Re: [NDR] World Cup 2010 Lead Up Thread Appears to have shaken El Tri, big chances for RSA. Now Blanco in, wow this is not going as planned (sofar) and the press will have a field day.
Re: [NDR] World Cup 2010 Lead Up Thread And there was I watching ESPN and wondering "Why is the pbp in Arabic"?. Took me 60 minutes to realize that was also in English two clicks away
Re: [NDR] World Cup 2010 Lead Up Thread RSA was on the doorsteps of the 2nd goal after the 1st goal. Still, Mexican press is gonna be pissed. 1-1.
Re: [NDR] World Cup 2010 Lead Up Thread Fair result. Mexico was the better team for the first 30 minutes and S.A. looked more dangerous in the second half. Looks like the hosts won't be the push-overs people predicted.
Re: [NDR] World Cup 2010 Lead Up Thread Agree on the fair result given the halves that each team played, in the end El Tri was lucky that the shot from Mphela hit the post. Still not sold on the host team but will have to see which teams actually show up in the game between France and Uruguay. RSA can live with this point a lot better than El Tri, that's for sure.
Re: [NDR] World Cup 2010 Lead Up Thread My Dutch Dynamo friends wrote from Dubai last night, they said their flight there was full of fans of all nations but there were lots of Dynamo fans on it too. They were supposed to get into Joburg about the time the Mexico game started, but I haven't heard from them today.
Re: [NDR] World Cup 2010 Lead Up Thread Let's just say that it makes the group much more interesting.
those f*ing vuvuzelas are ruining my world cup experience.... more so than mexicos poor performance...
In both games on Univisión they've mentioned that they don't sell bottles with their caps on in the stadium. Apparently Univisión has never bought a Coke at Robertson Stadium.
In case you missed it: The Daily Show went to the USMNT camp. Pretty funny stuff. http://bit.ly/a3xNOc
france vs uruguay t.henry calling for a handball... HE knows what a handball is, and THAT wasnt a handball..LOL...
pretty annoying because you will hear no singing or actual crowd cheers. All you will hear is that constant drone. Hopefully we will see more fans from other countries at other games. Barely saw any Mexican fans, French, or Uruguayan fans at the 2 games. May have been hard to see the Mexican's because of the green in both teams colors.
i saw 3-4 sections full of green, could tell bc of the mex flags draped over the rails.. anyways... some stats i found... • Mexico completed 491 passes to South Africa's 238. Its passing accuracy was 86.1 percent, its highest single-match percentage at the World Cup since 1966, when the statistic was first tracked by Opta Sportsdata. • South Africa scored a goal even though it only had 34.6 percent of the total touches. That's the lowest total by any team that has scored a goal at the World Cup since 1966. • The host country is still undefeated (14-0-6) in its opening match. • Rafael Márquez scored his 11th career goal for Mexico, his first since September 2008. It was his second World Cup goal; he also scored against Argentina in 2006 in the round of 16. -- ESPN Stats & Information
its not bad calling home from the payphone, but its easier to buy some internet time and communicate back home through e-mail/facebook. let me tell you this: this FIFA transportation crap is so disorganized. unbelievable! i took a ride through Hillbrow tonight because our South African driver got lost. no yeah, he got lost in his own city! it got so bad the South African passengers on the bus got into a fight with him, because they all told him he was going the wrong way and was going to put tourists in a dangerous situation. that being said, South Africans have been incredible. they're seriously great hosts. two locals stayed way past their stop to make to make sure the 15 or so tourists got to transportation hub safely. they went way beyond! Soccer City is beautiful. i can't wait to get home and post some pictures and videos. by far, the best stadium i have ever been in, esp at night.
btw, believe it or not my experience tonight at Soccer City for the opening game has been surpassed by the fact that i just met and took a picture in my hotel lobby with Chilean international Ivan 'bam-bam' Zamorano. his in the top 5 of my list of greatest palyers i ever saw play live. if you don't know bam-bam, you don't know football.
Wow, you must not have been watching closely. There were some sections full of Mexican fans, and there were Mexican flags and banners everywhere. There were also Uruguayan and French fans and flags everywhere. I was watching on Univisión cause that was the only HD I could get (thanks to a stupid water oak that blocks my HD satellite) so maybe they showed more fans than on ESPN.
hey, i just met and had a 10 minute conversation with Ivan 'bam-bam' Zamorano!!! anyone around here ever watch football!!! i acted like a total btch too. that has never, never, never, never happened to me and i've met the majority of the current Mexico roster. after i dropped the 'i'm kind been on a radio show too' he invited me to go meet Luis Hernandez at the Mexico post-game after party. i said, "why would i want to meet Luis Hernandez when i've met you". i think he blushed. bwahahaha.
Rey is our the Perez Hilton. jaja Keep living it up bro. BTW, what was that staircase to no where for ? was it on only one corner?
Uruguay plays athletic defense the way I wish the Dynamo would. Hard to score on a defense the French couldn't get behind (save perhaps Ribery). See why I want defenders who can run? The group is going to be interesting. Uruguay has a good shot at coming out of its South Africa game on 4 points. Meanwhile I expect one of France and Mexico -- whoever cracks next game, and I think someone will -- to still be stuck on a point with a game to go. I was surprised that Mexico was so cagey (4-5-1 fronted by Franco?, didn't really go for the neck) for a team playing its softest opposition. Mexico seemed content to pass the ball around the perimeter and never really mixed it up with those slashing runs up the middle that can make them dangerous. They may rue the lost points when they get into the upcoming dogfights with France and Uruguay, though I think they may fare OK against the French if the game opens up, France having a shaky keeper and many solid but few dynamic players (Diaby and Ribery, IMO). I think South Africa will be the first host to crash and burn in a group stage, but the rest of the group is going to be a toss up that will come down to either who can steal a win or maybe even some sort of tiebreaker.
the best part of being here is you get to sit down and have football conversations with people who are knowledgeable and passionate about the game. on the plane ride it was a Irish Celtic fan, Wed it was an English Everton fan and his Nottingham Forest friend, the other day it was a Bulgarian fan (i couldn't make out the name of his team) and a some dude from Maritius. the best dude was a Northern Irish fellow. we couldn't make out his shirt, but when we did i told my cousin "oh, it N. Ireland". he turned around and said you "know us" and i said "i know George Best" and he then proceeded to give me a bear hug (i thought he was mugging me). ironically, some of the most rudest fans we've met up were 2 US fans. i'm confused, do you guys really think that Mexico fans are big meanies don't worry, met a cool California girl that chatted us up and made up for the 2 young angry dudes.
Did anybody else notice at the start of the Argentina/Nigeria game, you could actually here singing and voices cheering? They actually drowned out the horns, at least at first. I think that's the first time I've heard voices, rise over the horns, other than the "putos" during the Mexico game (which in itself was pretty amazing, against the home team).
brahma. i don't think the stands are 'miked' for games. when RSA scored last night it was one of the loudest, most intense crowd noise i had ever heard. when i saw the replay on large screen tv it was hardly noticeable. same thing when they sung the RSA anthem.