/ 22 June 2010

‘This is a world party’

'this Is A World Party'

While both Spain and Honduras had their disappointments in their showdown in Ellis Park on Monday, fans loving the South African experience were the real winners.

“I am bery bery bery happy,” beamed Gerardo Godarde.

He squinted at my notebook in the glare of Ellis Park’s floodlights. “Put more berys,” he urged.

The La Furia Roja supported was not even a native of Spain. He hails from Mexico City but instead of siding with fellow Latin Americans Honduras in their match against the titans, he chose the Euro 2008 winners.

But while Spain’s 2-0 victory over Honduras at Ellis Park on Monday put them in reach of the Group of 16, there was some surprise that the team didn’t clock up more goals — with both David Villa and Fernando Torres coming close to scoring hat tricks.

Spanish fans were nonetheless jubilant about their team’s return to form after the World Cup favourites came perilously close to packing up after just the first round.

“Two are enough for being champions of the World Cup,” announced Godarde.

An uninterrupted ten match winning streak in qualifying for the World Cup ended in a shock defeat against underrated Switzerland in their first match of the tournament.

“They were lucky,” said Spanish fan and native Carlos Guernero dismissively. “We’re just waiting for Chile — we’re going to be the first in this group.”

They’ll come close — if Switzerland beats Honduras, which seems likely, and Spain are able to get at least one goal up on Chile.
The South American team — who have their next match against Spain — won their first two matches to hold pole position in the group. But they may not make it to the Group of 16, depending on how the matches work out in the rest of the group.

It’s a numbers game the fans are less interested in then seeing their heroes score.

“We don’t know what happened with Torres,” said Guernero, the spokesperson for a largely Spanish-only speaking group of friends. “As for the penalty of Villa we have no words.”

Spanish hero Fernando Torres was a force at the goals, nearly scoring himself several goals in the first half with a repeated assault on the nets. But El Nino, as he is known, was repeatedly denied by an over-exerted Noel Valladares defending Honduras’ goal, and came away completely empty-handed.

Villa was also stopped short, after scoring the two goals of the match. In the 62nd minute of the game his clear penalty kick had all the right moves, sending Valladares flying in the wrong direction. But the ball flew just wide of the goals, eliciting a groan of disappointment from incredulous fans.

But the Spaniards weren’t going to let the missed opportunities spoil their fun. On their eighth day in Johannesburg the group of friends were intent on enjoying the country. “The weather is very cold, but the people are very hot,” said Guernero with an impish grin.

On the other side of the victory, Honduras fans weren’t looking much worse for the wear.

“For me even though Spain won, it was an even game,” Robert Nembhard said proudly, recalling his team’s admirable defence.
“It was clear that we played a good game.”

Indeed, the Spaniards played an aggressive game that could easily have earned the lesser-rated Honduras a far more humiliating defeat — such as the 7-0 crusher North Korea suffered at the hands of Portugal earlier on Monday.

But Valladares blocked goal after goal, squarely in the chest, as Spain aimed eight balls at the goal during the opening thirty minutes.

In stark contrast to Spain’s coasting to the tournament, Honduras squeezed through to qualifying for the World Cup for only the second time. This was their second loss and a third looks likely — but fans remain optimistic.

“We can’t lose them all,” said Nembhard, who was on his way to Bloemfontein for his team’s third match in the tournament. But his friends were easy either way. “We are very happy. Even though we lost we still have the joy and fun,” said Raul Rodas.

Their highlights of their two week South African trip so far were “the animals in Kruger National Park” and — a recurring theme — South Africa’s people.

“We had a good time here,” they smiled. “This is a world party.”