I’m back in Vancouver. I had a super time in South Africa. The World Cup is definitely the biggest party in the world, and to anyone who considers themselves a football fan, I’d heavily recommend going to it at least once in your life. Brazil 2014 looks very appealing and I know people who are starting to save for it now.

As the tournament progressed and teams were knocked out, one thing I noticed was the make up of the fans changing. The great thing about the group stages are that fans from every country are there. It was a bit sad, for example, when the Mexicans, Swiss and Americans left.

Generally, we don’t hear much about football in South America, Asia and even Africa. Encountering fans from those countries, however, really does drill home to you how much of a global game football is, and how people are so passionate about it the world over. And just as our news focuses so exclusively on England and our players, it’s nice to see that other countries typically enter the World Cup as enthusiastic, optimistic and hopeful as we are, even if the targets are different (and probably more realistic).

After the England-USA match, I went to watch Brazil vs. N. Korea at Ellis Park in Jo-burg. This game wasn’t very eventful (apart from me nearly freezing to death), but it had a big curiosity factor because of the North Koreans. No they were not terrible footballers, and yes they did have fans, 300 of them, who were apparently hand-picked to come and support the team, and did not know each other. Their ring-leader ensured they all cheered in co-ordination, which was funny to watch. I was hoping for an upset but Maicon (who had a fab tournament) saw to that. Still, keeping it to 0-0 at half-time was a mini-achievement.

I then headed to Durban with Ryan, my host in Johannesburg, to catch the Spain-Switzerland match. This was a great game, I was sat with the Swiss fans, who were ecstatic at beating Spain. They were singing in the stadium for a long while after the final whistle, and as I was still down about the England result, I tried to find as many miserable Spanish fans as possible to talk to so that I could feel better. And boy were they miserable! Durban is a great city, surprisingly warm, and with a great beach on which all the fan activity was centred. This was the first of many long drives I would do in South Africa.

Next up was Cape Town, where England were playing Algeria. Again, before the match the atmosphere was incredible. Us silly England fans had managed to deceive ourselves that we were actually a good team and that we’d beat Algeria. The stadium was fantastic. However, this game was probably the lowest point of the trip for me. I spent the entire next day in my room pretty miserable. Firstly, the fans I were sitting next to were ridiculous. It hadn’t even been 2 minutes and a very vocal fan nearby was shouting his head off about Steven Gerrard being crap and how Joe Cole should replace him. The guy next to me passionately hated Emile Heskey and was clamouring for Peter Crouch to play, and I foolishly reminded him that Crouch wasn’t all that (didn’t he end the season as a substitute for Spurs?), and the guy went nuts. He accused me of not watching England games (and I fear, of not being a true England fan because I’m ethnically Indian), and did the typical chav aggressive thing of leaning into you as they talk and generally becoming quite unpleasant. I need to learn to not debate people in the stadium, but I can’t help myself when I hear people spout the rubbish that our tabloids write (criticising the players for how much they earn, for example).

Anyhow, the vast majority of fans continued supporting the team, yes we played rubbish, but it was only a small segment of fans behind the goal that actually did the much reported booing after the game. Everyone was very disappointed, but I was expecting the Algerians to defend solidly and they are not a bad team, they beat the African champions to qualify for the tournament after all.

My spirits were eventually lifted by the owner of the guesthouse I stayed in in Cape Town. He pointed out that some England fans had draped a flag over the edge of Table Mountain, which could be seen from all across the city. He then offered to take me on a drive around the city, in his vintage 30 year old pristine Merc. I found out that he collected them and had 3. As a proud Cape Townian he was eager to show me how beautiful the city and surrounding areas were and we had an interesting discussion about the politics of the region, FIFA and their corruptness, and Nelson Mandela. Interestingly enough, I also found out that his mother worked for the British Secret Services.

My next match was Portugal vs. North Korea, also in Cape Town, which was exciting for me as I was right by the pitch and genuinely thought that if I shouted loud enough, Cristiano Ronaldo would be able to hear me and I’d be able to somehow persuade him to come back to United. After about 5 minutes of shouting “Ronny” (his MUFC nickname), I realised this wasn’t working, and instead proceeded to watch the Portuguese score 7 goals. I also realised that he is that vain, as he checked himself out on the big screens in the stadium after every piece of skill he did.

England’s final group match was in Port Elizabeth, an 8 hour drive from Cape Town. It’s the longest drive I’ve ever done, but it’s on the famous Garden Route along the south coast, which makes it quite easy. You see spectacular views pretty much all the way (or in my case, until it gets dark). Port Elizabeth is an industrial city, and is probably my least favourite place in SA. I’m sure I was ripped off for my accommodation that night, the first time I felt that way in South Africa. The game itself however was probably one of the highlights of the trip. England played really well (i.e. they managed to follow their manager’s instructions and press the opposition players in possession), and we should have won the group. This is why being an England fan sucks so much, if they were outright crap you’d have no hope, but every now and then they put on a performance which makes you think they can actually play (beating Croatia 4-1 away, beating Holland 4-1 in 96, the 5-1 hammering of Germany, beating Argentina in 02 etc).

At the end, I was running around ecstatic in the stadium, until I found out we finished second because of Landon Donovan’s goal for the US. This was a big blow, I now had tickets to the wrong matches, and it meant we’d end up playing Germany, which could only end in defeat.

I then flew back to Johannesburg, and experienced a bit of the nightlife, which is lively, but entails passive smoking a pack of cigarettes over the course of the night. Not fun. I find Joburg’s alleged “no-go neighbourhoods” really weird. The places where it’s “safe” to hang out are random giant malls/shopping areas that are surrounded by massive walls. Apparently I heard that some American fans thought the walls were to keep the animals out. Haha.

It’s not safe to walk from here to there allegedly, and that just puts you in a funny frame of mind. And I hate to say it, but it also very much felt like apartheid, but by another name. Yes black people are allowed everywhere, but there’s still an apartheid of opportunity between the blacks and whites. Perhaps calling it economic apartheid is a better way to describe it.

Since we had tickets to the group winners match, we drove to Rustenburg the next day to watch USA vs. Ghana. I was torn on who to support, but sided with the Ghanaians as it would be terrible for all the African teams to be out of the Cup. That night after the game, we drove to Sun City, a mini-vegas like attraction they’ve built in the middle of nowhere, and where the Ghana team ended up staying. It’s been reported about their relaxed attitude during the tournament, and I saw it first hand as all the players were just hanging out, talking, laughing and relaxing with the fans. I took a pic with Gyan, the player who ended up missing the crucial penalty against Uruguay.

Then, it was a mad 500km dash to Bloemfontein to watch England vs. Germany the next morning. It took us approximately 6 hours to get there, and we arrived about 20 minutes before kick-off (after a mildly scary encounter with a dodgy cop). We were seated with the German fans. The only possible thing that can make a German goal against England worse, is a German goal against England when you are sitting in the midst of hundreds of wildly celebrating Germans. This was also one of the lows of the trip, but really, I never expected us to win. My theory is that a fully fit England team has the potential to match most teams in the world, but the moment we lose a few players, we aren’t good enough. And that’s what happens every tournament (apart from in 96 when they stayed fit and we got to the Euro semis). 98 – Beckham is sent off, 02 – Gerrard missing, Beckham unfit, 04 – Rooney breaks foot, 06 – Rooney unfit, Owen breaks knee, 10 – Ferdinand, Owen and Beckham missing. I genuinely think with Ferdinand, we wouldn’t have conceded that ridiculous first goal from a goal-kick, nor those several counter-attack goals. Oh, I must qualify the above by saying I assume we have a decent keeper, and I don’t count David James as good enough. He made some good saves, but the second goal he turned away from the ball and the third goal he dived out of the way! I also think the disallowed goal impacted the game. It deflated England. I could see the ball cross the line from my seat, and as soon it happened I turned to look at the linesman who was madly sprinting back towards the line. He obviously was out of position to judge, and then their keeper did the right thing and acted like nothing happened. If we were Brazilian/Italian/Spanish we would have just all ignored the referee and instantly gone and celebrated the goal by the corner-flag, thereby pressuring them to give us the goal. But we are England, and we suck at referee manipulation.

This is when I had my second altercation with an England fan. In a bar afterwards, I was having a friendly chat with some fans until one guy started saying Capello was rubbish and wrong for the job because he’s foreign. I then reminded the fan about the last time we had an English coach, we actually failed to qualify for the tournament, and his face went red and I was told to “move away”. Twat.

At this point, I think I realised I wouldn’t stay for the whole tournament, and was looking for ways to sell tickets. As it turns out, I ended up going to one more game, Argentina vs. Germany, which unfortunately the Germans won. It was still very cool to watch Messi in the flesh and to think that I was only a hundred metres or so away from one of the all-time greats in the game, Diego Maradona.

And thus ended my trip. I sold my tickets to a dutch guy who paid in cash and who kept changing the location of our meeting point, from my hotel lobby to his hotel lobby, and then to his hotel room, which left me somewhat apprehensive. I think he was a bit of a big shot because he knew all the hotel managers (and who carries thousands of USD around with them?!). But, everything was fine.

If you are into football, then going to a World Cup is possibly the best thing you can do. It feels like being in football heaven, you can watch matches everyday, go to the games, engage with pretty much anyone about football, and have a holiday at the same time. I’m really glad I did it, and would heavily recommend South Africa to anyone (bar Jo’burg and Port Elizabeth). If you stay near the coasts, you’ll be fine. I didn’t do a proper safari but still got to see some animals in a national park. It is quite inspiring to have wild animals wander freely around you.

Finally, an extended trip anywhere always beats a short trip as you become more of a traveller, and less of a tourist with assumptions. Based on my gap year 6 month world-trip, I believe it takes at least two weeks to genuinely pick up the vibe of a place.

And with that, it’s back to reality for me.