Category: world cup 2010

World Cup thoughts…

Posted on

Having been down to Cape Town Stadium last night for the France v Uruguay game [PHOTOS], here are a few thoughts on the World Cup now that it’s actually here. Please excuse me as I am watching England v USA and my mum, who is utterly trollied, is giggling next to me. It’s very distracting.

Firstly, get to the stadiums EARLY. Yes, there was a bit of congestion outside the ground on Friday evening, but I cannot understand (or sympathise with) those who turn up with 10 minutes before kick off and expect to get in smoothly. And I don’t appreciate the arseholes in the queue next to me that moaned and complained about how “it wasn’t like this at the rugby“.
Well, no it wasn’t. But then there were half as many people there and there were no security checks whatsoever. Because no-one wanted to blow up the Boland v Stormers friendly.
And it actually was like that at the rugby today, where we were stuck in huge queues to get in and out.
But no whining.

Secondly, vuvuzelas are the future of crowd noise. What an atmosphere at the Waterfront for the Bafana game.
And when they scored – wow.

Thirdly, if you’re going along to Italy v Paraguay on Monday night – wrap up warm. The ‘realfeel’ temperature via accuweather.com is -2°C. Yes. Minus two. In Cape Town.

That’ll be fun. And if you think that’s bad for the fans, think of the poor players.

And – in defence of Robert Green and his pathetic goalkeeping (and it was pathetic), how much worse than Teko Modise’s misses yesterday was Green’s schoolboy mistake?

There’s good and bad

Posted on

Now and again, people accuse me of doing the whole ostrich thing. Not the having huge eggs that a grown man can stand on, but the burying one’s head in the sand thing. I know that it’s a popular misconception that ostriches actually do this, but I’m willing to go along with it, at least for the purposes of this post.
I do dispute that I do the whole ostrich thing, though. Being a positive or optimistic person is only any use if you have a over-riding accompaniment of realism on a sideplate. Blind optimism is as foolish as pessimism – it achieves nothing and gets you nowhere.

As an example – the new Koeberg flyover. I had high hopes for this ending the misery of the constant queues around the N1/M5 junction. This is healthy optimism. And they opened the first of the new flyovers (the southbound one, in case you’re interested) this week. And it does seem to have had some effects. Just not all good ones.  In their wisdom and in an effort to remove the queues, they have – as a side-effect – channeled all the M5 traffic through one lane. In short, it doesn’t work.
This is realism. Blind optimism would ignore this heinous deficiency and wax lyrical about the speed of the flyover.
I’m not into that.

Furthermore, I was unimpressed by Cape Town Airport’s efforts to welcome international visitors to the World Cup. My main criticism is that there was actually no effort whatsoever. No flags, no posters, no noise, no fuss. And there needs to be fuss. This is the World Cup, for heavens sake. Even the “World Cup Welcome” desks were empty – and that’s shocking. Perhaps as shocking as my vocalising this annoyance may come to some readers of this site. But there’s no value in ignoring the deficiencies of this country or any other. How are things supposed to improve then?

But I do want to finish on a positive note. And that’s my prerogative.

I think that if there is one symbol that will become synonymous with this World Cup tournament, it is the vuvuzela. And I was lucky enough to win one, which was delivered to me today.

Just check out that beadwork in Proudly South African colours. Absolutely stunning.

And that’s what realistic optimism is all about. Enjoying the positives while not ignoring the negatives.

Tomorrow is the big day. Opening ceremony, Bafana Bafana v Mexico, France v Uruguay.
We’ve been waiting six years.

Ke nako.

Hooliganballs

Posted on

Great news as South Africa’s new Advanced Passenger Processing (APP) – which I complained about bitterly when I flew to the UK last year – nips the plans of 10 Argentinian hooligans in the bud.

And while that’s just brilliant, this quote from Home Affairs Director General Mkuseli Apleni has got me confused and amused all at once:

Asked about whether the department will be able to bar other possible hooligans entering the country, the Director General said: “What we are saying is that in terms of the risks to the country we’ve put in place systems which will eliminate that risk to zero percent but I can’t say that I’ve got a foolproof system.”

So don’t worry, South Africa – zero percent risk means that you’re completely safe.  Although of course, the system isn’t foolproof.

Right.

Anyway, Apleni’s staff will face another stern test this evening as I collect my parents from Cape Town International for their much-anticipated World Cup visit.
Here’s hoping they don’t get deported before baggage reclaim…

Goosebumps

Posted on

I’ve watched the Cape Town stadium grow from nothing to the stunning landmark it is today. And with the excitement building in Cape Town, this amazing collection of timelapse videos from African Renaissance Productions gives me goosebumps.

The rusty goalpost shot early in the video is from the Greek Club where The Firm AFC used to play (when it was dry enough). It’s incredible how much has been achieved since then. And now we’re less than 100 hours away from kick off the France v Uruguay game.

Ke nako – it’s time.

EDIT: Ha! Just noticed that the countdown clock in my side bar has obviously fallen foul of the FIFA lawyers – “3 days and 4 hours until Football Cup”.
“Football Cup”? Ivo Vegter’s going to love that!

Five days

Posted on

The official countdowns all say four, but ask anyone how many days between Sunday and Friday and you’ll be told five. So the official countdowns aren’t fooling anyone.
Mid-range forecasts suggest that Cape Town is going to have a pretty horrendous start to the week weather-wise, but that Thursday – and more importantly – Friday, are both going to be mild and DRY.

While Cape Town is allegedly a way behind Jo’burg in World Cup spirit, something I can believe after visiting the rather sterile Waterfront this morning, there are spots of extreme gees (spirit) here and there. Like the guy above with his work-in-progress garage door in Newlands. (You can see this new landmark from the M3 opposite Newlands Forest [MAP].)

This apparent lack of excitement doesn’t worry me. Capetonians always start getting into these things a little late, but then once they do, they do it so much better than residents of other South African cities we could mention.