Day20: England v Slovenia
Trip Start
Jun 04, 2010
1
18
277
Trip End
Jun 04, 2011
Where I stayed
Afro Vibe Lodge
Port Elizabeth - George, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
At the hostel we stayed in Jeffry's Bay, we met a girl who was also going to Port Elizabeth for the match so we offered her to give a lift to the stadium but she was Slovenian....!
She was nice girl actually though :-)
She is called Tina and working at Soccer City stadium as a volunteer. As she is a translator (German, English and Slovenian), she is working for a language support but there is nothing to do apparently.
She told us that the organisation of the World Cup is very poor. There are so many staff at the stadium but they are not told what to do so people are just hanging around there doing nothing.
Perhaps they have not experienced big football tournament like this so they, even supervisors, are not sure how to respond and how to manage the situation.
But we were discussing that probably they had to experience this to learn how to organise these events.
People in South Africa are genuinely so happy for the fact that the World Cup is here.
It definitely raised the awareness of football and I hope African football will make a progress through this tournament as it did in South Korea and Japan.
Anyway, after 45 minutes drive from Jeffry's Bay, we arrived at Port Elizabeth.
They have organised Park & Ride which was working very well actually.
It was easy to spot the signs on the road. It was free to park and there was frequent shuttle service between parking - stadium - Fan Fest.
We arrived there earlier than other people so we headed to the Fan Fest.
In Port Elizabeth, a cricket ground is used for Fan Fest which is quite good idea.
There are loads of seats already there and people were just doing a picnic on the grass.
There were some food stall there so I bought chicken curry (R15! Good value!) and ate it on a grass. It was a gorgeous day so we just stayed there until the match starts.
Port Elizabeth's Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium looked like whipped cream!
As you could see on TV as well, most of the fans were English, I would say almost about 85%.
It was like England home game!
England played much better than the last game against Algeria and created more chances.
Capello took Hesky off and used Defoe instead. Which worked. He scored in the first half to secure England leading the match.
They could score more goal in the second half but missed a few chances. Luckily Slovenia didn't play well for this match which leaded England 1-0 win.
It was not a brilliant match but at the group stage, going to the next round will be the most important thing I guess.
Unfortunately or fortunately, USA scored at last minute which made USA a top of the group.
Meaning that England face Germany at next round....
Anyway. England through to the next round.
We had to quickly head back to parking because a hell of driving was waiting for us.
We decided to drive down to George this evening so we headed back to Jeffry's bay, picked up our backpack and off to George. 3 hour driving on pitch black road was not the most comfortable thing to do.... Well I didn't drive but Daniel did obviously so thanks...! Cos I fell asleep as usual!
There is no light on road in South Africa and some of the roads are not smooth. Plus some animals or humans pop out on the road in the middle of nowhere...!
Finally we arrived at George at 23.30 and just crushed in a hostel called Afro Vibe Lodge.
(Japanese team is based in George by the way!)
We slept like a log.
