DB’s World Cup Diary returns

I'll be submitting a weekly article to the Matamata Chronicle. The first one follows, and there will be a least one article a week for the next month or so. I guess that's a good way to keep the blog up to date

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Four years after debuting in Germany DB’s World Cup Diary is back. Germany 2006 was great fun but, for me, lacking a little something. That little something, having a team to support, ain’t gonna be a problem in South Africa. In case you hadn’t heard New Zealand, the All Whites, will be at the biggest festival in world sport and this time (whisper it quietly) we may just have a chance of achieving something quite positive.

Okay, booze-fuelled optimism aside (it was late on a Saturday night when I wrote this), I think anything close to a result will be an achievement for New Zealand. We have a decent team now, but this is the World Cup and I’m not sure how many kiwis actually know how big this thing is. And how small New Zealand really is. So I’ll be happy if we can score a few goals and maybe nick a point against Slovakia or Paraguay. Anything else will be the stuff All Whites fans dreams are made of.

I’ve been lucky enough to secure tickets for eight games in South Africa. For a long time there it was ridiculously easy to get tickets so I basically made a pig of myself. It seems people were wary about travelling to South Africa – I can’t imagine why. Along with the three NZ games, I’ll be watching some of the biggest names in football. Holland, Argentina, Italy, Germany, Spain and (possibly) England is not a bad line-up!

My schedule in South Africa follows:

June 14 arrive in the morning, then watch DENMARK V THE NETHERLANDS at 1.30pm. Then crash!
June 15 NEW ZEALAND V SLOVAKIA
June 16 Sun City tour
June 17 ARGENTINA V KOREA
June 18-19 Free (for now...)
June 20 NEW ZEALAND V ITALY
June 21-22 Free (for now...)
June 23 GHANA V GERMANY
June 24 NEW ZEALAND V PARAGUAY
June 25 CHILE V SPAIN
June 26 ROUND OF 16 GAME (possibly England v Germany or Australia)
June 27 Rest
June 28 Fly home
July 1 to June 2014 Find a way to pay this trip off before heading to Brazil for the next World Cup

There is actually a group of five of us travelling from Matamata. We’re part of a tour group being led by former All White captain, Danny Hay. Two of us headed away on June 8 as we’re travelling to Finland first (work beckons). At this stage I expect to be sitting in a pub in Helsinki for the opening couple of games.

We meet up with the rest of the group in Hong Kong on Sunday before heading off to Jo’burg. Our hotel is in Pretoria and we are literally on the doorstep of Loftus Versfeld Stadium, a legendary rugby stadium, which has been hijacked by the round ball for a month. A good location for a great couple of weeks I reckon.