Posted on 06/02/2010 8:40:54 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
IRENE, South Africa, The slogan on the side of the bus reads "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Victory!" with the Stars and Stripes painted alongside. The U.S. World Cup team is making itself at home in South Africa, ready at last to play the games that matter most.
The Americans are staying in the 74-room Irene Country Lodge, a luxury hotel north of Johannesburg and south of Pretoria protected by stone walls and barbed wire. There's a lake on the property, with an adjacent farm filled with cows and enough roosters to make alarm clocks superfluous.
"It's been a long time," captain Carlos Bocanegra said Tuesday in the interview tent, pitched on the dairy farm. "Now it's finally here. We're in South Africa. So we're excited for the games to start. It feels real now that we're down here in South Africa and we're set up at our hotel and you see all the World Cup fanfare."
The 23-man roster and about an equal number of coaches and support staff left Washington Dulles International Airport on Sunday evening and arrived 17 hours later to a warm welcome. After a night of rest, practice resumed Tuesday ahead of the U.S. team's World Cup opener against England on June 12.
"The travel seemed quite easy. Maybe we're used to it by now," U.S. coach Bob Bradley said.
Practice is not too far away in Pretoria's Pilditch Stadium, a lush green field surrounded by an eight-lane running track with about 5,000 seats on one side. Berms topped with palm trees wrap the other segments of the field, and the leaves are starting to fade to brown as autumn approaches winter in the Southern Hemisphere. This will be the first World Cup south of the equator since 1978 in Argentina.
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1950!
I don’t care about soccer at all. I just needed to post to make sure all FReepers knew how little I cared.
/SARC
I would like to believe that we will beat England, but something inside me is saying it’s not likely.
But, I take comfort knowing that I’ll be able to watch Portugal and The Netherlands, two of my favorite teams to watch since the 2000 European Cup.
World Cup soccer is the best to watch and I wish more Americans would get on board—like ‘84 Olympic Hockey fever.
Now we’re talking. I’m going to make plans to go to World Cup 2014 in Rio!
I like soccer, especially when it’s played with ice, skates sticks and fights. Lucky for me, they already invented hockey.
Oh yeah!
I could find some others, but I don’t think they’re allowed on FR.
was a good year?
Except for most of the Americans. :)
I thought he was Australian....
Whenever I read anti-soccer rants like yours, I always picture the author as an overweight, sloppy, balding man with glasses who couldn’t climb a flight of stairs without becoming winded. Is that an accurate description of you?
Reading the thread before posting is your friend.
I hope we don’t have any white boys on the team. I hear they don’t take kindly to the white man down there.
In South Africa “white man” includes Latinos, whatever their racial DNA.
(There, Clemenza has put in his usual soccer thread post dumping on the delusional Anglo Saxons).
GO TEAM USA, but, if they fail, GO BRASIL!!!
Dang, our team is screwed!
What a libido killer! lol
Same here. Played hockey from peewee and up played soccer at the same age in BC. Was on the varsity in HS, including point guard.
My brother older by 7 years played against Steve Nash from Victoria and he only got 5 points in 1 game but was worth it.
PS...been a Sam’s Army member since 2002 after the Portugal game then the mexico win. I knew I had to come to America..
As much as I love watching Messi, I wish nothing but failure for that commie Maradona and Argentina.
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