DB's World Cup Diary - back home

This is my final South African World Cup article, so I thought I'd leave you with a few of my non-All Whites impressions and memories from a truly unique couple of weeks away.

I'm glad I left my stab vest and body armour at home because, despite all the warnings, they weren't needed. The atmosphere on the streets and around the stadiums was as friendly and inviting as anywhere I've been in the world. I don't know if that was natural or put on for the World Cup but it doesn't matter. Sure, there was a security presence just about everywhere you went, but it was low key and generally unobtrusive. South Africa was a comfortable place to be.

Being based in one place for fourteen nights did become a bit of a chore. It would have been nice to move around a little and I regret not making the effort to head down to Cape Town or Durban for at least a couple of nights. To my mind the Pretoria/Johannesburg area would be a tough part of the world in which to live. Despite being winter, with some very cold nights, the whole landscape was dry, dusty and desolate. Not quite the same as home. It left me with the impression that I'd need to be harder than I am to survive there.

One morning we spent some time touring around Soweto. Despite its poor reputation, only a fraction of its residents actually live in corrugated iron shacks. We were taken through some suburbs loaded with attractive middle class houses and millionaires mansions. Just goes to show that things aren't always what they seem. The highlight was a stop at the Hector Peiterson museum, which is dedicated to the memory of the school boy who's death became symbolic with the struggle against apartheid.

As far as the World Cup is concerned, the games have been pretty much what you'd expect to see from modern tournament football. During the group stage teams more often than not limited their creativity and accentuated their pragmatism in an effort to get through. There were a few shocks, with teams like France and Italy heading home early, then the real excitement and drama began in the knock-out stages. Some of the round of 16 and quarterfinal matches have been superb. Let's hope we see more of the same in the final few matches.

By the way, I hope you didn't bet the house on the Argies following my clearly not-so-learned tip in an earlier article. They were dismantled by the Germans in the quarter-finals. I'm not going to have another go at predicting a winner, even with only four teams left. This is football, you know, and anything can happen. And those vuvuzelas are less annoying live than on TV. The atmosphere wouldn't have been the same without them.

So the countdown is now on for Brazil 2014. That seems such a long way off right now but I guarantee the time will fly by, so you won't have to wait too long for your next edition of DB's World Cup Diary.