June 17 - Messi, Messi, Messi and a great dinner

After a day without live football, Lars, Fawzi, Joe and I set out early for Soccer City this morning to watch the great Lionel Messi and Argentina face South Korea. Our first order of business was to get a parking slip so we could park our car at Soccer City. In order to do this we had to go to a "Computicket" location. We were told by a casual acquaintance that Computicket could be found in pretty much any local grocery store. Don't believe everything you hear.

We stopped by the local Woolworth's (a store that I still can't quite figure out; there seem to be separate examples of it that sell either groceries or clothing), and were told to go to Rosebank Mall because they did not have Computicket. Losing time already, we went to Rosebank Mall and were once again denied as there was no Computicket in sight in a relatively large mall. They directed us to Hyde Park Mall, where we finally found Computicket and printed out our parking permit for Soccer City.

Under the gun time-wise, we rushed to Soccer City, again aided mostly by maps. Also, Fawzi's pay-as-you-go account with Vodacom started picking up 3G, so he had Google Maps helping us on his iPhone. At this point, we were all anticipating missing the kick-off, although nobody said that. When we approached the inevitable traffic jam surrounding Soccer City, Joe sprung into action again and directed us to another freeway with far less traffic that actually got us closer to our parking. With this piece of good fortune, some quick walking and a painless entry into the stadium, we were in our seats with minutes to spare.

the view from our awesome seats at Soccer City to watch Argentina face South Korea

Argentina put on the best display of football we have seen yet, with the amazing Lionel Messi and the tenacious Carlos Tevez leading the way. The title of this blog should have probably been "Higuain, Higuain, Higuain," because the Argentinean #9 scored a classy hat-trick, but Messi did everything besides put the ball in the back of the net. He is one of the greatest players I have ever seen, much in the same mold style-wise as his coach, the great Diego Maradona. Maradona may have been the best player ever, but the jury is still out on his effectiveness as a coach and he is in a fashion no-man's land with a crazy Karl Marx-ish beard and a suit that looks like it was purchased off the rack in the bargain section at the Men's Wearhouse. In any case, his team is looking the most dangerous in the World right now and we were treated to a match full of attacking flair and grit from the Argentines.

When we got back to the apartment, we were looking for some food. We decided to head for a place called Carnivore using the 3G on the iPhone to guide us there. If you've ever been led to the wrong place using the Google Maps search function, then you'll understand our frustration at being sent to a dead part of downtown Johannesburg at night looking for a renowned restaurant, only to find grit and grime everywhere we looked. For those of you from the Bay Area, imagine being on 6th and Market, then imagine that it's actually Johannesburg. To be fair, I never felt remotely threatened, but then again there is a reputation here, so we scooted back to our neighborhood pronto, where we found a place called the Local Grill.

If you're reading this and you're ever in Johannesburg and you don't eat at the Local Grill (www.localgrill.co.za), I will feel personally insulted. It was the best steak dinner I have ever had. I have never had more tender and delightfully seasoned meat, and the starters, sides, wine, and salads were all top-notch. To top that off, the service was fantastic, and we were given a full tour of the kitchen and the "meat aging room" by one of the owners of the place, a man named Llewy. He gave me a proper education on many of the cuts of meat they had and how they were aged to achieve maximum tenderness. Long live the Local Grill!

with Llewy in the meat aging room at the Local Grill in Parktown North, Johannesburg

While we were there, we watched the abominable France, with their outrageously awful coach Raymond Domenech, lose 2-0 to Mexico. Never has so much talent looked so bad in almost any sport. I cannot believe Domenech has persisted in his job as coach of France for this long. Shocking. I hope South Africa beat them like a rented mule in the final group stage match so they can move on. Tomorrow the USA's group is playing, and we will be off to see the Red, White and Blue boys at Ellis Park as they take on Slovenia. Until then...