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, the stadium rang with the shouts and songs of Argentinian fans. The German fans were there as well but seemed stoic and removed. Nervous, and not anxious to take part in preemptive celebrations. The Argentinians thought that they had it won. They were in for a shocker.

The seats given to us by Special Olympics were fantastic and before kickoff as Maradona strolled around the pitch in defiance, I got giddy that I was finally going to get to see Messi play. This game was dubbed the marquee quarterfinal match, but I don’t think anyone was prepared for the way it turned out.

The Argentinians became more and more forlorn as goal after goal poured in for the Germans. In the end it was an embarrassing 4-0 rout for the Germans and The dejected Argentinians had nothing to be proud of. Their team performed dismally and much to me and my light blue shirt’s dismay.

Here are some of the photos from the match. I hope you enjoy them!

-Sinkus

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 a nervous excitement took over in the athletes. These young men were about to play football on the largest stage of their entire life. And perhaps just as exciting, they were going to get to watch the highly lauded Germany v. Argentina quarterfinal, which had been hyped as “the Game.”

The massive stadium, during the Unity Cup, was less than packed. And even though it appeared all but empty, throughout the match vuvuzelas echoed through the stadium. When President Zuma entered the pitch, the most common look on the faces of the spectators was disbelief. Cell phones appeared from nowhere and murmurs were heard around the arena, “Zuma is on the pitch!” “Yes, the president is playing soccer!” Apparently most South Africans did not know about the Unity Cup or didn’t expect Zuma to be playing.

The highlight of the match for me was watching one of the athletes take President Zuma to the cleaners. Most of the celebrities and professionals were trying to get the ball to Zuma, and allow him to possess it without too much hassle. The athletes, however, did not see him as a President, but just as another player. At one point he received a ball and immediately was crunched by a very ambitious tackle from one of the athletes. He was clearly surprised but I was equally surprised at what a good sport he was about it. He hopped up and hugged the athlete and continued to play!

This event was such an amazing display of solidarity from President Zuma. He is the first head of state in the world ever to participate in such an event and I think that this event could be a catalyst for great change.
The final goal of the match could be the goal of the world cup. A late cross came in and Yacine Zabi, from Algeria, sighted it and bicycle kicked it into the top corner just before the whistle. This equalizer should be regarded as one of the best goals of the tournament.

After the match everyone was ecstatic. Thrilled athletes, celebs, and spectators shared in the experience that is sure to be the start of something great. Please read more about the Unity Cup and how you can get involved.

My last word on Special Olympics. Be A Fan. Do it.

-Sinkus

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 Tim Shriver looked like they had never kicked a ball in their life. This combination of experience and novice led to hilarity, competition and a very active training session. I wandered around and took photos in and amongst the players. I caught a lot of flack from the manager Lawrie McMenemy. I had a blast shooting for these guys and had great access until President Zuma arrived. Immediately, all of the press were ushered off of the field by his security.

The training session was very straightforward. I was impressed by the skills of many of the athletes. Every time Bong, from Korea, struck a ball I thought he was going to knock the goal over.

After the training session, the excitement for the Unity Cup was palpable. Each team had learned their players, practiced with them and were rip roaring and ready to go. We headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up before heading to the castle for dinner with the President.

If you would have told me 2 weeks ago that I was going to sit down to dinner with Dekembe Mutombo and the President of South Africa, I would have laughed in your face. What’s next?

I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Enjoy the photos. Yet again I have included way too many. But I figure, what’s the harm, it’s not like it costs me money.

-Sinkus

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 the World Cup.

Let’s start at the beginning.

We flew into Cape Town on an evening flight from Durban. After doing the math, we discovered it was about half the price of fuel for a round trip ticket. We were picked up by the Special Olympics people and after dropping Lorrie and Jason off at the hotel; I cabbed my way to Chase Conrad’s place. Chase is a friend of Jason’s from back home and opened his couch to me during our stay in Cape Town. Chase’s story is an amazing one and if you ever get bored, call me up and I’ll tell it to you. But that’s neither here nor there.

I am going to break up the 2 days we spent with Special Olympics into 4 parts, simply because so much happened in those 4 days.

This post is about our first morning with the Unity Cup. We woke up and Chase and I made our way over to the hotel. He drives an old school VW bug; a stick shift. I’m getting one. We hopped on the busses with the Athletes and the celebs. I was sitting behind Dekembe Mutumbo, the Houston Rockets star and Congo native, and next to Zhang Ziyi, of Memoirs of a Geisha and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. I was a bit star-struck, but once I started talking with them I found them to be lovely, down to earth people.

That seems a trend with people who work with Special Olympics. I have yet to meet someone associated with the organization that didn’t have a heart of gold.

We headed to a local Special Olympics program for a visit with the local athletes. Readers, if you have never heard of Special Olympics, you must look them up. They are a wonderful organization, and chances are, they’re active in you’re hometown.

The morning was a wonderful display of unity, as the celebs played basketball, soccer, bocce ball and ping pong with the athletes. There were photos galore and smiles were abound. Here are some of the photos from our morning visit. More to come! Stay tuned!

- Sinkus

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 Chris, from Sony, helped us out with tickets, and before we knew it we were at the round of 16 match between Netherlands and Slovakia.

All in all it was a decent match, we got to see goals and observe the Dutch fans being crazies. As always, I would have preferred more goals, but in the World Cup, you get what you get.

All of us, even though it was the second game we had seen here, were still in awe of the stadium at Durban. It looks every bit as incredible in real life as it does on TV. I shot some video but haven’t had time to edit through any of the footage. Patience my friends, I’m at the world cup after all!

Thai food after the match and a warm bed, no complaints.

Next we head to Cape Town for Argentina v. Germany

So excited!!!!!

-Sinkus

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 game on the big screen while the two football giants clashed less than 2 miles away. Ticket prices were ludicrous as this was the most anticipated matchup of the group stages.

I answered the phone hopefully, and was not disappointed. It was Ollie, from Whizkids United. “One of our coaches is sick and couldn’t make it, we have an extra ticket if you want it.”

I hung up hastily and broke into a jog. Slippery flip flops and an American flag waving off of my back I sprinted the entire way to the stadium. Sure enough Ollie was there waiting with the ticket and we made it to our seats just as the teams emerged from the tunnel.

We were all very excited to see the clash of the Portuguese speakers, however soon realized that neither team was going to give the crowd what they came for. By half time boos echoed through the stadium, as both sides had just finished a 45 minute walk-a-thon.

The highlight of the match was turning around during the national anthem and staring Kaká in the face. While serving a suspension for a red card, his seat in the stadium happened to be about 3 rows behind us. The match ended without bloodshed and neither team was worse for the wear. All in all not the best match but for free, you won’t catch me complaining.

Until next time.

-Sinkus

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 photos.

Whenever I prepare blog posts, I agonize over trying to eliminate photos from the galleries. Today, I said what the heck, I’ll give ‘em them all. So first I want to apologize for all of the photos, I have a hard time killing my babies. That being said, there are some pretty good ones this go around so give them a look.
We turned up to the project site just before 11 am and got there just in time to meet up with small group sessions. They were doing role-playing scenarios of drug use and sexual encounters. I was surprised at the young age that this education took place before realizing that it was absolutely necessary at that age in an are where HIV/AIDS is so prevalent. We spent the day with the kids, playing, photographing and enjoying the camp program. If you want to know more about their programs, I urge you to read on www.thekickabout.org .
One of my campers from Camp Leelanau in northern Michigan just happened to be in Durban during our visit and I asked him to join us on the trip. He did and had an absolute blast, but was surprised to find that some of the kids were his age. They seemed so much younger than him.
We had a blast playing with the kids and visiting this project. Again please check out the Kickabout there is a great article up there.
- Sinkus

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 blog. The stadium was packed and about 50/50 in their support. The Brazilians did most of the dancing and the Ivoirians did most of the fretting. I have just included some photos from the match to give you a sense of the feel of the place.

I’m sure you all know the result by now and I’m sorry this post got up so late but this was a fantastic experience and a wonderful game to watch. I especially enjoyed the sending off of Kaká. The good news is that he will be in the stands at the Portugal game and maybe I’ll get to see him. (foreshadowing?)

Sorry I don’t have more to write. I hope the photos tell the story.

Cheers!

Sinkus ]]> http://sinkusphotography.com/kickabout/?feed=rss2&p=2285 1 http://sinkusphotography.com/kickabout/?p=2273 http://sinkusphotography.com/kickabout/?p=2273#comments Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:36:25 +0000 admin http://sinkusphotography.com/kickabout/?p=2273 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 beard. Its shape is never the same twice and it’s less reliable than an Acer (don’t buy an Acer). The major beef I have with it is that it tickles me in my sleep. I don’t mind when it does what it wants or comes home late, thumping around the tent violently trying to find a place to lie down. Its when it tickles me in my sleep and wakes me up that I draw the line.

“Get in line beard or you’re out!” I yelled at him the other night. Sure enough at around 3 am he stealthily crept towards my nostrils. You don’t sleep through a tickly nostril people, you just don’t. So it was time.

“Pack you’re things beard! I know we’ve been together for almost half a trip around the sun, but I just can’t take it any more. Go sleep at your mother’s or something! GET OUT!”

The beard dragged its feet and shuffled out of my live and into a cold porcelain bowl. What has become of him? Nobody knows.

All I know is that he don’t come around here no more. And he is missed by one and only one.

Yours truly,

-Sinkus

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 and into the belly of the beast we each shelled out $160 US for tickets to the big match in Rustenburg. It seemed painful at the time but in the end turned out to be a fantastic decision.

Basking in out recent acquisitions, we decided to get a snack at a nearby bistro. As we sat and ate our bagels and drank our coffee, we kept noticing sombreros floating through our field of view. It seemed an inordinate amount of sombreros to be floating around the same small square in Johannesburg. Brian decided that it was time for him to investigate. He returned with a stupid grin on his face and a Corona in his hand.

The short version of the story is that Mexico, in their enthusiasm, had shipped a 20 foot tall golden statue of a transvestite angel for good luck. It was in this ritzy part of town that the Mexicans decided to erect their Mars de Milo and what is a statue unveiling without a fiesta!

Free drinks, free food, free scarves, free headbands, free wrestling masks, free everything. We spent the rest of the afternoon listening to mariachi music and bailando in the square. 2 days till the World Cup starts. This is going to be fun.

-Sinkus