Australian Dissapointment

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Geo: -29.853, 31.0164

After waiting so long for the World Cup, and travelling half way accross the world to watch Australia compete for it, it proved to be the most tragic anticlimax imaginable.
Ironically, the 26 hours of being awake between our 2.30am pickup on Monday here and the time we got back Tuesday at 4.30am, were the worst 26 hours of the entire trip so far, for several reasons.
Firstly, the cringable incompetence of the Fanatics tour group continued. I cant imagine why it was neccessary to collect us at 2.30am... some 18 hours before kick off...
When they did so, we made our way almost to the airport before they realised they had to turn back and pick up other fans from a hotel even further away from the airport than we were, wasting a good 90minutes in the early hours of the morning.
Arrival at the Durban Fanatics HQ didnt bring any further happiness. Breakfast was terribly cooked/ smoking and took over an hour in line to get.
95% of the Fanatics fans-base as well.. makes you want to have a shower just being associated with them... The Australian fans are loud, rude, obnoxious, horrifically unintelligent, naive, offensive, tacky and arrogant (without any justification). The fans are largely either 20-30 year old guys who offend anyone in their presence and lack any sort of dignity whatsoever (eg. walking and urinating simultaneously on their way out of the stadium), or 40-50 year old, overweight, angry, drunk, VB passionate dickheads with facepaint and yellow wigs...
Matt and I met up with Nick & Co in Durban for drinks, and to watch the earlier games. That was fun, even though neither game was very exciting. Also met some cool locals which was good.
The game itself was tragic to say the least.
Both the managerial tactics, team strategy, effort, application and mental fortitude on the pitch was an utter disgrace at best. I never liked Verbeek and he really showed he has the tactic nous of some sort of lowlands ape.
Starting with 0 strikers, and our best player up forward on his own, isolated and taken out of the game, was not prudent against Germany, who really gave Australia an utter masterclass. In addition to the fact that Cahill received a (harsh) straight red card, his world cup group stage is now over, and as a result, Australias world cup is likely over too.
Over a year of waiting, and then an absolute shaming of epic magnitude to lose it all right off the bat, there was NOTHING positive to take from this game for Australia. Full credit to Germany too, who played some beautiful football.
Then all that was left to do was drag myself back to Cape Town via painful bus and plane transport...
What a terrible 24 hours.
Henceforth im all for the Dutch and all for Holland.
Next game, Italy Vs Paraguay.

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Photos

Durban Fanatics HQ
Where the majority of Australians were camped for the World Cup in a cricket stadium down the road from world cup stadium in Durban

Durban HQ2'
I think bunking with these vulgar peasants for more than a day would have been seriously depressing

Fun at the Airport
Organisation was lacking.. AGAIN ... at 3.30am at the Airport in capetown

Kicking Back
Exhausted from an early start i gathered a collection of beanbags to chill out

Matt loves Fanatics
The Australian spirit fills my friends heart.

Relaxing
ahh.. Australian shirt removed.. it feels good to be nude.

Bling Chills out
lil bling is equally exhausted from being dragged from bed way too early

Zulu dancers
put on an interesting display

Zulu gear
Very stylish

Checkers!
This one is for my pet rabbit - Checkers

Speedy Nick
Nick flies the flag for Australia in the cab, approaching the speed of light

Taxi Fun
Interesting Taxi ride through Durban... squished in the middle with no seat belt going a casual 150km/hr...

Durban Stadium
Arriving at the Stadium. Very impressive. Similar to cape town, but open air..

Drinks in Durban
Found some locals in Durban (well the guy was actually american) who took us under their wing and to some local bars.
For the record, they had chocolate vodka shots here, which were awesome!!

Comments

[Liat]

Love reading your updates Kris and your pics make me all homesick! Told you South Africans were the best people though, didn't I ;-)?Hope it gets better from here - the safari will make up for it all! (hopefully that's NOT with your Fanatic
s group)

[demac]

really disappointed to hear about the behavior of the other aussies there but not that surprised honestly.do lucas neill and craig moore look as slow in real life as they do on tv? they're not good enough for this level. but it's not ALL ba
d. i'm 90% sure lil' timmy can return against serbia and harry hasn't suffered gout as of yet : ) heads up boys, don't give up on the socceroos just yet!

[Lazlo]

lol, loved every word of it..and Im not suprised by the disgraceful pride by the aussies. I share your views. I love the country but......

[tofor85]

The fans are horrific and i will just have to tolerate it as best as possible.More importantly, the team was horrific... Neill isnt any better than Craig Moore at the back and the Germans carved them apart without breaking first gear...Paul
.. I can hear the horns 24-7... its like a dull buzz that wont go away.. Sounds like theres mosquitos flying about..Good to hear about Indoor! I miss playing soccer!! Its been 2 weeks and i havnt kicked a ball!!