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World Cup newsletter August 2010 |  |
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| Here a special World Cup newsletter from the bush. | |||
| It is already more then a month ago, but we had an unforgettable time here at Amukela during the World Cup football | |||
| in South Africa. In this special World Cup newsletter our adventures. | |||
| It started a few months before the World Cup when a marketing company in Cape Town contacted me. | |||
| They were looking for a football fan in Hoedspruit who could accompany the Dutch TV reporter to the games in | |||
| Nelspruit and Polokwane during the Word Cup. | |||
| My job was to pick up the reporter and drive him to the stadiums where I would sit next to him on the press seat | |||
| and thus be able to see all 8 games in these two host cities! | |||
| If I was interested….? Off course! |
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| The reporter was Jan Roelfs, who works for the Dutch TV. | |||
| He also was team-manager for South-Korea in 2001/2002 | |||
| when they got ot the semi final under Guus Hiddink and | |||
| assistant-coach Pim Verbeek in the World Cup. | |||
| right: Jan Roelfs working on a cold evening in Polokwane, | |||
| During the match France-Mexico. | |||
| top | Before the WC I requested three tickets for all three games of the Dutch team in the group fase. | ||
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Two months before the start of the WC the FIFA e-mailed |
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| me that I got the tickets! | |||
| Miriam and I started to make plans. | |||
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Netherlands against Denmark In Soccer City Johannesburg |
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| was no problem, we would drive up and down on the day | |||
| of the match. | |||
| For this game we would take our friend Kobus from | |||
| Pretoria. | |||
| Above: with Kobus in Soccer-city. At Netherlands-Denemark there were 83.000 football fans! | |||
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| Netherlands against Japan in Durban was a bit more difficult. | |||
| It is over 800 km. drive to Durban and the day after this | |||
| game I had a game in Nelspruit with Jan Roelfs. | |||
| The first plan was to drive up and down there in 1 day, | |||
| but we decided to spend a night in Mooi river, 1 1/2 hour | |||
| north of Durban. So we left home the day before the match | |||
| and drove straight back after the game. | |||
| right: with a Japanse fan on the picture in the beautyful Moses Mhabida Stadium in Durban (70.000 people) | |||
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The match Netherlands-Cameroon in Cape Town was too far away eventhough an internet frind with a guesthouse in |
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| Stellenbosch offered me a place to stay. I decided to sell these tickets and did! A Dutch student who lived in | |||
| Cape town was happy with them. After the World Cup he even stayed at our lodge for a few days. | |||
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Off course we looked forwar: The Netherlands were in a very shape, hadn't lost 27 matches so we assumed they were going to finish first in their group. |
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For the 1/8 final we couldn't get tickets anymore, but on a Sunday-evening I heard on TV that for the |
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¼ finale in Port Elizabeth there were tickets made |
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available! |
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I drove that Monday at 06:00 to the FIFA |
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ticket centre in Nelspruit. And YES! Here I could get 2 |
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for the ¼-finale! |
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| It was a bit of a gamble off-course, the Dutch had to end | |||
| first in their group and also win the 1/8-final. | |||
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And they did! The Netherlands played a historic ¼ finale against |
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| Brasil. We beat them 2-1!! | |||
| Above, the last whistle sounded and we were in the 1/2 finales! | |||
| Unbelievable hapiness in the stadium. |
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| After this we wanted to go to the final, no matter what cost! | |||
| We assumed that the Dutch would win in their 1/2 finale against | |||
| Urugay, which they did! | |||
| Phoning-emailing the FIFA, KNVB etc. , | |||
| my contact at the Duthc national TV, a Mozambiquan who | |||
| had tickets for the final etc, but no succes in getting tickets. | |||
| So we tried our luck with a sign on our car. | |||
| Right on the picture our sign to get tickets for the final, but no result yet... L | |||
| Picture below, minutes before the final started! Sure that we would win the gold this time. | |||
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In Sandton –the business centre of Johannesburg we |
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| went to the Nelson Mandela square, which was very | |||
| cousy with lots of Orange-supporters. | |||
| Here we put our sign on the table, and within 1,5 hour | |||
| we bought our tickets for the final! | |||
| Our bankaccounts were emptied, but we were so happy | |||
| as we would be in the stadium at the Worldcup final | |||
| of the Netherlands! | |||
| Alas....for the 3rd time in history Orange lost in the extra time, leaded by a worthless referee.... Puyol should have got a | |||
| second yellow card, surely if you see the second yellow card | |||
| for Dutchmen Heitinga. Foul play of Iniesta to van Bommel | |||
| was not punished with a red card and a clear corner was not | |||
| allowed deep in the second half of the extra time to Orange | |||
| while we played with 10 men already... In short, this referee | |||
| has influenced the game negatively. It must be said that | |||
| we lost because we never reach to the same level as in the 2 earlier games. It could have happened, and that makes it extra difficult to accept. It is written over our hearts! | |||
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Miriam made a beautiful banner that we took to all the |
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| games of the Dutch team. Amukela greets Oranje | |||
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We gave our staff an official FIFA WC-shirt and a |
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| Bafana-Bafana hat for the World Cup. | |||
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| On the road from Pretoria to Johannesburg to see | |||
| Netherlands-Denmark we saw a lot of Dutch supporters in | |||
| orange on the road, a great sight! | |||
| below: the impressive Soccer city at Netherlands-Denmark | |||
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there were at least 30.000 Orange-supporters. |
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Because of the traffic we were almost too late for the |
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game and we decided to walk the last part while our |
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| friend Kobus parked the car. It is always a great | |||
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experience to walk with so many Dutch fans. |
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| In Soccer-city there was a lot of Orange and a great | |||
| atmosphere! | |||
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| Right: Netherlands-Denmark in soccercity. | |||
| The most beautiful staduim we visited was the one in | |||
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Durban for Netherlands-Japan, the trip there was an |
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| adventure already. On a ‘roadtrip’ of over 800 km one way | |||
| we stopped for one night in Mooi river. | |||
| We slept at the Argyle’s Army Inn, anEnglish pub and hotel | |||
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where we had been once before. |
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The day after we drove to Durban, playing football songs |
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| on the redio to get in the mood. | |||
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| We used a parking permit from the Dutch TV from one of the | |||
| games I did for them to park close to the stadium. | |||
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Again a lot of Dutch supporters, a great atmosphere |
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| and the giant banner of 60 x 40 meter from the Dutch fans | |||
| was showed. (see below) | |||
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The game against Brazil was one we will never forget. |
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| We drove more then 3000 km all across South Africa | |||
| to get there and it was more then worth it. | |||
| The trip there was an experience on it's own. | |||
| Strange thought to be on 1500 km. from your children for a few days. | |||
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| The Fanwalk of the Dutch fans from the FIFA fan fest to | |||
| the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth... | |||
| something we wouldn't have want to miss. | |||
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Looking back it was an unforgettable experience. |
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| I went to 12 WC matches, including 4 of the Dutch team | |||
| together with Miriam. | |||
| We thank the Dutch team for the unforgettable time! | |||
| Fans for life: | |||
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| From Balule: Salani Gahle (goodby) ! | |||
| Miriam & Corné van Dongen. | |||
| Amukela Game Lodge. | |||
| top | www.amukela.com | ||
