What’s it actually like at the World Cup?

We’ve all read stories and seen the World Cup on TV but we’ve been behind the scenes and this is match day as we saw it on the ground with fans of all walks of life.

Game Day.
So you’re in South Africa with tickets to game. You’ve got your nations colours on, you’ve found cheapest possible accommodation and you’ve got a feeling inside that you can’t explain something in between pent up excitement, anxiousness and pure jubililation that you’re about to be part of history.

If you’ve just backpacked West Africa for 3 months like us – you’re ready for the night of your life. So of course you’ve drank with fellow countrymen the night before. Wake up with a hangover, cold and shivering after being shocked by the South African winter in a tent.

Eat some biltong (a highly addictive meat snack) for breakfast. Kick around with other football tragics. Gasp for air after 5 minutes whilst failing to replicate the skills of the stars. Find yourself in a bus on route to town to search for cheap snacks and beverages. Go all out on a champagne breakfast in a shopping centre eatery to the cheers of passing supporters. Grab roadies (a six pack) and head for Fanfest.

Don’t like to read? Here’s our World Cup video.

Pre game hype builds as you stand with thousands of locals and other fanatics without tickets watching in a park on a big screen. See the excitement in the eyes of the South Africans as they bask in the cup fever. If you can’t get to a FanFest try a shopping centre, airport, local store or carpark – there’ll be a TV and it’ll be packed.

Work your way to the nearest pub and text everyone you know. If you’re like us, find one full of Aussies – it’s never particularly hard. Engage in a bit of banter with any non-Australian supporters present. For us this involved getting on the Algerian bandwagon to test out the wits of the American fans seated alongside us.

Grab some greasy food and haggle with a taxi. Grab a lonely Englishmen to share the costs. Practice your vuvuzela skills after he purchases Vuvu’s to say thanks. Find out it’s not that easy to blow a Vuvuzela so just wave it around and pretend.

We must note – we are big fans of the vuvuzela and everything that comes with – loud and proud in Africa.

As game time approaches make your way to the Park & Ride in the middle of nowhere. All aboard for 30 minutes of bus chants and Vuvuzela madness. From the carpark follow the unmistakable buzz of the sound in the stadium. Be guided to the stadium purely on sheer volume alone. Only in Africa.

Before entering the ground search high and low for opposition supporters. In our case – firstly it was Ghanaians. Pose for photos and speak to them about their football league. Shock them with local knowledge and reassure them unfortunately today they will not win. Dance, sing, dangle limbs and stock up on supplies at the entertainment outside stadium as beats are blared across all parts of the complex.

Weave your way into the stadium for kick off. Stand in awe at the sight of row after row of seating covered in your national colours thousands of miles from home. Meet and greet the locals in the seats beside you and apologise for the 90 minutes ahead. Be lifted out of your seat as the roar of Australian supporters deafens opposition fans. Sing along as your footballing heroes march out.

Feel your hairs stand end on end as your national anthem is sung.

Be blown away as your team scores the first goal and jubilation reaches fever pitch. Stand as one as a Mexican wave sweeps through the stands. Lose voice, beer, sense of reality and total control as your team strikes a second goal to lead 2-0.

From an unbelievable high to a solemn low as the opposition score. Silence.

Anxiously await the final siren. Realise on this night, you will not be denied an inevitable victory. Experience an all time high as not a single Australian fan leaves and 20 minutes after the game they’re all standing as one in applause. Their World Cup is over but the memory is not.

Let loose amongst pure pandemonium with complete strangers from across Africa and Australia. Join the masses as the celebrations into the night are only just beginning.

Blow your Vuvuzela.

Reflect on the significance – you’ve been part of the most watched sporting event in the world which they might say is only a game but on this day there is nothing else that matters. Feel the emotion, the colours, the people, the sights and yes, the sounds of the World Cup in Africa are you’ll know they are like no other.

Want to experience the atmosphere? This is our World Cup video.

On the road to the World Cup at a developing football club in Ghana a young star a few months ago told us for him as an African it would be ‘once in a lifetime’ – he was right – it was once in a lifetime for us as well, but we know that it has changed Africa forever.

Couldn’t make it to the World Cup in South Africa?

Don’t worry, forget what you have seen on TV, this is the football fever as we saw it from the streets to the stands and all around South Africa.

Note: If you don’t like Vuvuzelas you don’t understand Africa and you won’t like this video.

This is Africa’s World Cup.

Dare to dream with Africa.

No matter where you are in West Africa, right now it’s football fever. In fact it’d be hard to imagine anywhere in the World that has ever loved the game as much. Whether it be in the back alleys of Burkina, the streets of Senegal or the mud flats of Mali if there’s something that can be kicked around you’ll find football and one thing’s for sure – this fever’s contagious.

The World Cup is upon us and in football scores matter, so let’s start with the numbers. 2.5 months on the road, 13 countries, 13,000km, 1,000’s of local footballers, one 1 global pandemic, a fever like no other and 1 dream – an African team to win the World Cup.

On an epic train ride through the Sahara in Mauritania the common language wasn’t even French or Arabic it was football. Amongst the colonial charm in St Louis, Senegal the first header was had as children said hello and kicked us a football. To the sandy flats and the 4 year olds of Savare, Mali sporting the big named jerseys such as Drogba and Obama the instructions were simple, for us westerners – stand between the goals. Travel further up country and we struggled on the full sized sand pitches of Timbuktu and proved that even in the place that defines the middle of nowhere – you’ll find football.

A week later and not a spare seat in town, we heard the chants to the Champions League at a petrol station in Ouahigouya, Burkina Faso. On to the golden coastlines of Ghana and we’d have gotten involved with the beach football if we weren’t preoccupied with World Cup banter. The Ghanaian’s might have laughed when we mentioned our group game against them, but when the headlines read ‘Essien Out’ it was a different story.

As the World Cup closed in through Togo and Benin the buzz was building and it was World Cup trivia that helped us negotiate our way into Nigeria after being bailed up by border officials. By the time we reached Cameroon, they were carrying the weight of not only a country but the entire African continent as West African stars like Drogba, Essien and Mikel battle with injury and South Africa left out their highest scorer of all time, McCarthy.

We’ve travelled Africa on the longest possible road to the World Cup, but Africa will forever travel with us and we’ll soon be in South Africa cheering on Australia, but it will be hard not to have a soft spot for the African teams. Just imagine that, imagine the first cup in Africa going to an African team, imagine what that would mean to a continent determined to prove itself to the world. Imagine what it would mean on the streets of Ghana, where football and religion are the two most important things in peoples lives or in every corner of Cameroon where children grow up with dreams to make it on the world stage and escape poverty by playing football like Samuel E’eto

From Morocco to Gabon we’ve seen the African people, people with great potential and this is their time to shine. They’ll tell you it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, they’ll tell you they’ve dreamed of this moment, they’ll tell you it’s Africa’s right and they’ll tell you the cup will be staying in Africa – and if the skills on the streets and in the sands are anything to go by, who are we to question that.

In Africa it’s a way of life, if there’s a piece of land whether it be dirt, grass, cement or sand – if there’s a ball there’ll be football. On the eve of the World Cup, don’t worry about South Africa being ready, in every African city for every match, anywhere with a television feed or radio reception will be jam packed. We’ve seen what it means to Africa as a whole to host such an event for the first time and amongst the excitement you can feel the importance to Africans around every corner and down every street.

We dare to dream. We can’t wait and we’re not worried about whether or not this place can host such an event, we’re worried about getting a seat in a street side bar packed out with hungry African football fans in a Rwandan village who dare to dream with us, hoping for an African victory in the final on the 11th of July.

We kicked off ‘Backpacking Africa from Cup to Cup’ so after starting in Berlin with just days until we reach South Africa for the World Cup it is time we actually put something football related together.

These are our Amateurish tips for the biggest sporting event in the world – the Football World Cup.

We’re ready to join the legion of armchair experts out there. Here is an article full of the normal sporting platitudes but without any of the expertise. One of us is more used to kicking around an Aussie Rules ball and none of the spectacular street skills of locals have rubbed off on us.

So what would we know? Not much, but we’ve spoken to plenty of African locals who live and breath the game. Talking football has found us new friends in Mauritania, kept conversations with cabbies and gotten us through some of the stickiest of situations in Senegal, not to mention entry to Nigeria. Here’s our story of following the fever to the World Cup.

Game enough to make any predictions? You know by know we’re game enough for anything. Everybody knows who the big guns are. Predictions are for mugs, and mugs we are. We’ll start with something different.

The Teams we don’t want to win!
Due to the controversial finish at the last World Cup it starts with a desire for Italy not to hold the trophy again and is closed following by the French side due to their hand balling route to qualification.

What do we want to see?
We’ll be cheering for upsets galore. It’d be great to see a new team take the gold. There is nothing more we’d like to see than an African team hold the trophy. If Cote D’Ivoire have Drogba back and can negotiate their group they represent Africa’s best chance.

You can’t help but talk about the world’s best player Messi. We’ve marvelled with African fans at his magic, they could well be on course if they can summon more Messi and less Maradona.

Since 1958 European sides have triumphed when the tournament is on the continent and a South American has taken the title when it has been anywhere else. Can Spain shrug off their tag as World Cup chokers? Will Brazil make it No. 6 or can England recapture the glory of 1966?

How will the Aussies go?
Yes, we play football in Australia and our team is in the World Cup for the 3rd time. Last World Cup the passion was pulsating after a 32 year absence from the event, 4 years on it’s time for the Socceroos to do their thing again and Australia will be watching in anticipation. There are plenty of other football codes in Australia that demand attention even with the Cup on, but the fever will be felt down under.

One thing is certain, these fans will get on board with some positive play and promising results. Another guarantee is the overwhelming displeasure at any diving when you are a fan of a football code that has hard hits every minute.

One scenario exists where Australia might struggle all across the paddock in their 3 games and find it tough to register a win. Avoiding defeat in the opening game would give them a great chance of progressing to the second stage with confidence to push for wins against Ghana and Serbia. If big guns like Cahill, Bresciano, Kewell and Emerton can get into a groove and grab some goals anything can happen. The most reliable part of the Australians game has been our defence led by Lucas Neill with Fulham’s Mark Schwarzer in goal, conceding just one goal in qualification.

The Amateur Australian Predictions
June 13 (20:30) - Durban: Australia Vs Germany 1-1
June 19 (16:00) - Rustenburg: Australia Vs Ghana 2-1
June 23 (20.30) - Nelspruit: AustraliaVs Serbia 1-0

What are you most pumped about?
Everything is the simple answer. We’ll only be at two games but the fever will be spreading like fire across South Africa and the world so it’ll be amazing to be on the continent to cheer on every goal and explode at any dive.

We’ll be backing the underdog, the Aussies and African teams. It’s a bigger event the guys have over at the Olympics and we know it’s the wrong event but we’ll say it anyway – let the games begin.

If we had any money to bet it’d be here – Winners: Argentina

We’ve followed the Football fever for over 12,000km through West Africa but at one small football club in Ghana we saw first hand the importance of football and its influence on young lives.

Across Africa and in particular Ghana, football is ingrained into the lives of almost every individual from an early age. Using this affinity, as a football club, Keta are bringing the wider community together through working on a number of local projects.

Sandlanders FC has implemented a program which ensures every player in the team has a skill or a trade to use off field generating life skills off the pitch to support the skills on it.

We visited Keta to get a feel for the club ourselves.

We can’t talk about a football club without mentioning scores. After a warm up of song and dance like no other come half time it was all tied up at 0-0 with Keta being hosted away at Action Rangers. The second half heated up and we saw grassroots football at its best in Africa.

In front of close to a thousand fans, Keta took the lead early in the second half and celebrated in emphatic fashion, cartwheeling to all corners and providing a polished dance routine. In the nervous nineties deep into injury time Rangers levelled amongst controversy equivalent to France’s Thierry Henry v Ireland with a handball featuring to see the game finish as a 1 all draw as the crowd swarmed the pitch from all sides.

That aside, Keta Sandlanders FC might have only finished second in division two of the Ghanaian Football League but they are certainly on top of the table when it comes to preparing players for a live off field. The club already facilitates a share house for the players and has implemented an off season on the job training schedule for skills work in the Ghanaian capital, Accra.

If you’re in the area, have some skills in either coaching or teaching a trade there are plenty of opportunities and you can get involved with the guys yourself via the Keta FC website

Our first post for the World Cup and In football scores matter, so let’s start with the numbers.

6 weeks on the road, 8 countries, 8,000km, thousands of local footballers all with 1 fever and 1 dream – for an African team to win the World Cup.

No matter where you arrive in West Africa, it’s football fever. Whether it be in the back alleys of Burkina, the streets of Senegal or the mud flats of Mali if there’s something that can be kicked around you’ll find football and one thing’s for sure – it’s contagious.

On an epic train ride through the Sahara in Mauritania the common language wasn’t French or Arabic it was football. Amongst the colonial charm in St Louis, Senegal the first header was had as the children said hello and kicked us a football.

To the sandy flats and the 4 year olds of Savare, Mali sporting the big names such as Drogba and Obama with simple instructions fo us Westerners – stand between the goals. To further up country where we struggled on a full sized sand pitch in Timbuktu and proved that even in the place that defines the middle of nowhere – you’ll find football.

A week later and not a spare seat in town, we chanted to the Champions League at a petrol station in Ouahigouya, Burkina Faso. On to the golden coastlines of Ghana and we’d have gotten involved with the beach football if we weren’t preoccupied with the banter. Every local we meet talks of an Australia defeat but mention no Essien and hear their hearts sink.

In Africa it’s a way of life, if there’s a piece of land whether it be dirt, grass, cement or sand – if there’s kids and a ball it’s football.

The guys at Cheapoair let us know they’ve got cheap tickets if you want to fly to meet us at the World Cup or anywhere along the way.