The Schedule

OK, off to South Africa on Tuesday.

Will try to blog if we can, but I leave you with our schedule.

June 11
Cape Town - Green Point Stadium
Uruguay v France

June 13
Durban - Durban Stadium
Germany v Australia

June 18
Johannesburg - Ellis Park Stadium
Slovenia v USA

June 19
Rustenburg - Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Ghana v Australia

June 23
Nelspruit - Mbombela Stadium
Australia v Serbia

We'll probably go to some additional games in Joburg, but five World Cup games in three weeks is pretty good.

Talk again soon.

USA 3 - Australia 1

It was a cool game to watch and exciting as we are now only two days until wheels up. I stayed up until 12:45 am to watch the end and won the family bet - Daddy got to sleep late on this fine Sunday morning.

Meaningless friendly, but still had meaning I guess. USA's offense looked good and was putting lots of pressure on the Aussie defense. Other than Tim Cahill's first half, the Aussie offense was dead. Does not bode well for the June 13th game against Germany, but hey, it's just a friendly.

There's a chance that my two home countries to take on each other in a meaningful game, but for that to happen, one team would have to finish 1st in their group, the other second. Honestly think the best hope is USA should be a solid 2nd in Group C, but Oz will have to perform miracles to even advance. USA defeating England would be on par with the 1950 victory but more meaningful in today's sports mad world. The British fans might all spontaneously explode.

Anyway, was cool to watch and getting more and more excited about my June 8th takoff.

More to come...

A House Divided

Ok, I once again changed the name of the blog - very clever Herrmann but we don't have to go blue.

Tonight Australia time, the USA plays the Socceroos in the final pre-World Cup friendly. I'm staying up to watch the kickoff at 10:30 pm Melbourne time (7:30 am God's Time in the US).

And, I'll be rooting for America. (double meaning in Australian).

I moved to Australia nearly five years ago. Our two young boys are dual citizens (does that make them "Ameristralian" or "Australican?" I'm an Australian Permanent Resident and will send in my citizenship application this July.

I've even worked for both the Australian and American governments during my career.

The genesis for this entire trip was a ticket application I sent in for four American expats to follow Australia in the World Cup - and we won.

Little did we know that later there would be more World Cup tickets than for a Mississippi Tent Revival.

And, Mike and I will be at all three Australia games and only one USA game - but I can't cheer against the Red, White, and Blue.

So, let's see how Donovan, Howard, Beasley, Altidore, Bocanegra, Bradley, Dempsey, and Onyewu do against Bresciano, Cahill, Emerton, Kennedy, Kewell, Neill, and Schwarzer.

How ever it turns out, it's a meaningless game that just designed to prepare each for a decent World Cup run.

But, it'll be fun to watch.

Well, well

I love that Herrmann doesn't do shit on this blog, like, ever, and then swoops in and changes the name and such. Delish.

I suppose that makes me one of the "vaginas," since I now can't go on the trip. F Scott Thompson would be your other vadge, thank you very much. At least I have a good excuse - I lost my job, and now I'm posted in the Gulf working on ... well, just imagine what one might be doing on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico right now. At least I'm not in a North Korean gulag, like Scott.

I mean, does anyone follow this blog anymore? We've done such a bang-up job of updating it. Although I think Mike and Drew must update it while they're there.

Ahhh...That's Better

The blog was very awkard, so I changed the name to make it more accurate and less uncomfortable.

It's Official - Daddy's Booked the Flight

The unspoken (and somewhat spoken) rumblings of the great FGOC South Africa trip is booking our flights.

The bastards associated with the World Cup and the associated travel industry are trying to fleece every last dollar they can out of potential fans.

Only two airline three airlines fly direct from Australia to South Africa - Qantas and South African in a code share and Richard Branson's new V Australia. All the Asian and Middle Eastern airlines can get you there, but you have to make a pain in the ass connection.

Following the December draw, save for a short sale in Jan that Herrmann took advantage of, prices ranged from AUD$2500 (About USD$2300) to about AUD $4000 (USD$3500). Let's not get into why we're all dumbasses and didn't make the reservations earlier.

I was really wondering whether I could make it happen.

Until this week.

Last night I booked direct flights from Melbourne to Jo' Burg on V Australia for "only" AUD$2000 (USD$1845). Leave on June 8th and return on June 26th.

Bring it.

Suck it, Chelski!

Go The Gunners!
Originally uploaded by Edward Hoover

This obviously isn’t World Cup related, but I do have to gloat a bit for F. Scott Thompson and Drew, who are both Chelski fans. That’s because Your Gunners are now kings of the hill in the EPL:

Arsenal stormed to the top of the Premier League as they came from behind to beat Bolton at the Emirates Stadium.

Owen Coyle’s men — beaten 2-0 by the Gunners on Sunday — took a shock lead after seven minutes through Gary Cahill and Matthew Taylor then doubled the advantage from the penalty spot.

However, Arsene Wenger’s young side showed the character of champions to rally before half-time through Tomas Rosicky’s strike.

Captain Cesc Fabregas netted a controversial equaliser on 52 minutes, and then Thomas Vermaelen completed the comeback.

Andrey Arshavin netted a fourth to take the Gunners above Chelsea on goal difference, albeit having now played a match more — but nevertheless a scenario which looked so unlikely following a resounding 3-0 home defeat by the Blues at the end of November, which left Arsenal some 11 points adrift.

I watched the game on Sunday, which was fun (and in which the Wanderers came strong out of the gate), but I didn’t get to see today’s match. I’m sure it was shock, horror when Bolton took the lead.

Anyway, we now resume our regularly scheduled programming.

141 days to South Africa!

When This Security Thing Goes a Bit Too Far

I’ve been to some pretty hairy places in my life – Southeast DC, the Mexican border towns Matamoros and Nuevo Laredo, the South Side of Chicago, hell – I even lived in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea for a year – the place that ranks just above Baghdad as the most dangerous place on Earth.

As we plan for our World Cup trip to South Africa, there’s an endless string of security warnings about crime and even threats of terrorism. But, I’m not worried. If I could survive living in Papua New Guinea and gun-loving Texas, I can handle South Africa.

But give me a break.

World Cup 2010 football fans offered personalised stab vests

Football fans planning on going to the World Cup in South Africa are being offered stab vests in their team's colours.

The vests are being sold online by London-registered firm Protektorvest.com and can display any flag of a fan's choosing.

Maybe a little too much.

But, the big question for us – US or Australian flag?

We're back in 2010!

It’s been a while since we’ve blogged here on Four Guys, One Cup. We’re seriously falling down on the job of documenting our journey to South Africa. So I’ll give you a bit of an update:

• Ed spent his Christmas holiday across the pond in London, where he got to see his beloved Arsenal take down Aston Villa, 3-0, at The Emirates. That was fun. Got some good pictures and a scarf to boot.
• Drew went and had a birthday this week, so happy birthday, Drew. He’s, like, 72 now or something. He’s also suffering through a monstrous heat wave down in Melbourne, apparently.
• Mike, who is also in the heat wave but maybe not suffering, has actually purchased a plane ticket to South Africa. He’s going from 7 June to 3 July, which is a long time. But he’s an asshole, and he owns his own business, so he can get away with that crap.
• Scott, after a brief period of AWOL, went and got married in Taiwan.

Yes, you heard that right. Fucking Scott Thompson done and got married. Married! I still can’t quite believe it, but I’m happy for the lad. Congratulations, Scoot. You’d better not check your cojones at the door when you board that plane.

In terms of actual football news, here’s where we stand:

• Everyone’s favourite Yankee priss, Landon Donovan, is pissing off Mexicans for appearing in a lottery commercial south of the border. Apparently he sneaks across the border (the other way) dressed in a ridiculous ‘stache and a sombrero and buys lottery tickets. Because it’s easier to win in Mexico than in California, ostensibly. They already hate him for desecrating an actual Mexican football pitch. Oh, and for scoring shitloads of goals against the Mexican side, including one in the 2002 World Cup that knocked them out of the tournament. You know, I’m really beginning to like this Donovan cat.
• Donovan is also doing yeoman’s work across the pond, on loan to Everton. He scored one of the Toffees’ goals in a 2-2 draw with Your Beloved Gunners in his Premier League debut.
  
• The United States (the country, not the football side), which is bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups (hedging, anyone?), this week announced its proposed host cities for those tournaments. Of special significance to your Four Guys are Dallas (Drew, Mike and Ed have all lived there) and Washington, D.C. (Ed currently lives there and Drew used to). Who got the shaft? Chicago (where Mike is from) for some reason. Probably because they’re getting the Olympics — oh. Wait. Right. Why the hell are they putting freaking Tampa Bay in there and not Chicago? Fail.
• Be sure to check out the nice U.S. World Cup Bid gadget at the bottom of this page. It’s at the bottom because their widget won’t fit in our sidebar. (Note to bid organisers: give me workable blog widget options!)
  
• Ha, ha, Liverpool got knocked out of the FA Cup by freaking Reading. Reading? Reading! (For the record, Chelski and Arsenal are still in.)
• My home side, DC United, has a new head coach, Curt Onalfo, and has also re-acquired goalkeeper Troy Perkins in a trade that sent midfielder Fred and some cash to the new team Philadelphia Union (whose name is waaaaay too close to United’s). Perkins was solid for the Eagles and we haven’t been as tight since he left.

That’s all for now, but since we have less than 150 days until kickoff (!) we will do better about updating this blog (right, guys?).