I’ve been at a B&B in Joburg that did not have internet access, so forgive the retrospective posting:
I stayed up all night to watch the Celtics fall ignominiously to the Lakers, and went straight to the airport. My planned car hire showed up 75 minutes late to Lanseria airport (which purports to be a convenient, easy access route to Joburg — it isnt; it’s tiny and manageable, to be sure, but it’s farther away than OR Tambo on much less accessible roads) but I finally got in to my B+B, a ramshackle startup geared largely toward World Cup visitors that claims to be located near Melville, but is not in any practical way close.It was a pretty shady neighborhood (“No walking outside after dark!” we were warned).
I only had a bit of time to get settled in and then head to Ellis Park for the US-Slovenia game. Not shockingly downtown Joburg was absolutely hopping so that the ride there was slow with lots of stopping and starting, but also lots of chances for people watching. Every business in Joburg, multinational megacorporation or seat-of-the-pants individual hustler, is trying to capitalize on the World Cup. Ellis Park is a utilitarian stadium that is far from beautiful (but to be fair also far from ugly) but that will always have a place in the hearts of many South Africans for being the location of the improbable 1995 Springbok victory against New Zealand’s mighty All Blacks that brought them the World Championship and the famous images of sport serving the purposes of reconciliation and nation building, a process that continues and escalates with this World Cup.
One can (and I have) start a pretty healthy debate among rugby fans by asking whether Ellis Park or Loftus Versfeld is the spiritual home of South African rugby. But for this month, at least, both serve as homes for global football’s showcase event. The US-Slovenia game was fantastic, one of the best of the World Cup thus far. The US fell behind early on a powerful shot from about 20 yards out. US defenders gave the shooter a chance to turn in space and Tim Howard was caught in no-man’s land. For the first half hour or more Slovenia controlled the pace of the game, playing rigorous defense and relying on a quite potent counterattacking game. The US soon figured out Slovenia’s style, though, and for much of the rest of the match was on the attack, sometimes relentlessly so. Slovenia nonetheless managed to use that counterattack on a breakaway to go up 2-0, at which point many of us in the stadium assumed that the US highlight would be the draw with England and that the end result would be another disappointment showing that US soccer just isn’t ready for prime time.
But a funny thing happened on the way to humiliation. The US woke up, mounted a ferocious comeback — Landon Donovan scored early enough in the second half, on one of the great goals of the tournament so far, to stave off desperation, and Michael Bradley equalized soon after on a nifty header that showed that the US can play a passing game too. Almost every significant play in the second half seemed to go through Jozy Altidore, including the shot that should have been the game winner but that was called off on what seems pretty much universally to be believed to be a howler of a terrible call. The ref would not explain what the call was, just that the goal was disallowed. That is, of course, maddening, because while salvaging a draw is nice, the reality is that the US must beat Algeria in order to have reasonable hopes of advancing. Now, the US should be Algeria, but the North Africans play a stingy defense that has flustered opponents so far, including an increasingly frustrated England side that also needs to win to advance.
From Ellis Park commenced what seemed like practically an American parade to Melville, as I think my countrymen outnumbered the locals, at least in some places. That was understandable given the game, though from here on out I’d as soon not be in crowds that could as easily have been mistaken for Washington, DC or Seattle.
