I am Going to the World Cup

I am going to the World Cup. Five days from now I will be somewhere in Johannesburg, looking for the hostel I booked for the first two nights. After that, I have few concrete plans. I hope to take a bus up to Maseru, the capital of the mountainous and desolate country of Lesotho and at some point see Cape Town. Between June 16^th and June 28^th I have tickets to five games and during the ten days after the tournament is over I will be conducting research with a professor from SUNY Cortland. With set plans only fifteen days out of the seven weeks I will be in South Africa, I have difficulty imagining with any clarity my trip to come.

Being in this place of waiting, packing and goodbyes, it seems more useful to reflect on how I got here than what will soon happen. It was only in February that I got the idea to travel this summer. Although I had been barely making rent all Autumn, when I began delivering pizzas for Sammy’s during November I finally began saving a little money. This unglamorous delivery job turned out to be quite lucrative and when in the beginning of the new year a few of the other drivers left or were fired, I took as many shifts as I could. By the beginning of March I had saved $1500 and began thinking of backpacking around Argentina during the World Cup. I expected that this voyage would be cheaper than the actual World Cup while still being a glimpse into soccer’s central cultural role around the world. Plus, with the maniac Diego Maradona in charge of Argentina’s team, this tournament would be particularly interesting.

In the beginning of April I took the Saturday night shift at Sammy’s. At this point I was working six days a week, including Friday, Saturday and Sunday from five in the afternoon until four in the morning. Since I had to get up at seven in the morning to coach the Meteors, the youth team I lead, by the end of the weekend I would be exhausted. To the left is a picture of me taking out the trash at 3:30 in the morning on a weekend night. Often, I would be startled as I turned into the alley from the Ithaca Commons with my load of trash. The lights of the Commons were aligned in such a way that as I rounded the corner, it seemed that the shadow of another person was about to come around the corner from the other side. Plus, there was a stone sculpture of a woman seated at a table in the middle of the Commons that often gave me a fright.

Some weeks I worked over 60 hours. I had time in my schedule for only three things- working, coaching the Meteors and spending the rest of my limited time with my girlfriend Terri. As it turns out, those final busy months were somehow actually pleasant despite the terrible schedule. I attribute much of this satisfaction to late-night sessions after grueling shifts baking ready to eat cookie dough with Terri.

Some time around early late March I went to the Greenstar with my friend, teammate, and assistant coach Samir. At the register, the cashier Emeline knew Samir and said to him, “You should come do research in South Africa for the World Cup with me.” I quickly butted into the conversation and found out everything I could about this project. Apparently, it was being led by a Sports Management professor from SUNY Cortland. I obtained from Emeline the email addresses and the phone numbers of the research team. Volleys of emails and calls and a consistent assurance that I could cover all of my own expenses resulted in me being on the research team and going to the World Cup in South Africa.

I have now said many goodbyes. My favorite came from my kids, the players of the Ithaca Meteors, little stars in the making and the warmest, brightest group of kids I have ever encountered. At my last practice they surrounded me and when we did our usual, “1,2,3 Meteors” with our hands in the middle, they replaced “Meteors” with “Nate.” They are in good hands with Samir and though they are u-11, they are gunning for second place in the highest u-12 division in the Binghamton area soccer league.

One more note: this past Monday and Tuesday I was selected to participate in a coaching symposium attached to the United States’ game against the Czech Republic. Tony Lepore (the US Soccer Director of Scouting) and Claudio Reyna (the US great and new US Soccer technical director) lead the symposium. I got to see a closed door practice lead by Bob Bradley and talk with assistant coach Mike Sorber after the practice and after the game. He was clearly unhappy with the game and saddened by the tough decision (deciding the final 23 man roster) that the coaching staff had to make that night.

This picture is of me on the field for pre-game warm-ups.




I hope everyone who happens upon this blog has a great summer and enjoys following along with my adventures in South Africa. Next entry comes from Johannesburg. :)