Sam and I went to our first international game of soccer a week ago. Nelspruit is hosting part of the African Cup of Nations tournament and as the Mbombella stadium is less that 2kms away, as the crow flies, we though we really should go. It was a monday afternoon so unfortunately Andrew couldn't make it so we took my friend Lindy instead.
We went to watch Zambia play Ethiopia. Getting there was interesting. We could have walked but I was a little unsure about walking back after dark. We thought we had given ourselves plenty of time leaving home at 4.00pm, the game was to start at 5. At the bottom of our street we were turned away and had to drive about 5ks to a 'park and ride' stop. The traffic was horrendous and that drive took us about 30mins. We then had to make two separate bus rides and arrived at the stadium 5.15pm with the game in full swing.
The noise was amazing. Everyone seemed to have vuvuzalas and be blasting them as loudly as possible. A helicopter flew over twice and we couldn't hear it!!! I had taken ear plugs but I wanted to take in the whole experience so didn't use them. When I got out and my ears were ringing I felt a bit silly.
Zambia were the hot favourites as they had won last year. Ethiopia hadn't played in the competition for 30 years. About 3/4 of the spectators were supporting Ethiopia and we seemed to be sitting right in the middle of them. 3 red cards were given out in the game the first was held aloft above the Ethiopia goal keeper as he was stretchered off. You can imagine the Ethiopians spectators disappointment. Vuvuzalas and anything else they could get their hand on were thrown on to the pitch, people tried to push down barriers between spectators and the players, riot police were bought in with batons and shields. I must admit by this stage I was a little unsure but Sam's comment was "Wow this is just like a proper soccer match!"
The game ended in a draw 1 all. The Ethiopians justifiable proud of their teams effort.
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