ROD CITY (Saturday night 7.30pm)
Everyday is different on the road - last night we were in a fly-blown Zamoran village little cheering on Uruguay against Ghana with a few local wide boys and tonight we are sipping beers in the colourful plaza of the walled city of Cuidad Rodrigo. There are Spanish flags everywhere and an air of expectancy. Germany have dumped the Argentinians out of the Copa Mundial and it’s them they must play if they can beat Paraguay.
ROD CITY (10.30 pm)
Vamos Espana - David Villa’s three post goal has put Espana through! We watched the first half in a bar in the plaza but due to speed-of-service deficiencies in the cerveza department we moved back to the hotel for the second half to watch it in the company of our friendly host Luis. Luis is a Real Madrid fan who has never heard of Nottingham Forest and was amazed when I told him they won the Champions League twice back in the middle ages. Unbelievably, five seconds before Spain scored the only goal of the match, the TV signal in the hotel went dead - and in the eerie silence that followed we heard the cheers and shouting from the street outside and knew that our adopted team was on its way to the semi-finals. Now we’re back in the plaza and cars and pick-up trucks are driving around waving Spanish flags and sounding their horns and everyone is happy, except of course three million Paraguayans who are loitering somewhere in the suburbs of Ascuncion in the depths of misery. Such is life, such is the Copa Mundial.
