The World Cup started today in South Africa and let me tell you now, us Nevilles down here in Knoxville have the friggin’ WORLD CUP FEVER!!!
The opening ceremony was absolutely phenomenal. We both had goosebumps. And we’ve both been at work all day, streaming the ceremony & first match on our computers. But yes, the opening ceremony was just breathtaking and inspiring. We were both watching on ESPN 360 (shout out to them for streaming it) and the audio was crap for most of it, but it was still amazing. One of Miriam Makeba’s songs from Pata Pata was sang by a woman during the opening ceremony. The audio wasn’t plugged in at that point so I don’t know who sang or what song, but I was barely able to make out that it was a Makeba song from Pata Pata. R Kelly was there and he sang too. Other rappers sang and more classically trained singers performed as well. The dancers were just WONDERFUL too. It was better than any Olympic opening ceremony I’ve ever seen.
Can you tell we have the fever?
Some screenshots of the opening ceremony:
And then, the first match. South Africa versus Mexico. Supposedly the best team Mexico has ever put forth for the World Cup. And South Africa is the lowest seeded nation to ever host the World Cup. Predicted to be a Mexico victory. Mexico, by far, dominated the first half. Announcers speculated South Africa was specifically instructed not to let the excitement of the stadium overwhelm them. Who knows, its just conjecture (as far as I know). Second half begins, South Africa gets a goal. CHANGES THE WHOLE MOMENTUM OF THE GAME. RSA just freakin’ brought the HEAT after that. And Mexico definitely answered with their own heat. Mexico scored a goal in the second half as well. The game ended in a tie. There was a Mexico goal in the first half (I think it was the first half) that did not count because a ref called it offsides. Die-hard Mexico fans will claim that this was a bullshit call, but really… c’mon. That’s all part of the game. Anytime your fav team gets a bad call, someone is gonna call it bullshit. Anyways, it didn’t count and the first game of the World Cup, in my opinion, went really well. It wasn’t a 0-0 game, it wasn’t a killing, both teams got on the board, Mexico has nothing to be ashamed of because they dominated the majority of the game, and South Africa has nothing to be ashamed of because they are hosting, they got the first goal of the 2010 World Cup, and they didn’t lose. All in all, off to a great start.
Can you tell we have the fever now?
Uruguay & France are coming on in about 30 minutes. We are going to the bars tomorrow with friends and getting ROWDY for the US v. Brits game. It’s gonna be INTENSE!!!
Except for in this analogy the robbers are the mean Grinch and they obviously never have the revelation that the Whos in Who-Knoxville wanted their things back. Anyways….
