While I sat in Little John Colisseum waiting for one of my best friends to walk and receive his degree from Clemson, I passed the time beforehand reading some ESPN Soccernet articles. One really stood out, and revolved around the security concerns heading into the World Cup.
I figured it wouldn't be too shocking hearing about security issues, after all, it is South Africa. But the security concerns they talked about had to do with the potential visit from Barack Obama to the tournament. He's been indecisive on whether or not he will actually attend, but it seems as if the US make it to the knockout stages it's almost certain the president will make the trip.
One of the officials interviewed in the article talks of how the South Africans have a "famous prayer" that the United States won't advance to the knockout rounds. I'm not so sure they should be concerned with the US, as much as their own team making it out of their group, which will be hard with the likes of Mexico, Uruguay and France in the same group.
Another security concern was the German team getting shafted and having to reside in an "unlicensed" hotel, which one official kept referring to as an "illegal residence." It seems sad that they can't even secure a safe residence for a national football team.
It starts to beg the question, as I posed in a previous post, was this the right venue? So far signs are pointing straight at no. Hopefully the South African police force can prove us wrong.
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