We just received via email a dispatch from South Africa: friend, former teammate, and archaeologist Rowan Flad on watching the US-Slovenia game last Friday at the FanFest in Cape Town, followed by watching England-Algeria live:

Today [Friday, June 18] we (me and my wife In Paik) attended our first live match of WC2010 – England v. Algeria.  We spent the day exploring Cape Town a little more, after having done Table Mountain and some other sites yesterday, first going to a sweet little coffee shop in Observatory (Obz), the part of town where we are staying, called “Queen of Tarts,” and then heading into the City Bowl area where we had a lunch of African tapas at a joint called “Africa Café.”  We then headed to the District Six museum, which was only a few blocks from “Fanfest” – the designated viewing area where a huge screen had been set up outside city hall for people to watch games.

The District Six museum commemorates a section of Cape Town that had been a very ethnically and religiously mixed area, even throughout the early decades of apartheid, but which was changed to a whites-only area in 1966, with the subsequent removal of all the non-white residents to various townships in the Cape Flats – the wide expanse of flat lands to the east of the Table Mountain highlands.  The museum is very interesting, not only due to its content, but also because they have tried to make it a place where community members can
participate in the exhibit contents, by leaving messages and notes on various parts of the exhibit space.  The museum is also sponsoring a special exhibit on the role of soccer clubs in the history of District Six in an ancillary building, but we have not yet had a chance to visit.  We will try to do that on Monday the 21st, I think.

After the museum we headed back to Fanfest to watch the US-Slovenia match.  Having been to the last couple world cups, it is interesting to compare the way these various fan zones are set up.  In Cape Town, a large open square has been transformed into a cordoned off area with lots of tents selling souvenirs, a couple of mini soccer fields, some other entertainment, and a large stage with a huge screen in front of an open area, the back side of which has a set of bleachers.

Since the weather was nice this day, most of the viewers were not sitting in the bleachers but instead were standing in the open plaza.  On one side there were vendors selling beer, food, and other drinks.  Elsewhere there was some food for sale, and potato chip vendors worked their way through the crowds.  We met up with a few friends including John Todd (a friend from the University of Chicago), Brian Kohn (another U of Cer who I know through John), and several other friends (Nikki, Zahir and Munir).  Everyone was representing our US allegiance to some degree, with John and Brian the most decked out.  The crowd was generally well outfitted in flags, jerseys, and face-paint.

When we arrived there were about 1000 people, maybe, with a dense cluster of people wearing US gear near the front left, and a sparser crowd throughout the rest of the area.  Lots of people were in English colors as well, since the game in the evening would involve their team.  Despite having seen a few large clusters of Algeria fans before we went to the museum, few were at the Fanfest, most probably having headed to the stadium fairly early. The US fans were active and excited as the game began, and once 10 minutes had passed without conceding a goal (a rare feat for the US, it seems), we hoped that the US was going to start picking up the pace.  Unfortunately, just a few minutes later Howard was flat-footed by a 30 yard shot and the US was down early once again.  Some cheers went up scattered about the crowd, mostly from locals or English fans, but there was not a large pro-Slovenian contingent, and even the anti-US crowd was fairly small and scattered.  Of course the goal put a bit of a damper on the crowd activity, which was not helped by the generally poor play by the US team throughout the first half.  A near miss just before half-time, and the late Slovenian goal really put the crowd in a sour / somber mood during halftime.
During the 15 minute break, two South African “crowd encouragers” came out on the stage with a couple of large, plastic vuvuzelas and tried to hype up the group.  Knowing that the crowd was mostly US fans, they tried, perhaps insincerely, to assure us that a lot could happen in the second half.  I am sure they did not actually know how prescient they would be.

Of course it started out great, with two chances in the first few minutes, including, of course, the wonderful goal by Donovan. The crowd definitely perked up, going wild at the time of that goal and then seething in anticipation with each chance the US had, and cringing during the much less frequent Slovenian chances.  When the second goal happened, the crowd absolutely erupted – high fives all around and beer flying everywhere.  The chances kept coming, and goal number three created real mayhem around us.  I, unfortunately, saw very quickly that it had been disallowed, but most other people were whooping and hollering for nearly a minute before the news of the foul got to them.  At that point (and even up to now) we couldn’t figure out what had been called, but play went on, and the last few minutes were tense as Slovenia had a few more chances before the final whistle blew – certainly a
bittersweet ending.  I think everyone felt good about the comeback, but there was this distinct feeling of having been cheated.  In any case, the England and South African fans we spoke to throughout the rest of the evening were very supportive of the US after they showed heart to come back, and were robbed of the winner.
We had some dinner near the Fan Zone at a restaurant that served very slowly….And then we headed off on the one mile walk to the stadium.  The walk was great, they had a long avenue blocked off for pedestrians lined with street vendors, dancers, restaurants, and bars.  We were in a bit of a rush, having been delayed by the restaurant service, but made it to the stadium with ½ hour to spare.  Getting through security took a while, but we were in our seats in time for the anthems.  That was fun, since we were fairly close to the major
Algerian fan section, and they were really into it.

The stadium, on the whole, looked like an England home game.  The cross of St. George hung everywhere, with a few exceptions, and even though there was a dense, fanatic England section down at the far end from us, where the supporters were well organized, England fans outnumbered Algerians (and neutrals) two or three to one.  Many of the US fans in the audience, who were scattered here and there, were partial to Algeria for reasons that had to do with advancing from the group. I too, was hoping for what we got – a 0-0 tie.

But from a soccer fan’s point of view (rather than a US partisan viewpoint), I would have preferred a 4-4 tie, or something similarly obscene. What we got was a decent game, with a few good chances, and lots of skill, but no goals.  One regret was that we did not even get a chance to see a corner kick (by either team) from the corner where we were situated (SE), which would have been fun since we were so close to the bottom.  In any case, this 0-0 game
was not a clunker like the France v. Uruguay stinker on day 1.  US fans were happy afterwards, and the English were apoplectic.  All in all, a good day.