Eli's Kickabout Africa

Wienerschnitzel for Everyone!
Messi makes a mess of things
The Argentina vs. Germany match was quite the experience. After the Unity Cup ended before the match started I spent about 30 minutes wandering around the stadium looking at all of the fans and taking in the sights, smells and sounds.
Prior to kickoff, [...]

U-N-I-T-Y, U-N-I-T-Y, that’s a unity.
Queen Latifah said it first, I say it now.

The morning of the Unity Cup. Everyone was still talking about the events of the night before. Dinner with the president was overshadowed by the very depressing Ghana loss that took place just after the feast. But soon enough conversation died down and [...]

Unity Cup Training
Kicking about the Cape

The afternoon training session was one for the ages. In the shadow of Green Point Stadium, nestled between Table Mountain and Robben Island, athletes and celebrities donned their Unity Cup reds and took to the pitch.
Many participants are experienced footballers, even professionals; others, like Zhang Ziyi from China or [...]

The Unity Cup.
Probably the single coolest event I have ever been a part of.

Special Olympics flew in 16 of their athletes from around the world and paired them with 16 professional athletes and celebrities. These 32 people played in a 20-minute match in Cape Town Stadium before the Argentina v. Germany quarterfinal of [...]

There’s Two Things I Can’t Stand In This World
People wo are intolerant of other people’s cultures, and the Dutch

In all honesty, I love the Dutch. Their fans are tremendous and while the atmosphere in the stadium wasn’t the best i’ve ever seen, the sea of orange had it’s effect. Again, our friend [...]

Brazil v. Portugal
The most boring game on earth.

I’ll keep this post text light and photo heavy. To set the scene I was walking down the boardwalk in Durban, on my way to meet up with a friend from high school, when my phone rang. My plan was to hit the fan park and watch the [...]

Whizkids United

We spent an afternoon with a program just outside of Durban, SA called Whizkids United. There will be a great formal article on www.thekickabout.org in the next couple of days that you should definitely check out. I will just give you some of my impressions from this visit as well as way too many [...]

Brazil v. Ivory Coast

An epic battle that was depressingly one sided. We all made our way to Soccer City, the stadium in Johannesburg that looks like a giant Hindenburg. We got so lucky to get tickets with the help of Ryan Caruso, a great addition to the Kickabout squad and a loyal follower of the [...]

The Death of A Beard

This is potentially one of the saddest stories a man will ever write. This is the story of the death of a perfectly good, young and energetic beard.
It was a crime of passion from the start. Love/hate doesn’t even begin to describe the sort of relationship I have with my [...]

¡Viva!

Jo Burg. It was a chilly morning when we went to the U.S. soccer headquarters to attempt to finagle tickets to the sold out USA v. England match. Their offices are situated in the “Fire and Ice” hotel in a very ritzy part of town.
After Lorrie escorted the four of us through the US security [...]

149 days. ~25,000 Kilometers. 20 countries.

It didn’t seem real.
On our last night before crossing the border from Botswana to South Africa, we camped out in the bush for one last time. Our camp was situated within a rhino sanctuary, but in true Kickabout form, we didn’t have enough gas or money to do [...]

Okavango Delta

After Victoria Falls we popped into Namibia for a day or two. More than anything we were just passing through but we got to drive the Caprivi Strip (essentially the Oklahoma panhandle of Namibia) which was beautiful. We crossed with relative ease into Botswana where we were headed for Maun on the Okavengo river [...]

Victoria Falls

Hey guys, I’m so sorry it has been so long since my last post on here. We arrived in South Africa a few weeks ago and World Cup fever consumed my life. I wasn’t able to get to any sufficient interwebs and thus there has been radio silence. Let me take you [...]

Go(eb)ing into the Bush.

For those of you who know Joey Goeb, this story probably won’t surprise you. Lets set the scene. The warthog pulls into Lusaka, Zambia. I know that my good friends Joey and joy are a mere 3-hour bus ride away and in my excitement I hop out of the warthog with [...]

South Luangwa National Park

Our quick visit to the park was a very eventful one. We spent 2 nights and a day and a half there but crammed in relaxing by the pool and a game drive. This was our first visit to a game park and we were not disappointed.
We stayed at a place [...]