Tonight I'm writing from the Cape Town rail station, where I'm on a Metrorail train en route back towards our B&B. This post will be relatively short, partly because the game tonight was relatively uneventful and partly because I'm exhausted after last night's drive and a lot of walking around the Cape Town waterfront this afternoon and evening.
Cape Town's Green Point Stadium is great. While not as large or imposing as Jo'burg's Soccer City, it's every bit as modern. It has a great open feel - it's very bright during the day (its translucent facade let's light pass through), and glows from the inside at night. The bathrooms were below field level and clustered together (rather than spread out across the concourse) which had a dungeon-esque quality to it that I didn't like. That was the one small negative among a sea of positives - it's an excellent venue within walking distance of the city center and the waterfront.
Cape Town is a low key, relaxed city, and this game matched the city's feel. Since Holland had already qualified, and Cameroon was already eliminated, prior to the game, both teams played a quick crisp game and took few chances. The Dutch had two nice goals, and Cameroon scored on a penalty kick - the first I've seen live at this World Cup. the relaxed crowd meant less focus on the game and more focus on blowing vuvuzelas and trying to start the wave, both of which were mildly distracting. I also learned that, in South Africa, a chili dog isn't a hot dog with chili on it, but rather a hot dog with flecks of chili pepper in it. I had one as an after dinner snack, and it was surprisingly good.
Overall, I really liked Green Point stadium. Soccer City is still tops, but this was second best of what I've seen. Next up: Rustenberg on Saturday night. I know that Rustenberg's stadium is a dump, but it won't matter; I'm excited to watch the USA's round of 16 match versus Ghana regardless of where it's played.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
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