US vs. England – 2010 World Cup

After our night in Pretoria, which is where the US national team is based, we hit the road for Sun City. Try and follow me here.

The game was in Rustenberg, but it didn’t start until 8:30pm. Pretoria was only an 1.5 hours away. So we had a ton of time to kill. We decided to head over to Sun City. Sun City is a massive resort and casino in the middle of freaking no where. I mean no where. It’s a bit like driving to Vegas. It’s just desert and occasionally massive shanty towns that pop up from time to time.

Click here to learn more about the place. I could write a whole blog post about the place.

When we pulled into the parking lot I saw this massive RV.

I saw the sign on the side “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Victory” and thought a ha maybe we could park our car here and catch a ride to the stadium. I stopped right outside of what I thought was the casino to ask two guys, wearing US jerseys, if we were able to grab this bus to the stadium later. To my delight they told me the US national team was training in the gym just on the other side doors.

Most of the guys had by left by the time we had arrived but check out who we got to take a picture with….

After getting a picture with coach, Bob Bradley, we headed over to the casino to watch some of the earlier games. It was super exciting to kick it in one of bars and talk with all the Americans and Brits about the upcoming game.

Kristina here – So after we talked some trash to the English, we headed out to the park and ride by the Rustenberg stadium. We parked the car, painted our faces and headed out. We took a quick picture before the African sun set.

Arriving at the stadium was amazing, everyone was routing for the English or the US. And can I just put out there, that its one thing to route for another country any other time during the year, but its a sin to route for another country during the World Cup. Like I was saying, we arrived at the stadium and EVERYONE was dressed up…

Its been shocking, because the generally not-so-chatty Patrick, has been talking with everyone and anyone about anything, but mostly soccer. We headed in for a game that would end in a draw, but everyone is very thankful, because on a good day, I think England might have done some damage.

My FAVORITE PIC OF THE WHOLE TRIP SO FAR!

We headed out of the stadium around 10:30pm, only to arrive back in Pretoria around 2:30am. 8am will come too quickly, we have to get back to Durban to see Germany vs. Austrailia!

PATRICK Speaking —- Overall the game was an unbelievable experience. Everyone was on such a high. American and British. The vibe was definitely very playful from the Brits. I’d expected a more hostile atmosphere but they were great.

I thought we played very well in the first half, with the exception of the silly goal. We created a lot of great opportunities up front. Micheal Bradley had an outstanding game. I’d only hoped we could have seen Jose Torres come in the line up for Ricardo Clark.

Cherundelo was awesome. Not sure where the hell he was during qualification. Man did he do a number on Milner. He did such a good job Capullo yanked his butt.

The second half was a whole other story all together. We were very lucky to walk out with a tie. Gooch and Demerit stepped it up big time for us to secure a 1 point.

For you folks at home I really can’t express to you what it’s like to see your country performing on this stage. IT’S AWESOME. IT’S INTOXICATING. IT’S ALL YOU WANT TO DO. IT’S LIKE A DRUG THAT KEEPS PULLING YOU BACK. Hence we got tickets for the game on Friday in Joburg against Slovenia. I truly believe we’ll come out on top in that one 2-0. So let’s break out the face paint yet again and loose our voice!

Below are some videos we took of the game.

CAN YOU GUESS WHO IN THIS VIDEO HAD A LITTLE BIT TOO MUCH TO DRINK????