World Cup Excitement

The first of several posts on my World Cup experience around the globe.
When traffic came to a standstill with no signs of it starting to move again we paid our driver and jumped out of the car to finish walking to Ellis Park Stadium. It didn’t take long before the trickle of people turned into a steady stream which converged into a mass patiently waiting in line to go through security and have their tickets taken. You need not worry about finding the stadium the day of a game here in South Africa. You really can just follow all of the people. During the walk I found myself getting a big disgusted, all of the street vendors were selling Spain things! But worse, despite clearly wearing the red and white stripes of the Paraguayan jersey they were trying to sell me Spain gear! I don’t think so! I had already assumed that I would be one of the rare Paraguayan supporters at the match, the sales going on did nothing to dissuade me. Even once we entered into the park things were clearly unequal. The official fan shop was selling 7 different Spain shirts and just 2 for Paraguay. The other goodies…either Spain or South Africa. I guess it means that I’ll just have to cheer all that much harder for Paraguay once the game starts.

After exploring the grounds outside the stadium my friend and I parted ways to find out seats. When you buy last minute tickets you’re lucky enough to get tickets, don’t even think about them being together. We were on completely opposite sides of the stadium, but that’s okay. It just means we spread out the Paraguayan support a little bit more. Sure enough after I crawled over people to my seat I was the only Paraguayan supporter in my section. My friend had it a bit worse as he was surrounded by well decorated and enthusiastic Espana supporters. I think we may have been outnumbered by 1 to 1,000 around the stadium. My amusement came when people questioned me as to why I was cheering for Paraguay. The response of “I live there,” always brought a flat “oh.” They could never give me a good reason why they were cheering for Spain except for the claim that they were supposed to be the best in the world. One man told me it was the only jersey he could find, which after my observations on the way to the park I had to give some credit to. He was excited to help me wave my flag on occasion when I got especially enthusiastic.

Sitting a mere 14 rows away from the field I felt like I was in the middle of things. Watching them walk on and line up for the national anthem I could identify some of the players I've learned to recognize over the past month. After a team huddle the players took their position and the game began. I could easily read the numbers on the jerseys of the players and even felt like I could read their facial expressions at times. Before I knew it the whistle for half time blew, and I was left to consider the scoreless half while the dancer/cheerleaders came out to perform and Zakumi, the mascot for the World Cup, wandered around. With the start of the second half I was drawn back into the battle taking place on the field. I was caught up in the game most of the time but was occasionally distracted by the massive wave working its way around the stadium or a particularly coordinated blowing of vuvuzelas by the crowd. The stadium had such a great atmosphere that I could only think of how incredibly lucky I was to be there. Even though my evening’s story ended sadly with Paraguay’s 1-0 loss to Spain (impressing many people with their level of play along the way) I know that this will be one experience I will not soon forget.