We left the Apartheid Museum in a hurry because we had tickets to the Brazil vs. Côte d’Ivore (Ivory Coast) game and we were starving because we had not eaten yet, and we were looking for something fast and sure enough, we came across CANTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN in freaking South Africa…which we’ve come to realize are everywhere. Second to McDonalds, KFC is probably the second most sighted fast-food joint! Unfortunately, desperate times called for a mashed taters and fried chicken, I’m embarrassed to say…My cousin joked if the South Africans even knew where Kentucky was located?
So we made it to “Soccer City” in Johannesburg after all the traffic and it was quite the spectacle. We took Jake along for the ride because we were sure we could find a ticket from someone…were we wrong. There were NO Tickets to be found, so we had to leave Jake outside and went into the game.
The stadium was FULL of Brazilians…and there were a lot of HOT Brazilian ladies too. Poor little Ivory Coast managed to have two little sections. I would say 95% of the stadium was supporting Brazil and the remaining 5% were unfortunately the poor Ivory Coast fans. We got there early enough to hear the introductions and everyone in the stadium went nuts for Kaká and Didier Drogba (Subash’s Favorite Player). Lucky for us, Drogba played and was the Captain for Ivory Coast that night; we were worried we wouldn’t be able to see him play because he was injured.
This was also the first match where we saw a lot of Indians in the stands, mostly supporting Brazil…I’m talking, old, young, men, women, children – the sheer number of Indians at the game caught me off-guard. The attendance for that night was around 84,000 (which made traffic a nightmare when we were leaving). I was supporting Brazil with my AWESOME scarf that Atiya got me…so VIVA BRASIL and thank you Atiya!! The match was AMAZING to say the least and atmosphere was probably the best I’ve been a part of, up to this point. Brazil beat up on Ivory Coast, but Drogba got a late goal to make it 3-1…a respectable loss.
Talking about Drogba, I read articles of how this man has influenced his country to stop Civil War, but I saw his power first hand that night. He took a shot at goal and missed, but when he missed, he turned to the Ivory Coast fans and raised his arms gesturing them to wake up and the stadium was in an UPROAR! Luckily Jake ended up finding a ticket and found us in the stadium…the luck of the traveler!
No comments:
Post a Comment