RobbyRicc: The Finals

That's Soccer City with Joburg (Joeys) in the background. Pretty cool pic.

Spain meet the Dutch on Sunday evening in the finals of the 2010 World Cup. I've been lucky enough to go to quite a few matches, having managed to acquire the follow-my-team-Australia tickets via my resourceful brothers (long story!).

Here are a list of the matches I have attended: Argentina v Nigeria; Germany v Australia; Netherlands v Denmark; Brazil v Korea; Slovenia v USA; Australia v Ghana; Brazil v Ivory Coast; Australia v Serbia; Slovakia v Italy; USA v Ghana; England v Germany; Japan v Paraguay; Germany v Argentina; Germany v Spain; Spain v Holland.

I've seen 8 out of the 10 stadiums, met a whole bunch of different people and thoroughly enjoyed being South African. I'm quite proud actually of what our not-quite-so-3rd-world country has achieved.

Pre-England v Germany lunch at Jimmy's Killer Prawns in Bloemfontein. Alby is rarely without his Roma scarf. If you cut his veins they bleed red and yellow. Mine too.

The score and game which caused plenty of controversy. German domination. If the ball that wasn't in, which was actually in, was called in, it may have been a different game as the English were on a roll and a 2-2 score would have motivated the teams differently.

Going to my brother-in-law's 40th birthday in Noordhoek (Cape Town) dressed as a Paraguayan fan.

Preparing for the Battle of Greenpoint Stadium against the Deutsche. The might of the Germans killed the imagination of the Argentines and Argentina's chosen one, Lionel Messi, struggled to inspire as he had done for the rest of the tournament. But then he is still only 23 years old.