PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa — It’s his first soccer game. Seventeen-year-old Robert Morris, seated with his mom and two sisters, smiles with excitement at the idea he’s really at the World Cup. He’s at the Korea vs. Greece game at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth.

“It’s surreal — it hasn’t sunk in that I’m actually at the World Cup,” Robert says.

Morris has grown up in South Africa. His sisters, Kristie, 23, and Sarah, 21, are visiting from America during their summer break from college. They’ve spent most of their time doing ministry in Grahamstown with their parents, IMB missionaries Bob and Susan Morris.

They, along with a team of volunteers from Tennessee, took a break to enjoy the first World Cup game in Port Elizabeth.

The four volunteers — Austin Womac and Jacob Thurman from Alcoa, Kyle Prince from Murfreesboro, and Ken Brown from Maryville — helped the Morrises hold soccer clinics in a township near Grahamstown.

Today they caught the World Cup excitement sweeping through the country and dressed up in their team’s colors.

“He (Prince) is supporting Korea because he has the shirt,” Thurman says. “I’m supporting Greece because I had the blue pants.”

Brown rooted for Greece because “it comes first in the alphabet.”

Though they didn’t really have strong ties to either team, they cheered faithfully when Korea won 2-0.

Jeffery Aaron, a writer for IMB’s Global Communication Team, is spontaneous and never knows what he’ll say next.