The sound of a vuvuzela

When I was in Johannesburg, I got to see the main Stadium twice in the period of 4 days.  The first for the Germany -- Ghana game and the second for the Mexico -- Argentina game.  The Stadium was an impressive feat of engineering holding 90,000 people in the middle of nowhere.  All the new stadiums were incredible and I think my favorite was the one in Port Elizabeth for the intimate setting and the noise trapping roof reminiscent of Husky Stadium

That's a serious vuvuzela!

The most asked question I get is what did all those vuvuzelas sound like?  The answer is that it sounded like a giant swarm of bees.  With the African teams, the chorus would get louder and more forceful when they went want on the attack or made a great play.  The actual most annoying sound for me was a Mexican fan's wooden noisemaker on the row next to us.  This fan was a heavier set guy with mustache, face paint, devil horns, Budweiser (the only beer sold in the stadiums), and Mexican flag draped as a cape.  The noise put out by this one little box was deafening.  Fortunately Mexico got down pretty quickly ,so he quieted down until the second half because he was looking for reasons to play.

A little TP for the Argentina / Mexico game

The Argentinians were the most well supported foreign team that I saw in person.  Before the game, a group of them were bunched together in the concourse.  They beat their drums and waved their flags and marched festively into the Stadium.  Argentinians love to throw toilet paper onto the field (and for you purists, I know it's called the pitch...but I'm American!).  They even threw a couple of rolls onto the field during the game.  The rolls were on the field for around 10 minutes of play before the Mexican goalie took upon himself to clear the rolls during the game -- once again, well done FIFA.

Up close to the action for S. Korea / Nigera

I saw some great moments during this cup.  The best game was the Germany -- Uruguay game and Diego Forlan is a heck of a player.  I think that the best goal that I saw was the German strike against Ghana.  I saw the South Korea free kick goal against Nigeria and the Nigerian player who missed the easiest possible goal you will ever get.  I saw the Landon Donovan penalty kick goal and a Ghanaian defender who raced past a slow U.S. defense to put us away.  I saw Tevez score on a blatant offsides against Mexico and him also scoring a masterful second goal.  I also witnessed plenty of great moments in fan parks (such as Germany's second half goals against England) and various other venues such as the YWAM base in Muizenburg, the four seasons in Lilongwe, Malawian homes, and the final in a very cold and wet PE fan park.  So all in all, some pretty good soccer.