FIFA fans feeling the final fever
- Source: Global Times
- [09:44 July 12 2010]
- Comments
Dancers perform at the South Africa Pavilion Sunday night before the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals. Photo: Cai Xianmin
By Ni Dandan
Soccer fans inside the Expo Park gathered at two homes Sunday, crossing their fingers with fellow supporters at the Spain and Netherlands pavilions ahead of the final game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup that played out on South African soil early this morning.
Special activities at the pavilions included line bypass to enthusiastic fans dressed in proper attire and free T-shirt giveaways.
"We didn't expect our outfits to bring us such luck," Shen Yunfei, a student from Tongji University, who was jumped to the front of the line with his friends after staffers spotted the group sporting Spain jerseys, told the Global Times Sunday.
"I hope that this luck will also bless the Spain team in the final."
The Spain Pavilion said that Sunday was meant to be a celebratory occasion for all soccer fans, regardless of which team was destined to win.
"We are welcoming both fans of Spain and the Netherlands to our pavilion, and the most important thing for us is to make sure that we all have fun here," Yang Yue, spokesperson of the Spain Pavilion, told the Global Times Sunday.
As soccer fanatics poured into both country pavilions of the World Cup finalists Sunday, the two structures saw their popularity inside the park boost a month after the South Africa Pavilion has held the No.1 destination for soccer fans at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai.
The Netherlands Pavilion Sunday awarded every 1,000th visitor with an authentic bright orange soccer uniform, while children received a balloon also matching the country's national color.
"By giving visitors these gifts we are trying to extend the same joy that our home team is feeling by making it all the way to the finals again after a long awaited stretch of some 32 years," Wierd Vonk, director of the Netherlands Pavilion, told the Global Times Sunday, adding that with 60,000 visitors passing through some 60 official uniforms were being gifted.
A middle-aged Shanghai native surnamed Li was one of the pavilion's lucky winners.
"It's a pleasant surprise," he told the Global Times Sunday. "I wish good luck to both of the teams in the final."
