Cape Town and Holland vs Uruguay Semi-Final

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Just a little word to say that we have not had access to the internet too often over the last few days. And when we did, the Travelblog site was giving me problems with this blog entry for some reason.

Anyway, here's what happened last week on July 6th in Cape Town.

We got up really early today to make sure we got plenty of time to fulfill our to-do list. At the top of the list was to visit Table Mountain, Cape Town’s post card. We had wanted to visit the park/mountain when we first arrived in Cape Town on June 22nd, by due to our busy schedule, we were never able to make it up there. We figured we would try to go up at our first opportunity, because the gondolas don’t always operate due to high winds. When I called the Table Mountain information hot-line this morning, I was told that it was closed due to high winds. I thought we could still go the next day because we knew the weather was going to be nicer then. After doing some blogging, we set out towards Table Mountain anyway to resolve an issue with a ticket refund. When we got there, everything was operating fine, so we were excited to finally go up.

The ride up is pretty cool, you get a nice of Cape Town, and inside the gongola, the floor rotates, so you get to do a full 360 before arriving at the top. Once we got there, we were pretty hungry, so we got some coffees and a muffin. Table Mountain has this strange phenomenon that happens from time to time that is called the “Table Cloth”, which are clouds that form on top of the mountain and are pushed over the edge by wind. We got to see it on our 4th day in Cape Town the first time we were here. Anyway, I thought it was beginning to get pretty foggy up on the mountain, so I quickly left the cafe to get some shots of the city and surrounding area. I wasn’t sure how the fog would last, or if our visitation rights were going to be revoked due to the high winds. It was pretty cold up there, that’s for sure. Anyway, we clicked away for about 15 minutes and when I tried to take another shot, my camera didn’t want to for some reason. I had checked the battery the night before and it indicated it was full...yeah, not quite full; the battery was done, and I had left the battery charger cable at the hostel. Janel figured she better convince me that we took the pictures we wanted to, or the pictures we went up there to take. She was right to some extent, but every turn you take, there are more and more shots you feel like taking. Like she said to me, “there is nothing we can do anyway”, so we just walked around some more to the back side of the mountain. We spent about an hour up there only, but you can easily spend half a day, as there are all sorts of hiking trails you can do. You can even rappel down the mountain if you want to. We were happy we got to view this beautiful city from Table Mountain, after pretty much staring at the mountain every day we were in Cape Town.

Since we had a busy day ahead of us, we stopped by the car rental place to book a vehicle to drive from Johannesburg to Kruger National Park over the next few days. We then went to the hostel to re-charge the camera battery so that we could take pictures at the Holland-Uruguay game tonight. Also, I went online and booked 2 nights at a nice resort 13km from Kruger. This place was recommended by my soccer buddy Colin, who has been here in South Africa visiting relatives and attending games since July 1st. Now that we knew what we would do once we got to Jo’burg and up until the Final on July 11th, we went to the Waterfront to get some FIFA goodies. The place was packed, and you needed to be pretty patient. We have been struggling a little with the amount of stuff we brought with us, but I always knew we would. I have never travelled with so much stuff before, and I know we won’t have enough room in our bags to bring back the few things we bought for ourselves. Anyway, our bag situation did not seem to come into play as we grabbed a few things we liked at the FIFA Fan Shop. I finally found a couple World Cup shirts that I liked, which I had struggled to do the first few times we visited that store. After the FIFA store, we got some souvenirs for our little nephews and then got lunch. We had been going since 7am or so and we needed the break. We ate at a nice restaurant at the Waterfront and got ourselves some steaks as we need to re-charge the batteries a little. The last few days, with all the driving, waking up early for the whale-watching, going shark-diving, we felt a little tired.

It was then time to go back to the hostel and get ready for the game. The drive back, which normally would have taken us about 5 minutes if that, took us about 40 minutes and the entire city had come to a halt downtown. People were either going home during rush hour or everyone was coming back into town to attend the game itself or going to the Fan Fest to view it. The place was going nuts!!! We finally made it to our hostel to our little wise co-pilot Janel (she is doing great with maps and giving me directions), grabbed the camera, a blanket and proceeded to walk to the stadium.

Once we got to the stadium, we pretty much went straight in, stopping for about 15 minutes so that I could play a PS3 FIFA game (Holland vs Uruguay of course) against another guy. The game was pretty close, but the guy went up 1-0. With 2 minutes left, I missed a penalty shot because I pressed the cross button, and in injury-time, I missed an opportunity to tie it on a breakaway because I once again pressed the cross button...such an amateur. Yes, I am even telling you how my PS3 game went. Hehehe

We then went to our seats on the second bowl, which were by a corner flag, 13 rows up, probably one of the better seats we have had even though it was definitely the highest we have sat so far. I was excited to see Forlan play, he's on form and is just about the only guy who has figured out how to kick the "miraculous" Jabulani ball. Even though I was wearing my orange shirt, I was clearly supporting our friends to the south (and by south I mean south of Brazil hehe). We were surrounded by locals, Chileans, Peruvians and Dutch fans as well, a nice mix. The guy behind me was really cheering for Uruguay, reacting to almost every single error or positive thing Uruguay did. It was pretty funny. In the first half, Holland's captain von Bronckhorst took a shot from way out, that would normally have no chance, by it managed to find the top right corner of the net for probably the goal of this World Cup. You should have seen the late reaction on behalf of the fans all around the stadium. Normally, when a play develops and you can tell the ball will be crossed, or a shot taken, the fans stand up. On this play, nobody thought anything of it, as during the long flight, we probably expected it to reach the second deck of the stadium. Not that case, and the Dutch crowd went nuts all around the stadium. I wasn't too happy about it. Hehe
After the goal, Uruguay started doing a bit better. With 5 minutes to go, Forlan got the ball in midfield. Forlan has been the only real option for Uruguay in this World Cup, everything goes through him as far as Uruguay is concerned. He takes free-kicks, corner kicks, sends teammates out wide, creates plays and chances, and has scored vital goals for them. I would argue he is one of the MVPs of the tournament, as he is everything to his team. Anyway, Forlan took the ball, went past one defender and let a blistering, curving left-footed shot (he is right-footed) from way out. Much to my surprise the ball, the ball eluded the goalie and went in: 1-1!!! YAY!!! We now had ourselves a game, and couldn't wait for the second half to begin.

In the second half, Holland came back patient, but you could see that Uruguay was confident as well. In fact, at one point I mentioned to Janel that it seemed Uruguay began controlling the midfield, something that almost no team has been able to do thus far in the World Cup. They couldn't, however, translate it into clear chances or a goal. With 20 minutes to go, we were dealt a blow when Wesley Sneijder took another weak shot (almost as weak as his cross that was headed in by a Brazilian defender in the quarter-final game) that deflected off a Uruguayan defender and went in: 2-1 Holland. And as if things couldn't get any worse, Arjen Robben headed in the 3rd goal 4 minutes later. The Dutch were now in control and were celebrating around the stadium. Uruguay then pressed towards the end of the game, needing 2 goals to take it to extra-time, but that meant Robben, Sneijder and van Persie had more room to counter-attack. I thought they were sure to get a 4th goal, but Robben doesn't know how to use his right foot (it seems it's only good for standing/walking/running). For a guy at his level, I find that very strange, but the Great Messi does the same, so I'll let it slide. Also, van Persie has been USELESS for Holland in the tournament; if he was on form, we might as well have given Holland the trophy already, as he is an excellent player. You could see van Persie getting frustrated when Sneijder or Robben wouldn't give him the ball on counter-attacks late in the game.

Uruguay did score a late goal to make it 3-2, an easy goal where the guy simply walked into the box and side-footed a shot to the far side. I thought it was a weak goal, by far the worst goal Holland has surrendered so far. Uruguay then pressed hard during the final few minutes of injury-time, but it wasn't meant to be. T he "true" cinderella story of this World Cup (over Ghana of course) was now over. By the way, South Africans are still bitching and whining about Ghana's loss to Uruguay in penalty kicks in the quarter-final. All we hear on the radio is people complaining about how technology could have saved Ghana. I'm not sure what game these people were watching, or if they were smoking pot with Paris Hilton in Port Elizabeth, but technology will only be used in the game to determine if a ball crosses the goal line. The Ghana header that was stopped by "villain" Luis Suarez (more like national hero actually) was not even close to generating a debate, and the ref did the only thing he could have done in his power as a referee: give a red card, award a penalty. People here say that soccer rules should be similar to rugby: in rugby, if you foul someone that is in the act of getting a try or kicking a goal (I know nothing about rugby, so you'll have to do your own research), the try or goal is given (kind of like goaltending in basketball). I can’t give an adequate response to such a ridiculous idea, all I can say to them is “go watch Rugby instead”. Heheheh Ok, I’ll settle down now. Hehe

After the game, we just went home to get some sleep. Janel went online for a bit and used the hostel computer to do so. While she was online, some local dude was asking her if she liked South Africa, if she was having a good time, making small talk. That eventually led to him telling her he was looking for a Canadian wife...and that’s when Janel brought me in to settle the situation. Actually, there was no situation, I just said hello to the guy and that was that, he could see my muscles a mile away. So here’s proof that my workouts are paying off. Hehe

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Comments

[Chelsea]

Awe Come on Janel, you couldn't help the guy out!! Way to protect your woman Rob!!