[Editor’s note: This is the final installment in Coach Larry’s account of his trip to South Africa for WC2010. See his previous SA dispatches here.]
Poor weather drives us away from the beachfront and up to Umhlanga to the mall for some shopping in the largest mall in the Southern Hemisphere. Disappointingly, I cannot locate the indoor roller coaster, though it does feature a climbing wall and a goodly number of surf shops. Over and after lunch we see the surprisingly entertaining Germans roll through the English as if every English defender has lost all sense of position. The evening match and dinner prove not much more exciting, though it does horrifyingly display more inept refereeing. Alas, we have worse ideas than an early bedtime, as tomorrow brings us Netherlands v Slovakia.
We make an early trip to Victoria Market, acquiring a mish-mash of souvenirs after walking well past the structure, getting a bit lost in the day market. At least I have some peri-peri spice for the World Cup Final party back home (fyi, it was pretty good). A quick beer over at Wilson’s Wharf gets us off our feet, but we return our treasures home to head to the match. Back down the hill we walk. We barely make it past the top of Florida Road before we start mixing with head-to-toe Orange clad Dutch fans. The two miles go quickly as we continue to pick up jumpsuits, admiral outfits, curly wigs, and cow hats. There was even an Houston Dynamo (Holden) kit thrown into the mix. As the extreme wind nearly carries away my pre-match beer, I worry the action might get affected.
Group F fixtures & results:
We’re not liveblogging this one, as the game is already in the 29th minute, and in fact Paraguay just scored to go up 1-0. But we’ll use our liveblogging format nevertheless for some notes and observations about the match–probably mostly about the Paraguayan side, as we’re guessing they’re the more likely to advance out of the group.