Sports THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
World Cup connection
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THE SOUND OF SOCCER
Spectators blow noisemakers known as vuvuzelas at the World Cup in South Africa. Kansan writer Clark Goble said the buzz from the vuvuzelas began nine hours before the first game.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Constant buzz surrounds World Cup
JOHANNESBURG — For me, the 2010 World Cup didn't start with a bang. It was more like a buzz.
I was trying to fully recover from any lingering jet-lag symptoms before the bumblebee-like vuvuzea buzz came roaring through my window. Approximate time? 5 a.m. Thursday here, approximately 10 p.m. Wednesday in Lawrence.
A full nine hours before the opening ceremony and 11 hours before the
BY CLARK GOBLE
cgoble@kansan.com
first actual game, I knew this thing, the first World Cup on African soil,
was on like Donkey Kong.
We had a shuttle arranged to leave from our hotel at 10 a.m., expecting the ride to take more than two hours. However, our shuttle had a new driver: a wily South African with a deep knowledge of the streets. We took back roads until we hit the major traffic outside Soccer City and made it in a little over an hour.
With the free time, we decided to check out the Soccer City itself. Not a
ton of things to "do",but the number of people watching surpassed anything I've been a part of. You had the Bafana Bafana faithful — the South African fans — completely decked out in green and gold,a vuvuzela at everyone's hip. You had the Mexican fans,some playing into common stereotypes with others shaking wooden noisemakers like they were getting paid to do it.
The third group was us: the nonpartisan fans expecting to head back home with blown eardrums. We saw a few England fans milling around, and I can tell you that my passion for cheering against them was already building.
We headed in around 1 p.m. and began to realize what we were getting ourselves into. The speakers were blaring already, so we figured that
SEE VUVUZELA ON PAGE 22