June 18, 2010: USA-Slovenia

Today was an early start to a long day.  Took a taxi to the airport for our 11:10am flight from Durban to Johannesburg.  Upon arrival at the airport we waited what seemed like forever for the shuttle to the Protea hotel where we met up with some more US fans and our driver that took us to the match at Ellis Park.  Our driver, Godfrey, took us through Soweto Township down some side streets to within 2 blocks of the stadium (roads were closed) - then was nice enough to walk us all the way to the gate.

Ellis Park stadium is very old looking, very different from brand new Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban.  Still neat to see it being the site of the South Africa Rugby World Cup victory back in 1995.  Can tell the stadium had been around long before that.  The rows were narrow and the sun was glaring in our face for the whole first half.

I have to say US fans are not very fun to watch a match with, though there were a few annoying Slovenia fans as well.  Maybe it was just the pressure of the match or the hot sun.  The first half went by very slowly, due to the US off to a slow start, the ref making all sorts of confusing calls, Slovenia scoring twice, and the annoying US fans all around us yelling at each other.

The second half started off much better with Landon Donovan netting a goal fairly early.  That helped make the atmosphere in the stadium better.  Later Michael Bradley found the net with the equalizer off a header from Jozy Altidore, and the stadium went crazy.  Then in the last 10min Maurice Edu put the ball in the net only to have the ref call a phantom foul for no apparent reason.



We left the stadium feeling cheated.  Met our driver who took us to the airport for our flight back to Durban.  I guess a draw is better than a loss, but I think we should have come out of there with 3 points.  On the bright side England drew 0-0 with Algeria meaning the USA holds their destiny in their own hands.