Them's Fightin' Words

If there’s one thing I can never get enough of, it’s articles written by PRs and people in marketing about “How To Approach Bloggers”.

Why anyone would waste their time writing Captain Obvious advice like that is beyond me. Just pick up a phone, call us, have a chat and send us cool free stuff.

My man Arthur from Oude Meester followed that advice to the letter last week Friday when he called me up, asked me if I wanted two tickets to the Oude Meester box for the Man U / Ajax game on Saturday, met me at the Engen on Orange in a black beemer and hooked a brother up.

Fast forward to Saturday afternnoon and J-Rab and I were squeezing our way through the crowds at Cape Town Stadium 5 minutes before kick-off, desperately trying to get to the Oude Meester box in time for the first whistle.

We managed to fight our way through the crowds and get to the Oude Meester box literally one minute after kick-off.

Had the game not just started I would definitely have done the typical blogger thing and taken pictures of the free food and brandy cocktails, but the atmosphere in the stadium was electric and we wanted in on the action yo.

I’m not much of a soccer fan, I get into it when the World Cup rolls around and sometimes I find myself watching a game or two in the pub. Like like most sports though, watching it live is always awesome and Saturday’s game was no exception.

Ajax played with a lot of heart and come half time both teams were tied at 0-0.

Watching our boys play I was struck by two things; the first was how much better they handled Man U than AmaZulu did (I was lucky enough to watch that game live in Durbs last week) and the second was how very small they looked.

After half-time the game started to get a little stale and the atmosphere in the stadium died down considerably as most of us resigned ourselves to a 0-0 draw.

Then shit got real. Alcardo Van Graan charged onto the field and a minute later back-heel flicked the ball into Manchester United’s net and every Saffer in the stadium, whether they were Manchester supporters or not, lost their damn minds.

It looked like Ajax were going to take it. They were 86 minutes into the game, all they had to do was keep their defence water-tight and stick to the Man U players like a bad rash.

But sadly, that didn’t happen. Man U came down the right flank like a goddamned steamroller and Bebe fired home with military precision, levelling the score at 1-1.

We were robbed I tell ya. Straight up. And the thing that pissed me off the most was how quickly Man U equalised.

I’d bet good money they huddled after Ajax scored and were like, “Ok. On three, unleash Hell.”

Then again, like I said I’m not the world’s most avid soccer fan so what do I know. Maybe Man U were giving it their all throughout, who’s to say?

It was an exciting game any way you look at it and J-Rab and I had a killer time, staying in the Oude Meester box long after the game was done because we were cabbing it home and were in the mood for a cheeky brandy cocktail or two.

This is the last thing I remember. Running up and down the stadium stairs while J-Rab took pics because, um, yeah. I seemed like a good idea at the time.

Good times I tell ya, good times

-ST