance was going to break 90,000, but only 84,000 attended the game. Maybe that is due to the adjustments they make for TV crews, reporters, FIFA royalty, etc...

One of the coolest things happened just before the game, which is the moment I have been waiting for the entire trip: to see Nelson Mandela in person. As I was washing my hands in the washroom, I heard the announcement that Mandela was about to come on the field, so I ran out and saw him on the golf cart that was riding around. Janel was in our seats taking pictures, but she was worried I had missed it all. Hehe As he exited into the tunnel, the crowd chanted “MA-DI-BA, MA-DI-BA”, which is his tribal name.

The game itself was better than the Final in 2006. I figured the teams would come out nervous because of the pressure each was under to take the trophy home and the size of the occasion, the importance of a win. A new soccer super-power would be created and cemented into history today, and both teams wanted it badly. Spain’s generation of players is incredible, it is no doubt their Golden Generation; to miss an opportunity such as this would be devastating. Holland’s is not as good but have gelled together nicely, and a win would almost reward the Dutch Orange Machine of the 70’s that lost two consecutive World Cup Finals.

Right away, each team’s nervousness translated into 3 quick yellow cards. I told Janel the game would not end 11 on 11 for sure. The English referee was doing his best to not give out a red card through the entire game, you could see it. I thought his performance was ok, but not his best that’s for sure, but at least there weren’t any big blunders on his part. Each team had their chances in the first half off corner kicks and the odd shot here and there, but it remained 0-0 until half time.

In the second half, Spain came out better and controlled the game. Sneijder and van Persie were invisible in the biggest games of their lives. Van Bommel and De Jong, which had controlled the midfield for Holland in their previous few games, were very quiet. The biggest thing De Jong did was attempt to murder Xabi Alonso with a studs-high kick to the chest worthy of a spot in a Jackie Chan movie. To me, that is a straight red card, 27 minutes into the game. Once again, the ref let it slide. While Spain admirably continued to push forward, it was Holland that almost opened the score. Arjen Robben was sent in by Sneijder 1 on 1 with Iker Casillas, and only he knows how he did not score. It was an incredible miss; to open the score at this juncture would make Spain push forward even more and allow the speedy Dutch to counter-attack dangerously. It would also mean the stingy Dutch midfield would be able to do what it does best: shut down the game. But Casillas made a ridiculous toe-save, a World Cup saving save, much like his quarter-final late penalty save against Paraguay.

Later in the game, Robben would have another breakaway and would miss once more with Casillas coming up big again. I don’t think Robben will sleep the next few days having to relive these two big failures. Teams again traded chances on corner kicks, with Ramos coming the closest to scoring. At the end of regulation, 0-0, and off to extra-time we went. I really didn’t want penalty kicks, so I was hoping Spain would score within the next 30 minutes.

In extra-time, Spain controlled the possession and the chances much like Barcelona always does to the opposition. This is relevant here because Spain’s midfield and defence almost all play for Barcelona (Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Puyol and Pique). Xavi was the maestro as always, what a player this little guy is. Iniesta is a little more of a magician than Xavi, and at one point, he sent Cesc Fabegas in on a breakaway, but he too was turned away...incredible!!!!! After that, Iniesta made a nice run and took too long to shoot. Had he let it go earlier, he could have buried it.
In the second half of extra time, Iniesta continued causing problems for Holland. As he went by the last defender, the defender grabbed him to slow him down and was awarded a second yellow card...which meant the red card soon followed. Holland was now down to 10 men, and it didn’t take Spain long to take advantage. Iniesta was given a bouncing ball, which he controlled and hammered a volley past the Dutch goalkeeper. I think the entire Spain squad ran down the field to celebrate, including the entire bench. Janel and I were so happy; if Brazil couldn’t win it, Spain had to, there is no team more deserving of the World Cup, they are simply above everyone else right now (and for the last 4 years). The final whistle came soon after, and Spain was rightfully crowned World Cup Champions for the first time...YAY!!!! It may be divisive for me to say this, but this World Cup should be permanently displayed at the Nou Camp in Barcelona along with Barcelona’s other trophies from the last few years. Spain plays the same football that Barca does, which is a rare kind that no other team can match or emmulate. Barcelona may not have won the Champions League this year, but I get the feeling they just won the World Cup.

After the final whistle, the Spanish players kept coming by our section to hug their friends and family members, so we got to see them really close up. We also made our way onto the podium where the trophy was hoisted to get the view the players had only moments earlier. That was pretty cool, but when we were there, the stadium was practically empty.

After the game, we took a shuttle back to the center of Johannesburg to pick up our car. Since we were super hungry because of the lack of food at the stadium, we stopped by the airport and got some subs. When we got home, we made some tea and, as luck would have it, sat down to watch a compact re-run of the entire game on TV. So as we ate, we got to see replays of some plays not shown in the stadium, and see the trophy celebration the way the rest of the world did. From the re-run is where I really saw what De Jong did to Xabi Alonso in the 27th minute...what a nasty play.

Tomorrow, we will try to visit Soweto if we can, at least that is what the plan is.

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