Thursday, 02 April 2009

North v.s. South

Last night was one of the biggest derby matches in the footballing world. Big in the sense that usually an international football mach is just that, an international match. With the North-South game however, you can kind of argue that it is a country playing against itself.

Four of us decided to trek to Seoul to watch our first ever match with the national team. Some people were there just to see the commies.

All in all it was a nice experience with the South victorious. The last few games between these two team ended in 0-0 draws, so it was nice to see a result. I predicted that it would be a 1-0 score because the South had the home game, so kudos to me.

The game was quite boring in the first half because the North just parked and defended on the side of the pitch where were not at. Don’t you love that pain on the neck other side of the pitch feeling?

I was impressed with the crowd. They weren’t overly patriotic, but at the same time they weren’t very appreciative of general good shows. I’m the kind of supporter who want my own team to be blown up for a hand ball, or whatever it might be at the time, when it is the right decision. Here, however, only your own team’s good point and the other team’s bad point are seen. Granted, many countries do this so maybe I am just spoiled with the fans in Pretoria. Sure, we boo the other team, but it is more to intimidate them than to be downright mean. If they do something really good there will always be a courtesy applause as a response.

I would have liked to give you an amazing post with amazing descriptions and insightful analysis, but I am just not that good, so I will leave it here with a few photos.

p.s. You know how you say “Hundred miles an hour” to mean fast? Your taxi home actually did that. Do you know that there is a warning bell for when your speedometer hits 160 km/h?

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