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Oh My God, I Care!
Here's a confession: up until very recently I was a total World Cup Scrooge. Didn't give a shit about football, most certainly didn't like this FIFA thing, and had a nasty attitude toward vuvuzelas in general.
So I didn't buy any tickets to the matches, didn't have a Bafana Bafana jersey, and had a back-up plan to run away to Grahamstown for the duration of the tournament.
Well, finances and work schedules made Grahamstown a no-go for me this year, and in a strange turn of events I found myself at the FIFA Fan Park on the beachfront, along with 30,000 other people (most of whom had Bafana jerseys and vuvuzelas).
I milled around for a while and got confused about the no-name beer and lack of ATM service, and complained that there was nowhere to sit and there was sand in my shoes, dammit.
But then a funny thing happened. Well, to be perfectly honest, nothing happened. I think Bafana nearly scored a goal or something. But the 30,000 people around me got really excited. And I found myself getting excited along with them.
So there I was, the most anti-soccer person I know, actually watching a game (match, whatever.) And more than that, I actually cared who won. Did we win? No. Can I, at this moment, remember who Bafana was playing? No. Can I remember the name of a single player? No. Will I be a diehard Bafana fan now? Probably not.
But what I do remember is that moment when Bafana did score a goal, and 30,000 people on the beach all went crazy with an electric energy that felt like an earthquake had hit Durban.
So I may still complain about FIFA's draconian colonialist tendencies, or curse the vuvuzelas that keep me up till 4am, and lament the staggering cost of building soon-to-be-white-elephant stadiums in Rustenburg and Polokwane. I may still change the channel when soccer comes on.
But now, I get it.
What Others Said
ubuntu bob said
on 20 July 2010and we all got it. lekker.