Have now arrived at the venue for tonight's match, about eight hours before kickoff, so I could choose a premium seat. For those of you following along at home, I'll be about four seats from the top of the penalty area on the right side of your screen. Depending on the volume of vuvuzelas, I could be wearing my noise-canceling headphones.
Walking to the stadium from the media center this is the view of the stadium's exterior.
Once on the field, the small size of the venue, only 38,000 seats, really hits you. With a track around the pitch, the endzone seats aren't remotely good, but those folks can say they were here.
The main grandstand is a nice facility, but there are a number of 'seat kills' behind the benches and were those seats being used, capacity of the stadium is about 42,000. Nonetheless, it is the size of a moderate-sized college football stadium in the U.S.
Now what makes this more than just any soccer stadium is the walk to the other side, and these two say it all....
Well, actually, those two don't quite say it all, as I neglected a little anecdote from our trip to Pilanesberg NP the other day. When we exited the park, there were at least 30 police cars, a couple hundred yards of yellow crime-scene tape, and a small gathering of fans on one side of that tape. On the other side of the tape was the England team bus. They apparently figured they were on holiday, taking a trip to the park to see the animals, only a few days before their World Cup opener.
A check of the U.S. itinerary finds no such tourist activity, so let's hope our boys are all business tonight, and take care of it.
Long live the spirit of 1950 and magic of Belo Horizonte!
May the result be the same.....
Copyright 2010. Contents of this blog, written and photographic, are protected from unauthorized use and reproduction by any means, with All Right Reserved by Perry McIntyre, Atlanta, GA
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