As I sit here watching the intro to the Mexico, South Africa game and seeing the beautiful views of Soccer City, I can feel my eyes watering up a bit. I have been looking forward to this day ever since my brother went to France '98 to support our beloved Albirroja. I did rearrange quite a bit in my life so that I could have the privilege of attending this year, namely graduating in 4 years (I never would have tried that hard otherwise, honestly) and saving up thousands of dollars, but my work is nothing compared to that of the South Africans. South Africans have been waiting for this day for 6 years. They have been waiting to prove the world wrong and show that they can be the first African nation in history to host the World Cup. They faced setbacks that left many people doubting, but here we are today seeing these aerial shots of soccer city on ESPN HD (of course) packed with 90,000 beautiful people. I feel honored to soon be one of the attendees! I won't get into how excited I am from a development perspective, but I do hope the World Cup is just a step towards great things to come. Unfortunately, Nelson Mandela can't make the game or the opening ceremonies due to the tragic death of his 13 year old granddaughter, but his hard work has led up to this day and can't be forgotten.
So now... South Africa versus Mexico.
Good luck, Bafana Bafana!
YES! Wooo hooo! So happy for you, girl! I know you had a BLAST! More crazy stories to tell the kiddies one day! haha! And that is so true about South Africa and what this means for them. Finally, dang it! People are such ignorant buttholes toward African nations.
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