Two years ago today, we were in a state of euphoria. The day had finally arrived. Our World Cup was about to start and we were about take centre stage as the world’s spotlight shone firmly upon us. Phillip was here.
Everywhere you went, all you heard was the World Cup hit “Waka Waka” blearing from car radios, in shops and every second cellphone in the lift.
There was a vibe in the country and people all over the world were talking about South Africa.
And then Phillip left. As we now know, the tournament turned out to be fantastic. The football sublime, the people on their best behaviour and our national team looked better than they had in a long time.
Such fond memories.
Here we remember some of our favourite things from the World Cup (in no particular order):
* THAT opening goal from Simphiwe Tshabalala
* Our world-class stadiums
* Vuvuzelas: love them or hate them, they were the sound of our World Cup. Youtube even introduced a vuvuzela button to play the sound over their videos.
* The Shebeens. We don’t remember much that happened there, but that was part of the fun.
* The group of Dutch girls in orange dresses that attempted to ambush market a product and fell foul of the strict authorities.
* The creative ways we displayed our national flag ie. mirror socks, window flag etc
* Waka Waka – you may have hated the song, but we all sang or hummed at some point during the World Cup
* Bafana Bafana beating France. Okay, France were in a bad headspace, but the record books won’t show that.
* Paul the Octopus – one of the stars of the tournament.
* Fan parks. For those who couldn’t afford a ticket, the fans parks were the next best thing. Some even got free beer.
* The fan walk in Cape Town
* A Ronaldo-inspired Portugal thrashing North Korea 7-0 in the rain at Cape Town stadium.
* The final... Iniesta!
From our readers on twitter:
@rid1kader simphiwes opening goal of the world cup and iniestas goal to win the cup.the 1st and last goal #WCmemories
@spembleton On film shoot in Greece & us 4 South African crew making such noise in Bafana match in hotel lobby: nearly getting kicked out #wcmemories
@Maryam_Akh #WCmemories Louis Suarez playing hand-of-God during the quarter finals denying Ghana a win,Gyan then missed a pen.
@Tumsaso Working as a broadcasting intern for @HBS_FWC2010. I got to mingle with international broadcasters. Fond #WCMemories
@kcma99 named our new puppies Wayne & Rhooney we supported England, they are now big dogs and remind us of 2010....
@iKhilogram You gotta remember that Mzoli moment dude! The singing and dancing on top of tables. #wcmemories
@djshandu Set up our own fan park in Venda. The best part was the 60 cases of sponsored beer. Didn't make money out of it, but who cares.
@Gnat_J standing in the main road outside work, blowing vuvuzelas, the office across the road joined us also cars stopped to join us :)
@HollieHepburn I remember freezing my @ss off at Montecasino's outdoor screening of England versus Algeria with the family.
From Soccer Writer Tshepang Mailwane
*Meeting former Brazil captain Cafu. He was a spectator in one of the matches and he agreed to take a photo with me
*Being part of the Ghana’s quarterfinal clash with Uruguay. Ghana lost, but it was epic
*Attending the World Cup final. Once in a lifetime kind of thing
*Getting to interview some of the world’s best players – Didier Drogba, Kolo Toure, Messi (well, I didn’t really hear what they were saying).
Use the comments form below to share your favourite memories. – IOL