USA! USA!

The USA-Algeria match was not in Durban. Durban, however, like all World Cup host cities, has a FIFA Fan Fest. It's an area with lots of food, amusements,drinks, people and, most importantly, giant screens to watch the World Cup matches. I headed down to the Fan Fest right after work (the match started at 4:00pm, I took off a little bit early - it's a very relaxed work environment), so I was able to catch the start of the match.

Wow. Just, wow. For those of you who don't follow soccer or didn't watch the match, it not worth it to try to describe the match (I'm not a sports writer, after all). I will say this: it was the most tense, gut-wrenching, edge-of-you-seat, emotional nintey-four (the four due to stoppage time) minutes I can remember. When Landon Donovon [10] scored the winning (and only) goal in the 91st minute, the beach erupted. I had gotten my face painted at half-time (USA on my cheeks and stars around my eyes), so everyone knew I was in the right camp. When I'm abroad, I don't usually like to advertise that I'm American, but, I have to say, this time I was pretty proud.

Tonight, I'll be going to the Portugal-Brazil match, here in Durban. Then, I'll be taking an over-night bus to Johannesburg, where I'll get on another bus to Rustenburg, where I'll be watching the USA-Ghana match. That was a very spur-of-the-moment decision, but, for the USA, I figured it was worth it. I'll be posting pictures and thoughts on my weekend when I get back. Wish me luck on this adventure!

Below, you can see more, clearer pictures of the stadium at Durban:

(A very accurate sand replica of the stadium.)