Day 9: The stars were aligned for Argentina!

From left to right: Carlos Tevez, Park Ji-Sung, Lionel Messi, Diego Maradona - (Hence the title of the blog entry, clever ay?)

We just got home from one of the most offensive matches of the tournament.  Five goals in one game.  It was pretty amazing.  On top of that, we got to witness Lionel Messi, FIFA World Footballer of the Year work his magic.  Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg is a beautiful looking stadium, not your normal concrete eyesore:

Argentina fans, at least colors, outnumbered Koreans it seemed at least 5-1 in the stadium.  You wouldn't have known that from our seats as we were in a group of Korean fans.  During the Korean National anthem my dad was actually underneath one of their gigantic flags:

Our seats were only 11 rows from the pitch!

First photo taken by a Korean Fan:

Second photo taken by a Korean fan:

The Korean who took our picture made sure we showed them some love.

Can anyone translate this for me? 

Anyways, the game was a blast!  Check out the video, you'll understand what I mean.  I got all the Argentina goals on video:

After the game we picked up D'Arcy Maine, who grew up in our neighborhood in the West End of Hartford, and we headed to Newtown, Joburg for dinner. D'Arcy is in Joburg working for ESPN.  See some of here previous pieces for ESPN.  From the stories and insights into her sports-writing career, I discovered that she eats lunch with Tommy Smith and is bff with Arsen Wenger.

We got to a large fan park with huge screens just as the Mexico - France game got underway.  However, it was so cold, there were barely 100 people there.  Police outnumbered people literally 15 to 1.  It was pretty surreal.  I mean you hear that Joburg has some dodgy areas, but SA def went all out to make peeps feel safe.  At one point, we asked a police woman where a specific restaurant/street was.  She gave us instructions about 100 meters away and around the corner.  We asked if we could park at the fan park and walk over.  She bluntly said: "You probably shouldn't.  People may take advantage of you.  You only want to walk around in Joburg at night if you are following a policeman 10 meters away."  We actually found it more amusing than scary - at least, we didn't share our anxiety with each other.  I mean, come on, the three of us are seasoned gringos from Hartford...we know how to fend for ourselves...right?  You hear stories of car jackings and such, but you can't live your life in a hole.  My dad puts it best: "You can't do anything if it is your time.  If your number is called - and someone approaches your car with an M-16, just give them what they want and get the F*** out of there!" However, I have some additional words of wisdom that my father could have used in Barcelona a couple years ago - "all you CAN do is make sure you don't advertise your wallet's location in a high-traffic pickpocketer area and everything will be okay!"  Unfortunately there are bad people all over the world.  But all the good far outweighs the bad.  So if the opportunity presents itself, get out and travel!

Enough preaching - we grabbed dinner and watched the end of the game.  My dad ordered Mopane Worms.  These worms are a very important protein source for many southern Africans.  I tried some.  They are actually very tasty.  The texture is surprisingly very crunchy.  They took the taste of the sauce they were in.  I described them as a crunchy soy curd - hey I ain't no food critic....yet.  I would definitely order it again, especially after we read in our guide book that it is one of Hilary Clinton's favorite dished.  D'Arcy and I enjoyed some good ole' South African Fillet to supplement the worms.  

The result of the game, Mexico winning 2-0, does not look good for Bafana, Bafana's hopes of getting to the second round.  Thats unfortunate cause SA would be WILD if they advance.  Still we need to keep the faith!  And damn, originally, I did not give enough credit to Ireland's plead to get to SA.  However, the more I watch France, the more I think Ireland deserves it- at least the Irish would have taken better advantage of the opportunity to play here.

Well, we made it in and out alive.  The most sketchy behavior we witnessed was someone offering us a joint after we left the restaurant.  The same guy then directed us along the path to the parking lot.  Even the drug dealers are kind and courteous here...I love it...

Something for all my lady readers:

Christiano Ronaldo Nike advertisement in downtown Joburg.  

Yea, its bigger than Lebron's in Cleveland.  Be jealous King James!

Something for uncle Bob aka Bop.

I heard Maradona saying: "Bop, wanna grab a Cerveza Quilmes after the game?"

Everyone gets lucky sometimes - referring to the Lakers.

Tomorrow - USA versus Slovenia!

I CANNOT WAIT!

"Viva USA"

Keep in touch!

Max