The opening weekend

I didn’t watch the opening ceremony as I was working on Thursday evening. Had I been at home I would have put the TV on just out of curiosity to see how South Africa would kick-off its big moment and hope no-one would embarrass themselves like Diana Ross did at USA ‘94.

So, it was the following day that my World Cup viewing kicked-off but it didn’t go very well. I visited http://live.itv.com/ and I was impressed that I would be able to watch the matches at my desk at work. However, within seconds of the start of the match the site crashed and despite repeated attempts I couldn’t get it working again.

Not to be beaten I reverted back to tried and tested websites such as Iraq Goals and Justin TV and eventually I found a live stream of the game, albeit with Spanish commentary. Fortunately, the first half wasn’t up to much and I left to watch the second half in a nearby pub with English commentary.

Within minutes of arriving in the pub, South Africa took the lead with a great strike and several groups of people celebrated. It became apparent that there were South Africans as well as Mexicans in the venue supporting their teams which really added to the atmosphere.

The next match that watched in full was Argentina versus Nigeria and I went to a pub with a few friends for that one. After that I got changed into my Rene Higuita costume (see previous post) and went to on a fancy dress pub crawl with seven other people also dressed as former World Cup footballers.

After the England – USA match, I exchanged a few texts with friends and family assessing what we’d just seen. This is usual behaviour for us throughout the season after big matches so there was not really any extra usage.

Now the tournament has started, the main advertising activity I’ve seen is several bookmakers offering free bets when you deposit a certain amount of money online. I already have an online betting account which I use occasionally for big sporting occasions such as the World Cup, FA Cup Final, and the Grand National.

I currently have £5 on an accumulator bet where I have predicted the winners of 15 of the group stage matches, just to make them that bit more interesting. I may be tempted to open a new account with the ones offering free bets as to get £25-worth of free bets for £5 seems like a pretty good deal.