More on our SA trip

We have just arrived in Cape Town after a week in Durban. Our itinerary in Cape Town includes a trip to Robben Island (where Mandela and other ANC leaders were imprisoned), a cable car ride up Table Mountain, a walk through the Malay Quarter, a drive up to the wine country and, of course, lots more soccer viewing. Our last tickets before our flight home Wednesday night are for the Spain v Portugal round of 16 match on Tuesday and we have high hopes for a good match- particularly after yesterday’s highly disappointing match between Brazil and Portugal. When the draw was held for this tournament, we were thrilled to have gotten ticket for this match and it was widely considered the dream match of the group stage. In fact, it was a snoozefest, with Brazil having previously qualified and Portugal just needing a draw (in fact they could have lost and still gone through unless the Ivory Coast completely routed the North Koreans) to advance. We had thought that each team would go hard for the win so as to ensure that they would not have to play Spain in the first game of the knockout stages, but we were wrong as neither side played with much adventure or spirit. Portugal’s formation, with Ronaldo lined up as a lone striker, makes no sense to me, as he clearly is more dangerous out on the flanks where he can get the ball and run at defenders in space. Spain will destroy them if they do not play better on Tuesday.

We will also be glued to the TV for the other Round of 16 games, most notably tonight’s USA v Ghana match. Ghana knocked us out 4 years ago and even with their best player (Michael Essien of Chelsea) out of the tournament with an injury, I am quite worried about the game. Our team’s aggressive counterattacking style and team first approach means we have a chance to beat anyone (except maybe Brazil) in this tournament, but our overall lack of technical ability means that we could also lose to anyone. At least we are still here, which is something the French and Italians can not say.