Finally the wait is over as FIFA World Cup 2010 is under way. I created a sweep stake at work and had two of the ladies in the office draw the teams and names. When my name was drawn out it was matched with Brazil so I'm pretty happy with that. Brazil are my pick for second in the tournament after a the Argies.
I guess one disappointing aspect about the World Cup being held in South Africa is the timezone. They are some six hours ahead of us and so the games start quite late or very early. I think the Aussies play Germany at 2:30am my time. Luckily I'm on the west coast and the TV station, SBS, is showing games live across Australia...
[We interrupt this blog to bring you the news that South Africa has scored an amazing goal against the run of play against Mexico - Gee, I picked Mexico to win 2-1]
so after the last game of the day there is two hours of programming to be filled in. In the west they show a replay of the last game. So, I could watch the game at 4:30am, not an unreasonable time to rise, without knowing the score and enjoy the match.
At the start of this tournament I weigh 74kgs. Let's see what a month of late nights, early mornings and munchies throughout do to the waistline. Can't be anything good. Hopefully the Aussies don't smash all of their opponents and keep me on the edge of my seat using lots of nervous energy. How many kilojoules could there be in fingernails?
Showing posts with label South Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label South Africa. Show all posts
Friday, June 11, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Bloodshed Predicted for 2010 World Cup in South Africa
Everyone has a prediction for bloodshed and fighting, acts of terrorism and vandalism, racism and horror for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Well, I will join them in this prediction. But I'm not worried about the ghettos or street violence. My concern is on the football pitch. This comes after seeing the absolutely awful tackles carried out by the Socceroos on the All Whites in a "friendly" international last night. Tim Cahill and Vince Grella tackled Leo Bertos with hideous studs-up tackles and he had to leave the pitch on a stretcher. If this is what takes place in a friendly then I expect plenty of blood to be spilt in South Africa. The players don't need to worry so much about unhappy locals as playing the Aussies might be that bit more dangerous and life-threatening.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Tri-Nations Rugby - Matt Giteau vs South Africa
Went to the rugby on Saturday night. A generous vendor supplied me with a ticket. It turned out to be the match between Matt Giteau and South Africa although it was supposed to be the Wallabies (Australia) vs the Springboks (South Africa). Giteau did all the scoring himself apart of the dying minutes try by Lachie Turner.
Match report.
I'd known about the game for weeks and was looking forward to it although I'm not a rugby fan and have never attended a match before. So what do you think happened? Take the boy to his sport, come home and rake the back lawn, cut some grass that was overgrowing and vacuum out the cars. Just as I'm finishing I realised that I was supposed to be somewhere. Looked at my watch and thought that I was supposed to be somewhere 10 minutes ago and it's going to take me about three quarters of an hour to get there. I rang a workmate who was also going but no response. Had a gander at the phone book and found the mobile number of the guys supplying the tickets. Called him to say I would be a bit late and that he could leave the ticket at the gate for me so that I didn't disturb him. Turned out that the place we were supposed to meet had shut the doors to non-members just before he arrived as he'd just missed a train and was slightly late also.
Actually didn't miss anything apart from the national anthems. As we were taking our seats the kickoff took place. The game of rugby union is quite fast. The Springboks completely outplayed the Wallabies and deserved their win. I was a little disappointed that the crowd didn't get into too much but the Aussies were too far behind to threaten really. And Subiaco Oval isn't conducive to large groups of people to get singing together. Well played to the Boks but our boys kept trying hard and made the scoreline look respectable in the end at 32-25. Gee, the game goes so quickly without time-on and only 40 minutes each half.
Afterwards we wandered down to the Subiaco Hotel for drinks and a chat session. So busy. Saw one guy who was a group member of "blokes punching above their weight". But he successfully pulled a bird. Got on quite well with the other match attendees. It was a great night. My clothes sure stank of cigarette smoke afterwards though.
Photos on Facebook.
Match report.
I'd known about the game for weeks and was looking forward to it although I'm not a rugby fan and have never attended a match before. So what do you think happened? Take the boy to his sport, come home and rake the back lawn, cut some grass that was overgrowing and vacuum out the cars. Just as I'm finishing I realised that I was supposed to be somewhere. Looked at my watch and thought that I was supposed to be somewhere 10 minutes ago and it's going to take me about three quarters of an hour to get there. I rang a workmate who was also going but no response. Had a gander at the phone book and found the mobile number of the guys supplying the tickets. Called him to say I would be a bit late and that he could leave the ticket at the gate for me so that I didn't disturb him. Turned out that the place we were supposed to meet had shut the doors to non-members just before he arrived as he'd just missed a train and was slightly late also.
Actually didn't miss anything apart from the national anthems. As we were taking our seats the kickoff took place. The game of rugby union is quite fast. The Springboks completely outplayed the Wallabies and deserved their win. I was a little disappointed that the crowd didn't get into too much but the Aussies were too far behind to threaten really. And Subiaco Oval isn't conducive to large groups of people to get singing together. Well played to the Boks but our boys kept trying hard and made the scoreline look respectable in the end at 32-25. Gee, the game goes so quickly without time-on and only 40 minutes each half.
Afterwards we wandered down to the Subiaco Hotel for drinks and a chat session. So busy. Saw one guy who was a group member of "blokes punching above their weight". But he successfully pulled a bird. Got on quite well with the other match attendees. It was a great night. My clothes sure stank of cigarette smoke afterwards though.
Photos on Facebook.
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