Born in the U.S. of A!

In my travels, I have found that many Americans I come across abroad try to distance themselves from American culture.  That has never been a problem for me.  In Belfast, when the other Americans were trying to learn the Norn Iron English and accent, I was wearing flip-flops (or white socks when wearing shoes), cargo shorts, and baseball caps; I was using words like "soccer" instead of "football" -- unless of course I was talking about American football :).  All this to say that I have never had a problem taking pride in my country and supporting the Yanks.

So last week, Landon Donovan scores a dramatic goal to beat Algeria in injury time to send the U.S. team into a round of 16 match against Ghana.  I happened to be staying in the vicinity of a number of Americans doing campus outreach in Joburg and discussion quickly began how to acquire tickets.  After a little trouble, we were able to track down tickets to the game.  While I have always taken pride in my American roots, I have never been a flag waving / wearing type of guy so this left me with the dilemma of needing something to show my colors.  This was quickly resolved by heading to the Nike store to acquire my very own authentic American soccer jersey!

So 14 or so Americans made the two and a half hour trek west to Rustenburg for the game.  And what do Americans do before big games?  They tailgate!  We busted out some grills and cooked up hamburgers and drank Coca-Cola!  We were trash talking with some Zimbabweans in our group and were even joined by a couple of Australian Socceroos (This is also the first time I have ever met an Australian Indian).  It was glorious.

We soon got on a bus full of other Americans to get to the game and we got some good U-S-A, U-S-A cheers going to drown out the Africans on the bus -- again...glorious!  Wandering around the Stadium, it was fun to see the crazy outfits that people were wearing for both teams.  I at one point came across a guy in an Elvis jumpsuit.

Both teams were well supported and there may have been a slight edge for the Ghanaians, but there were plenty of American flags to go around.  I was in firm support with my jersey and vuvuzela.  Of course, the Yanks suffered a heart breaking loss in extra time.  I would have preferred to see a USA victory, but it was cool to see the Africans throw their support behind the Ghanaians.  One of the Ghana players even ran around the Stadium with a South African flag tied to a Ghana flag.

It was a long trip back due to poor organizational planning on FIFA's side, but it was sweet to get to go to a U.S. game.  We may have lost the game, but we're Americans!  And we're darn proud of that!