Vuvuzela Mania

In preparation for the World cup next year, South Africa just hosted the Confederation Cup. The confederation cup includes the winners of the contininents leagues, the previous world cup winner and the host country. My friend Nick had managed to get tickets for the final game, which we were excited about. Little did we expect that the US would pull off a major upset over Spain to win a spot in the final. In addition to the four of us originally going, another 10 from Swaziland ended up making the trek to Jo'burg for the final. The atmosphere in the stadium was incredible. There was so much energy and noise. The majority of the stadium was cheering for Brazil, but there were pockets of US fans. The majority of the noise in the stadium came from what is called the "vuvuzela". These are plastic horns that make a deep sound almost like a foghorn. These are common at South African games, but are relatively new to the international seen and do not appear to be so welcome. There has been talk about whether to ban them from the World Cup, but it does not seem like that will happen. The horns are quite loud, almost deafening if it is close to you, and relentless before, during and after the game.

We had the cheap seats that were behind the south goal. The nice thing about the seats is that they were close to the field and provided us a great view of the US team warming up. Including our AMAZING goalie, Howard.
One of the young rising stars, 19 year old Josie Altidore and his blue shoes.

And the experienced captain of the team, Donovan.
We had all had a great time. I would do it again in a heartbeat, despite the fact that we awoke at 4 am on Monday morning to make it back for work! It was my first official trip to Jo'burg proper and I survived. Plan to check it out more when I get back from my trip home.