Durban for Australia vs Germany

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Tim had managed to get three tickets to Germany vs Australia in Durban the day after he and Lori Ann arrived (one day after me). That gave us a full day to work out how the heck we were going to get to Durban.

As expected, there were plenty of flights available at outrageous prices and no hotels admitting to having free rooms (other than the presidential suite at some place for 50,000 rand -- USD7,000). So Tiim contacted his concierge service and arranged a car. Not just any car mind you. This was a brand new Range Rover with an experienced driver and security guard. Two days before he'd been driving around the Prime Minister of Nigeria. Now he'd moved up in the world and was transporting us.

For $2,000.

I worked it out though. If we'd gotten a taxi, it would have cost around $3,000 at the absurdly marked-up rates, so this was a bargain.

Six hours after leaving Johannesburg we arrived in Durban and were watching the GPS to work out where to go. We ran out of options when a wrong turn took us to a blocked off street which was the closest access point to the game. Perfect.

We headed down the street about a km to the station, which had clearly been remodelled for the World Cup. To make things simple, escalators had been installed and the stairs seem to have been walled in. This was "vaguely interesting" to us, but the Germans, being Germans, though this was a riot and were falling over eachother to get photos of the stairway to nowhere. (I was the first to notice it and got my photo in early -- else there was no chance.)

Getting off the station we headed into the stadium to find our seats. As usual, this game was booked out, and as usual there were plenty of spare seats. Our allocated seats were in two locations but we had no trouble finding three seats together in a different location.

The game started badly with Australia down 0-2 at the break. Then Cahill got a red card and it was all downhill from there. The Australians were clearly outclassed by the Germans. But they also played below their best, despite me being there to support them.

I was amazed at how many Aussies showed up at the game. I didn't think there were more than a hundred people in Australia who actually knew the rules of soccer (apart from immigrants), let alone would fly half way around the world to watch it. There were thousands of us. Many even knew the words to Australia's theme song, "Advance Australia Fair".

Most were painted and waving Australian flags (which isn't anywhere as good as the boxing kangaroo or the Aboriginal flag). But the singing (or what counts as singing for us Australians: dah dah dah-dah-dah-dah Ozzie, Ozzie) quieted down quite a bit after the red card, while the Germans cheered ever louder (they can't sing either).

No, don't get me started. It wasn't that the red card deflated our spirits. It was the FIFA organization. They ran out of beer at half time! This ain't Korea vs Japan or some other alcohol light-weights. This was GERMANY vs AUSTRALIA. Come on FIFA. Bunch of corrupt incompetent wankers.

After a sobering second half we headed back to the car and the 6 hour drive back to Johannesburg.

Back in Johannesburg, I got back to work while Tim and Lori Ann enjoyed some shut-eye. Then it was off to the Denmark-Holland game down the road.

Next: Denmark vs Holland

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