Greg's blog

Africans were feeling optimistic about the continent's chances of competing with the best of Europe and South America after the opening match saw South Africa tie the higher-ranked Mexico. An African man on the bus that night said to me, “An African team will win the World Cup! We want the trophy to stay in Africa. Even if another team wins we will take it from them when they're getting on the plane.”

But now that each of the six African teams has played its opening game, it is looking like a trophy heist might be a necessary route to keeping the Cup on the continent. Algeria lost, Nigeria lost, Cameroon lost, and Cote d'Ivoire tied. The only African team to win was Ghana, who scored their only goal on a penalty kick.

Enthusiasm around Johannesburg isn't dampened, however. Many are still on a high from South Africa's Siphiwe Tshabalala having scored the first goal of the tournament, indeed the first goal overall in the first World Cup in Africa. Local newspapers are not holding back in labeling him a hero either. His mug is on the television screen every night. I'd bet hospitals are seeing newborns named Siphiwe.

Nevertheless, history presents a tough soccer nut to crack for the African teams. The World Cup has been running since 1930, yet the first sub-Saharan African team to qualify was Zaire (present-day Democratic Republic of Congo) in 1974. The farthest an African team has ever gotten in the World Cup is the quarterfinals, which Cameroon made in 1990.

With regard to winning it all, that's a very exclusive club. In 80 years of World Cups only seven different countries have won. Still, the advantage of the home crowd is huge. Ask England, whose only World Cup win was in 1966 on home turf. And ask France, who won for the first time in Paris in 1998. South Africa is far from home for the European and South American powers. South Africa is completely behind every African team. Even visitors, when they watch a game between an African team and a team other than their own, they wholeheartedly cheer for the Africans. This time still for Africa?

Behind me at Soccer City stadium yesterday sat these fans. Their team beat Denmark 2-0, so why are they so confused? There are a number of possibilities.

First, are they from Holland or the Netherlands? And whatever the answer to that question, why are they called Dutch and not Hollish or Netherlanders?

Second, if their flag is red, white and blue (as is painted on their cheeks), then why does their soccer team wear all orange? The blonde woman above is obviously thinking about how these colors clash, which makes her both confused and embarrassed.

Finally, they keep hearing people speak English and some African languages, which they expected, but then others are speaking this weird Dutch that sounds like their great grandparents.

At the opening match between South Africa and Mexico I was given free earplugs at the ticket gate. “For the vuvuzelas,” the man said. “Enjoy the match, sir.”

Still three hours before kickoff time the stadium was afloat in the incessant buzz of vuvuzelas. "It's a beautiful noise for the beautiful game,” says a World Cup advertisement. I lived in Lesotho, inside South Africa, from 2003 to 2007, and I often listened on the radio to the matches between professional soccer teams in South Africa. In the background was always the blowing of vuvuzelas. It was a traditional thing to do, I knew. But this horn drone at Soccer City stadium was different. Much of the blowing was coming from people learning to play the horns on the spot; I'd seen them buy the instruments for 150 rand (about $20) from the hawkers just outside the stadium. An Indian man in a yellow Bafana Bafana jersey seated in my row was getting mostly low fart noises out of his at first, but he kept practicing. Once he and his friends had figured it out my ears didn't get a rest for the whole match. My ears rang as I tried to sleep that night. Vuvuzelas in person were much louder than they seemed on the radio.
Over the last few days, at any time of day, from everywhere I've been in Johannesburg, you need to tune your ears for no more than 30 seconds before you hear a vuvuzela sounding off. This is not tradition either. Before the World Cup, vuvuzelas were only heard in stadiums when big soccer matches were being played. Locals know that, and they are getting tired of it. A Johannesburg shopping mall has banned vuvuzelas from being blown indoors, saying they're afraid it is hurting the ears of children. And the local FIFA organizer is actually open to considering restricting them. Anyone who cries that vuvuzelas can't be banned because they're tradition is lying. Vuvuzelas, the way they are being played around the country these days, is anything but tradition. 

Apparently, in a game of soccer, a tie with the Americans is considered a loss to the English. They really can't accept what happened on Saturday. Immediately after the match I overheard an English teenager talking to his friends, “The Americans did nothing! They had like two shots on goal. They did nothing to earn a draw!”

On the drive home I heard a radio interview with an Englishman who was likewise disgusted, blaming the “loss” on the English goalkeeper: “Green is pathetic. My mother could have stopped that goal.”

And the last night I met an Englishman at the hostel here in Johannesburg whose first words to me were, “You alright, yeah?” I said I was, however he meant it. “Where are you from?” I'm from the States. California. “Ah. Our goalie gave you one, yeah?”

Then he took a swig of his quart of Black Label beer and tried to sell me some pins he had made showing the US and England flags and the date of Saturday's match.

The national soccer teams which are competing in the World Cup have names, like South Africa's Bafana Bafana – Zulu for Boys Boys.

And the team names seem to fall into a couple of categories. Some are named for colors: Les Bleus of France, Oranje of Netherlands, La Roja of Chile, and The All Whites of New Zealand.

There are animals: The Elephants of Ivory Coast, The Super Eagles of Nigeria, The Three Lions of England, and better than those are The Indomitable Lions of Cameroon.

Some team names are helpful, like The Black Stars of Ghana. The flag of Ghana is easy to confuse with Cameroon, unless you remember that it has a black star in the middle whereas Cameroon has a yellow one.

The award for the most ridiculous name has got to go to Australia, who call themselves The Socceroos.

But America seems to be the only team without a name. Although one magazine I read referred to them as The Yanks, every American I've asked isn't aware of such a name.

The first time the US played England in a World Cup match was 1950. This was also the first time England blessed the world with its presence at a World Cup, even though the event had been taking place for two decades already at that point. The English invented the sport, and they strutted into Brazil like heirs to the World Cup crown, arriving only two days before their first match and staying in the touristy area of Copacabana. Then the U.S. beat them 1-0. This is still considered by many to be the biggest shocker in World Cup history.

 Soccer City stadium in Soweto, Johannesburg, just before the World Cup was opened. I arrived at the stadium about five hours before kickoff time. This was the kickoff of the entire World Cup, the first World Cup in Africa, after all. It was cold, windy and hazy. This was Johannesburg in the winter. The stands were empty, but I met Collins. He is from the north of South Africa, Limpopo, where his first language is Sepedi, almost the same as Sesotho. He was going to work at a food stand during the game. I asked him how much they pay him, but he said it was just volunteer work. He would be working for a wage at Peter Mokaba stadium in Polokwane, where other World Cup matches would be played, but he was told to come down and work the opening match in Johannesburg just for practice.

The food stands were pretty American. They served only Coca-Cola beverages, only Budweiser beer, and the only hot food was hot dogs – except what they called a chili dog, which was a hot dog with bits of hot peppers inside. You can keep Americans off soccer, but you can't keep American businesses from making a buck off it.

I bought a chili dog and asked Collins who was going to win today's game between South Africa and Mexico. "South Africa will win 3-0," he said. "I had a dream last night, and my dreams always come true. I couldn't argue with that. Collins continued, "South Africa will also make it to the quarterfinal, definitely. My dream says that in the end there is Brazil, Portugal, Spain and Argentina who will be with the trophy, but I'm not sure which one. I will keep dreaming."I circled the stadium a few times to get a sense of the place. I heard mostly English and Spanish. And though it was still three hours before kickoff, the South Africans were already blowing their horns, called vuvuzelas, incessantly. When they blew them in the face of Mexicans, the Mexicans only smiled. Everyone was just happy to be at such a momentous event. The South Africans loved the sombreros and ponchos of the Mexicans and asked to take pictures together.

 Then I entered South Africa. I took a long distance taxi from the border of Lesotho to Johannesburg, and I was a little nervous along the way because the Johannesburg taxi rank has a bad reputation. Many a Peace Corps volunteer have been mugged there. After nearly five hours of driving, the taxi pulled the city, the epicenter of World Cup 2010.

Littered, dirty streets amid worn down buildings. Africans everywhere, only Africans, which in South Africa means something because in a decent part of any city in the country you have a mix of races. This was definitely not a decent part of Johannesburg. The taxi pulled into a gated dirt lot between two buildings where it stopped and men flocked to the windows and doors.

A man grabbed my bag and asked, “Where are you going?” The passenger next to me, whom I had told, said, Airport. My hostel was right near the airport. “Come,” said the man, and he took my other bag and gave it to his friend. I followed them but took my small bag back because my laptop was inside. “I can carry the small one myself, it's not heavy.”

 “This is Africa's time!” You see the slogan all over. The 2010 World Cup is meant not only to benefit South Africa, but the entire continent, as the first time the event has ever been held on African soil. To this end, FIFA, the organizer of the World Cup, has for the first time allowed countries neighboring the host to accommodate some of the visiting national teams.

So Zimbabwe long ago committed over $200 million to the widening of a highway to Johannesburg, plus renovating airports and hotels. Botswana built a new airport and soccer stadiums. But Lesotho is only now in the midst of revamping its national soccer stadium, Setsoto, as requested by a visiting FIFA delegation back in 2008. So the only country which is literally surrounded by South Africa and the World Cup action will also be the one entirely missing out on direct benefits.