Count down ends!

A few memories from Germany 2006

GOOAAALLLL! Aus vs Japan Germany Kaiserslauten

Aus Vs Cro Family Snap! Germany 2006

When I was still in High School in 2006 I took my first ever trip overseas; my introduction to the rest of the world was Germany's FIFA World Cup. In that one month of breathless passion I experienced such an unreal and raw time, to my young eyes everything was golden, glittering and exciting. I suppose timing had a lot to do with it, my age, Australia's situation as well as their relative success made my time in Germany ever more the 'life changing' experience. So, as South Africa was approaching and my family made plans to make the pilgrimage again it obviously got me thinking about our time in Germany and just how unexplainable it was, so this time I thought it'd be fun to document the whole process to share with everyone! 

I started counting down 128 days ago via this blog… Today, there is just one day to go and I'm sitting in the airport waiting for my flight. I'll arrive in Johannesburg on Friday morning, awaiting for me will be a whole country bursting out of it's seams with pride and passion as well as 1000's of fans from all over the world. Everyone's there for one reason. A mass of humans ready to enjoy themselves, their inhibitions gone - ready to hug any random that walks past…

It's been a rather entertaining little project for me to have on the side and has been a great way to keep up to date with the lead up to the tournament. The best thing is that the real fun begins now! 

There's no doubt that over the next few weeks there'll be lots to see, some beautiful, maybe some ugly.  I hope to take as many pictures as possible to share and upload. 

Most of all hopefully it's safe and hopefully Australia does well! 

One step closer...

I was met this morning by my yahooing brother and father at Zurich airport twirling their Aussie scarves above their heads... The swiss were a little concerned but when I saw them I knew I was in safe hands! 

Only God knows how I could have possibly detoured to Zurich on my way to South Africa... But anyway here I am! The lovely Luis and Florence have looked after us and conveniently live a sweet 5 minute walk from FIFA head quarters so as if I could get away with not visiting! I went over with Dad, took some snaps and then preceded on my run and managed to get lost!!! It really sucked. But anyway I'm back now, happy that a Swiss bear didn't eat me. 

NEXT STOP SOUTH AFRICA!

Happy High Pants

Nothing like a bit of click pout and pose! In the fashion world blogs are big and a good friend of mine Zanita Whittington is one of the best, so last week we decided it'd be fun to collaborate and make blog babies.

With World Cup knocking loudly on our doors it was fitting for Zanita to feature a fashionably sexy, sporty chic fashion post - I love the results! Zanita waved her magical wand over the football/exercise version of me, and trust me, I never look this good when I'm running!  She's an amazing young photographer/model, can't wait to see some awesome opportunities come her way.

I had to pop on my new Nike Socceroo's jersey to goof about a little in the middle of all the shots, I've never had a jersey that wasn't an oversized triple XL so I'm loving this one!

Check out the rest at http://www.zanita.com.au

In other more relevant news, yes, we lost on Saturday night to the USA 3 - 1. Of course not ideal, however, a friendly can never be as fiercely contested. The Socceroo's now have about a week left before our first massive match against Germany so I'm sure preparations in South Africa are being finely tuned down to the last mouthful of cereal.

As for me, today I feel a little more settled. I've finalised nearly all of my life in Sydney and am carefully packing for South Africa!

2 Days till I leave, 4 days till the first World Cup game... I wonder what this journey has in store!

Nelspruit

Mbombela Stadium, I love the Zebra seating!

I've covered Durban and Rustenburg but realised that I am yet to figure out the lie of the land in Australia's 3rd host city Nelspruit. So here's a practical and compact one hit post. 

Population: 470,000

Climate: Sub-tropical with temperatures around 23°C during winter
Key Economic Sectors: Agriculture, Mining 

Football Clubs: Mpumalanga Black Aces, Witbank Spurs (1^st Division)

Location: North East on the Crocodile River near the Mozambique border

Mbombela Stadium is where the Socceroos will play on the 23rd of June against Serbia. The stadium seats 43,500 and was built especially for the tournament. 

Nelspruit's Fifa Fan Fest will be located just outside the city centre and about 5km from the stadium at Bergvlam High School.






There is a serious lack of photos of Nelspruit on the internet (had the same problem with Rustenburg), this is the only piece of random street dwelling I could find! I'm sure World Cup will boost the little towns web presence... Can't wait to take some of my own snaps.

More info at http://www.mbombela.gov.za/

SBS Football Insiders

Close, but no cigar... This was my entry into the SBS Football Insiders competition. SBS, Sony and Optus were hunting for an on the ground reporter who could show the Australian public just what it's like to be a fan at South Africa's World Cup. I got into the final 5 (the only girl!) but unfortunately didn't cross the line first in the end. I was glad to see that the final prize winners were Kim Oxenham and Courtney Dober who were totally deserving - I loved their entry! Plus, turns out I know Courtney so it made defeat feel a little better!

The boys will no doubt get up to all kinds of mischief in South Africa, follow them (and check out the other entries) via this Facebook link:
http://www.facebook.com/optus?v=app_122152204478228

Tell me whatcha think!

10 DAYS TO GO!!!!

Back in Action + Italian Festival

Life has been rather lovely with no internet but I'm glad to be back! 

I made the rather special choice of accidentally deciding to buy my new computer on Friday, the day that the iPad was launched. BAD IDEA!!!!!  As painful as it was I'm happy that I have stepped back into the 21st century. However, a week with no technology means I have lots to catch up on.

Above are some pics my friend Vanessa snapped for me at the Italian Festival in Darlinghurst on the 23rd of May. Such a fun day in the rain! Lots of yummy food, music and smiling people.

'Phil' and 'Mario' AKA Lucas Neill and Fabio Grosso bounced around on these awesome stilt things all day - perfect Girl Meets Ball material! 

World Cup Tickets!

Opened an email today to see this pretty picture! My biggest brother conveniently happens to live in Switzerland and picked up our tickets from FIFA head quarters in Zurich the other day...

Only 15 days to go!!! EEEEEKKKK So much to do before I leave.

No comment about Monday's performance!! Hopefully our next warm up games will be prettier.

Football World

Finally got to check out the new Nike Football department in in Rebel Sport in the city over the weekend. There's nothing like it in the country so really cool to see it so close to me!

Have soooo much to post in the next few weeks but technical difficulties are making it hard! My computer died last week so will have to get a new one.

Delayed Telecast

Only a week behind!


This will certainly clarify your suspicions that I have little else to do in my life... Slowly but surely I have built my Socceroos class of 2010! I have an essay due this week but once this idea was in my mind there was no stopping me...


This is the preliminary World Cup squad of 31 players that was announced last week by Pim Verbeek. The team will now gather in preparation for their World Cup send off match on the 24th of May against New Zealand at Melbourne's MCG and then continue on to South Africa for more pre-World Cup matches. Pim then faces the heavy task of cutting the team down to a slender 25 players. Good luck boys!


Left to Right Top to Bottom:

Carl Valeri, Adam Federici, Jade North, Mark Milligan, Nick Carle, Mark Schwarzer, Richard Garcia, Harry Kewell, Dario Vidosic, Brett Emerton, Rhys Williams, 

2nd row; Eugene Galekovic, Mark Bresciano, Jason Culina, Brad Jones, Tim Cahill, Tom Oar, Vince Grella, Lucas Neill, Shane Lowry, Scott Mcdonald, Front Row; Scott Chipperfield, Nikita Rukavytsya, Mile Jedinak, Craig Moore, Brett Holman (holding rat), David Carney, Luke Wilkshire, Micheal Beauchamp, Josh Kennedy, James Holland 

Fashion Week Meets Football

Last week was Rosemount Australian Fashion Week in Sydney. Now, usually it's all about nails, fake tan and hairspray, but last week there were only two things on the lips of all the models. World Cup and the Socceroos!

Here's proof!

Eagerly waiting to hear tomorrows news of the Socceroos squad announcement..

Nike in a bottle

I got home the other day to find a parcel of love from Nike. Inside was this! I'm finding it hard to express the delight I felt! I haven't had a parcel come to me for ages so thanks Nike!

Now I just have to figure out how to get it out of there... 

Stay posted for my Fashion week meets Football post coming soon! 

World Cup South Africa 2010 Magazines

The Soccer International Magazine succeeded in fooling me the other day... I saw this in a dodgy corner store as I was walking home and my eyes lit up! $15 dollars later I pulled it out of the paper bag thinking it was a FIFA's Official World Cup South Africa 2010 release to find it was a local opinion on it all! Not to worry too much, it's still a good read... I just don't like being tricked! There's plenty of other special World Cup editions popping up... Will be interesting to see which publications manage to get some different content.
Soccer International 1 vs GMB 0

Two minutes and one second with Craig Moore

Craig and I had a rather snappy chat right at the end when he had had moore than enough... I felt rather sorry for him that my questions were of such little importance, but anyway, I hope he enjoyed something different. I hardly felt like asking him why he left Greece just to see his eyes glaze over and punch out the same answer he would have given SBS, SMH, Four Four Two, Men's Health, Sport and Style etc etc etc... 

Craig had a easy relaxed manner with the media. As they might well have kept snapping away till the sun went down he was happy to stop them and tell them they'd surely got enough. Good strength of character! 

So, only a slight variation, but here's what I got out of him. 

If you were not a Footballer what would be your profession?

I’d love to work in property - a property developer or something like that.

Out of the ‘Big 5’ in South Africa (Lion, Cheetah, Elephant, Buffalo, Rhino) which animal would you like to see?

(Thinks for a while) Cheetah. 

And which would you like to be if you were reincarnated as an animal?

Uhhhh an Elephant – ‘Cos they just stroll about in their own time... And they never forget either.

What’s worse; nothing but a critic or nothing but a dreamer?

Nothing but a critic

Did you eat vegetables when you were a kid?

Loved them!           

Bus or Walk? Catch a bus

Postecoglou or Farina? Farina! All day long, allllll day long!

Einstein or Shakespeare? Einstein

Morning training or afternoon? Morning

Sea or land? Sea

PC or Mac? Mac

Ta da! 

2 minutes and 39 seconds with Tommy Oar

Photo thanks to Matt Reed

Tommy Oar is to the Australian football media what Justin Bieber is to a 12 year old hyperventilating
 girl. He's still a spring chicken at 18 and has been given some great opportunities in the last year. With an Australian Socceroos appearance, a great season at Brisbane Roar and a signing with Dutch club FC Utrecht to boot. 

I had a little chat to him yesterday at the Nike launch. He seemed very lovely and not yet jaded by all this commotion. Hopefully the older boys don't corrupt him! 


Here are the very important questions that I asked... 

If you were not a Footballer what's one thing would you like to be?

I’ve been involved in football since I was young so I don’t think it would be a very good thing – For a dream thing definitely a Rock Star!

Out of the Big 5 in South Africa (Cheetah, Lion, Buffalo, Elephant, Rhino) which would you most like to see if you get to go?

Definitely the Lion

And which one would you most like to be?

Probably the Elephant, that way you don’t have any prey

You’re driving in a car and the light goes orange; do you speed up or slow down?

Speed up!

If you’re in a restaurant and the food isn’t what you expect do you get them to take it back or do you just eat it?

I definitely wouldn’t get them to take it back

If Australia gets to host the World Cup for 2018 or 22 which city should host the final?

Probably being biased but I reckon the Gold Coast

Bus or Walk? Walk

Postecoglou or Farina? No comment!

Einstein or Shakespeare? Shakespeare

PC or Mac? Mac

Gaga or Beyonce? Neither!

Sea or land? Land

Multi-choice or essay? Multi choice

Fruit or Veg? Fruit

Nike's Socceroos Jersey Extravaganza!

A sunny Sydney morning on the harbour was the perfect location for Craig Moore and Tommy Oar to show off Nike's new 2010 Socceroos jersey.

The lovely Nike team invited me along to the press call, which included a putt around the harbour on a nice swanky 3 level yacht, followed by a presentation to the media. This involved a little brekkie, lots of technical chat about the jersey’s new features and plenty of filming and snapping.

Now, I’ll admit that I’ve never actually been to a press call so this was all quite a novelty to me. I did my best to act like I knew what I was doing and to get SUPER DOOPER EXCLUSIVE pics and info for all of my Girl Meets Ball readers!!

The jersey in my opinion is rather nice. Understated and clean - nothing risky. The incorporation of the green across the shoulders takes us back to the true green and gold feel which I felt we was missing over the last few years with the predominantly yellow strip (although, the sea of yellow at matches did look pretty amazing). Other than that, the jersey’s main boasting rights are its super eco-friendly production, which I’m quite a fan of. It’s made out of 100 per cent polyester, diverting 13 million plastic bottles from landfills.

The boys (Craig and Tom) did a great job of standing around in their T-shirts. Sydney has made the most pathetic attempt of an autumn but today was one of the first days that had a bit of a nip in the air so I hope they don’t catch a cold! They were also very gracious to hang about and have a chat to the hounding (but loving) media. I even got amongst it – My first two interviews ever! I asked some pretty hard hitting questions… you just wait! 

Asian Cup Draw

Australia has drawn South Korea, India and Bahrain for the 2011 Asian Cup in Qatar. I think this is a pretty good outcome. 

It’s amusing how every time a significant draw is done the media grumbles and rumbles about how ‘tough’ our group is. Since when has an international competition ever given an easy group? Unless you're Italy playing New Zealand...  

There’s been chat about the Socceroos not taking on the Cup with a full strength squad. This is due to the possibility that European based players will not be released by their clubs for the tournament next January.

In my eyes this is not a problem we need to fret about. We can’t keep belting out the same team. This Asian Cup is an important one for Australia for a couple of reasons. Firstly, to help us further cement our relationship in the Asian confederation and also to prove ourselves on a worldwide scale as a strong team internationally (that CAN hold a World Cup), however, we’ve got to get our youth off the bench. They need the experience of a big competition – it’s no use playing our 28+ year olds, by Brazil 2014 they’ll be in the stands… Ultimately if this means we don't do so well, then so be it - we can't keep masking our way through.

Asian Cup Draw

Group A: Qatar, Kuwait, China and Uzbekistan

Group B: Saudi Arabia, Japan, Jordan and Syria

Group C: Korea Republic, India, Australia and Bahrain

Group D: Iraq, North Korea, UAE and Iran

Get your Socceroos face on!

Every time I read '3 steps to a sexy smokey eye' in a magazine I just know that it's unachievable - I end up looking like a Raccoon (I know all of you boys out there will be with me on this one). So, in light of this I've decided to create my own fool proof guide to getting your Socceroos face on! 

OR go all the way... Not for the faint hearted.

 

Thanks to the beautiful Simone for being my guest photographer! 

GMB XO


P.S. Please note yellow and pastel green nail polish!! Bussyyy! 

Rustenburg Week: Other things to do...

Rustenburg's Fan Fest will keep us occupied for a lot of the evening hours but if you're after some non-football adventure options then there are a few other activities to check out. 

The Sun City Casino complex claims to be South Africa's 'Las Vegas' and is located just outside of Rustenburg. If you're sick of the natural landscape of South Africa you might just be able to hide yourself in this place. It's a wholllee lota man made.  A huge entertainment complex with nightclubs, cinemas, golf courses, an artificial surfing beach, a crocodile park, a waterworld for parasailing, water skiing and sindsurfing, a Disney-inspired Lost City... The list goes on...


Sounds like a cross between Crown Casino in Melbourne and the Gold Coast... Here's an article from The Age. 





Another destination is Hartbeespoort Dam which offers paragliding and handgliding, lots of water sports, an aquarium, private zoo, a snake park and a cable way! The area seems to be a bit of a weekend get away with lots of touristy things, local art galleries and events going on. 

The Magaliesberg Mountains offer a breath of fresh air. With canopy tours, hot air balloon trips, abseiling, horse riding this might be a good option if you need a break from the football fever. 

Also, while you're here - Botswana is only about an hours drive from Rustenburg, I really wanna go there! 

Rustenburg Week: Fifa Fan Fest

The Fifa Fan Fest in Rustenburg will be located at the Primary School of Fields College on 226 Klopper Street. I guess the kiddies get the month of school?! 


The venue will have space for 20,000 fans and will be kitted out with giant screens with sound, lighting, security - the whole she-bang. 


As well as this there'll also be a strong cultural dimension with markets, local food and arts as well as musicians that inhabit the North West province. 


At the moment I can't find a photo for the school - However, I found their Facebook page!! I'm going to befriend them and ask if they can send me a picture!! 


GMB XO 

Fast Facts: Rustenburg

• Population 395,539 [according to 2001 census]
• Geography: North West South Africa
• Nestled at the bottom of the Magaliesberg mountain range
• Economic Sectors: Mining, Agriculture. Two largest platinum mines in the world. Cotton, tobacco and citrus fruits are the main crops farmed
• During June Rustenburg will be quite pleasant ranging from 14-23 degrees.
• The English Football team will be resting their heads close by at the Bafokeng Sports Campus during World Cup
• 120km north west of Johannesburg
• Local football team is the Platinum Stars, also knicknamed Dinaledi (Tswana for Stars)