...It ain't all that bad. Sometimes - and more often than we think - it is a far less incident provoking experience than the media would have you expect:
Despite the long-standing rivalry between the teams, which meet in a last 16 clash at the Free State Stadium, everyone was basking in the glow of South Africa's feel-good World Cup and had traveler's tales to share. In the Reyneke Park camp site outside Bloemfontein, German and English flags hung from tents and camper vans. "They started drinking beer early but it's a nice atmosphere. All are well behaved, no trouble," site owner Les Reyneke said. The bar had stayed open until five o'clock that morning.
No doubt they played Beethoven's pastoral symphony on a loop over the cheap tree-strung speakers until the dawn came up after the cool African night. Sound idyllic if you ask me.
I remember being at a game in Kilmarnock back in the late 70s or early 80s when the fool ahead of us drank two bottles of Mateus that he had duct taped to his shins to get them through the gate, ran at half into the sideline mob in the cowshed enclosure to hurl old school pennies and darts (darts!) only to be later carted away in the second half by the police when he ran onto the pitch, like a streaker with his clothes on, when he needed to challenge the ref's call mid-field when nothing turned on the call.
Rivalry between the teams? They bombed my Dad's town when he was a kid. Good to see soccer and beer making real friends in an South African camping park.
