Argentina 4 - South Korea 1

One of our goals coming down here was to watch a couple of games that did not include the U.S. team. My favorite team has always been the Italians, but their games are just too far away from Johannesburg to get to realistically (granted, they're closer to Johannesburg than they are to Kansas City.) So, I thought we could pick games based on the players I wanted to see. Messi and Ronaldo obviously come to mind, so we decided to try to make an Argentina game or a Portugal game.

Yesterday Argentina played South Korea at a stadium with lots of seats, so we decided to try to get in. We also decided to get a ticket for our driver, Wilson. He lives here and is a big soccer fan, but he has no tickets for any games, so we thought he should get to see at least one game in person. So, we scalped three tickets in three completely different parts of the stadium.

The stadium is called Soccer City, which was built for this tournament. It is a cool, modern stadium. I'll get pictures for you eventually, though you can always go to World Cup Photos.

On the way into the stadium, we were in line right behind two priests in cassocks. We told them we were priests too (not apparent from our street clothes), but I'm not sure they'd agree that we were priests, since they are with the St. Pius X Society.

Once in the stadium, I sat next to two young ladies from Australia, one was volunteering here for a year and the other was visiting her. I also sat next to a woman who lived across the street from the stadium in Soweto (a city important in the ending of Apartheid, which we'll visit Friday before the U.S. game.) I asked if she ever had travelled. She said no, but she really wanted to get to Rome and Turin, because she was Catholic. Pretty nice, though I had a lot of trouble understanding her thick South African accent.

Messi was awesome!!! He didn't score, but he set up essentially all four goals. The South Koreans tried, but they were overmatched. I was just rooting for goals, so I was not disappointed.

After the game we went to a place called Monte Cassino. It is an Italian themed casino (we did not gamble, thank you very much) with tons of restaurants and an outdoor plaza where people could watch the games on a big screen. The casino was over the top, like Vegas. We sat outside in the cold, wrapped in blankets, at an Italian restaurant to watch the Mexico-France game. Viva Mexico!!! Mexico 2 - France 0.

Alright, enough of this. Write again soon. Go U.S.A.!!!!

God Bless,

Fr. Scott