Tag: world cup 2010

And then…

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A couple of days ago, I had a bit of a pop at Karibu restaurant for their really terrible performance – particularly as we are trying to impress the huge number of tourists during the World Cup (aren’t we?).
And then… I realised that there is more to impressing the tourists than tacky Waterfront restaurants – stuff that we humans can’t actually mess up. I took the family (tourists, over here for the World Cup) for a trip around the peninsular, which is a pretty touristy thing to do. And if you are a tourist over here for the World Cup (and I know you’re reading this blog in your ones) then you should do this.

We took in breathtaking vistas, saw a breaching Southern Right Whale at Llandudno, admired the crashing waves at Misty Cliffs, sat watching a troop of baboons near Cape Point and then went to see the penguins at Boulders.
And that was where things really kicked off – if you pardon the footballing pun.

Because while we were enjoying the penguins – not in a carnal sense, obviously – there was a little commotion out in the bay.
Dolphins. Hundreds of the buggers:

And instantly, people were staring away from the funny little waddling birds (who took the opportunity to try some unobserved flying practice). “Ooh! Dolphins! Look at the dolphins!” they exclaimed in various different languages.

But my brother was looking at something else. Probably because he doesn’t understand Italian or Japanese for “Ooh! Dolphins! Look at the dolphins!”. My brother was looking at the two, possibly three Killer Whales which were following the pod of dolphins, presumably eating one or two every now and again.

Yes. It’s a whale, but it’s very Jaws, isn’t it?
Der dum. Der dum. Der dum dum dum, Der dum dum dum… etc.

The tourists were in their element. Hell – I was even quite impressed. The penguins were annoyed – after all, this was their gig and no-one was watching anymore. But generally, the mood was one of excitement and enjoyment.

I hope that the tourists have made it away from the tacky Waterfront restaurants. I hope that they didn’t have to queue for too long to get up the Mountain and that they took the time to go and see what else the Cape has to offer. Because, if they did, they’re coming back – and they’re bringing their friends, family and even their neighbours.
So never mind, Karibu. Maybe you haven’t ruined everything. There’s enough elsewhere to make up for your deficiencies.

Probably. Just.

P.S. Winelands/Peninsular photos here.
P.P.S. Portugal v  North Korea photos here.

England v Algeria – photos

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We went, we watched, we booed.
And for Wayne Rooney to have a dig at the fans who have traveled 6000 miles... and spent thousands of pounds to watch that dross just proves how out of touch he is and what a primadonna he has become.
Tosser.

Still – as the photoset above shows, it was a good day out: firstly at the Waterfront, enjoying the view and the atmosphere and the beers and then off up to the amazing Cape Town Stadium, which was filled with passionate fans from both nations.
If only the standard of the football had lived up to the fans’ expectations.

Next up – North Korea and Portugal on Monday.

The Big Game

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Tonight’s the one that many people in Cape Town have been looking forward to – England v Algeria. After a hugely disappointing performance in Rustenburg last week, England will need to step it up at the Cape Town Stadium this evening and I’ll be there to cheer them on. You can follow the evening’s action on Twitter and I’ll get some pics uploaded in the morning after what will undoubtedly be a rather late night. Potentially even later if England get a win and we head back to the Waterfront to down some few beers.
I may even try and do a live blog from the stadium.

Meanwhile, back in the UK, the first week of my local radio sport as on-the-spot World Cup correspondent has gone really well. I have been given a dodgy nickname and I have made several incorrect score predictions. The host of the show I’m doing it on has been doing some investigations and has discovered that the man responsible for importing vuvuzelas into the UK lives a few miles from their radio station. They are now planning a flash mob to descend on his house at 5am on Sunday – horns in hand.
Ag shame.

And with that – I think I’m going to go and blow one (cough) and bring the gees back to Cape Town.

Big disappointment

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Just back from the Waterfront, which was alive with sunshine and happy faces for the Bafana Bafana game last Friday, but was a very different scene this evening as things fell apart for South Africa. What started as a party full of hope went very quiet and ended in disbelief, anger and tears. Mainly because the parking machine got an errant R5 coin stuck in the coin slot.

The queues were quite horrendous.

In the footy, Bafana were quite simply outplayed for 90 of the 90 minutes. The midfield just didn’t turn up, the passing was wayward at best and there were only brief snatches (which are still better than no snatches at all) of the team that played with such passion and skill on Friday. Uruguay are apparently the same side that I saw in Cape Town last week and bored me to tears, although it didn’t look that way this evening. Also, the parking machine worked that night, so it really was completely different.

There has already been a lot said about the referee – not least his decision to award a penalty to a player who was apparently offside and give Itumeleng Khune a red card to boot (him off the field), but the fact is that Bafana never really looked like scoring.
Now SA need to rely on a France v Mexico draw (o-o would be nice) and then they have to go out and beat France. Nothing else will suffice if they are to make the last 16.

Photos (such as they are) will be up tomorrow.
Me? I’m off to bed with a sore throat, some dashed hopes and possibly – just possibly – a small tear in my eye.

P.S. Suarez to Man U next season, I reckon. They’ve been missing someone with diving skills like that since Prissy Crissy walked out on them.

Ban the Vuvuzela?

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As expected, the vuvuzela is causing a bit of a stir at the World Cup 2010. And it’s prompting a huge number of really silly comments on news sites (BBC, Sky News etc) – mainly from people whining about how they don’t like the noise.

Ag, shame.

It’s like watching the game in the middle of a beehive.

Is it? How exactly have you worked this out, because you seem very sure. Have you got vast experience of watching football matches in apiaries? Wouldn’t the whole stinging thing be worse than the noise, anyway? Presumably, you took some sort of Epi-pen or similar anti-histamine device with you to counteract any anaphylactic shock caused by being repeatedly stung. I could never do that beehive thing.
Admittedly, I did get very drunk and watch a couple of games from Korea/Japan 2002 in an anthill, but ants are pretty quiet and so the atmosphere wasn’t great. I’m not sure I’d be welcome back anyway after I fell over and broke an egg chamber – and my evening ended as I was thrown out by the bouncers. All 1,280,000 of them.
But bees – I might give that a go. Honey sandwiches all round, what ho!

Patrice Evra – We can’t hear one another out on the pitch because of them.

Patrice, dude. I was there on Friday night. It really wasn’t very loud at all. Do you know what I think? I think that your team didn’t get three points because they actually didn’t play very well. Your strikers couldn’t hit a cow’s arse with a banjo and your right back had a particularly bad game.
What – that was you? Oh – how embarrassing.
Anyway, it looked to me like Germany didn’t have many problems hearing each other on the pitch last night. Maybe it was a different kind of vuvuzela in Durban. Or maybe they just have louder voices. Or maybe they actually just played well.
And it’s not like you Frenchies don’t have a bit of history with annoying trumpets at your stadiums, is it? Who could forget that horrid little fanfare thing you repeatedly played over the PA systems at the 2007 Rugby World Cup to occasionally keep people interested? Or that annoying singing sound you call La Marseillaise?

Presumably Thierry and Sidney were blaming the ball for their errant shooting as well. It’s true that it does fly slightly differently at altitude, but then you weren’t at altitude for Friday’s match. Well – you were at about 15m altitude, I suppose. Would you like us to move all the stadiums to sea level for you? The salt water won’t do the grass much good, but then you can blame the pitch as well.
I did note that Germany were also virtually playing on the beachfront last night and I have to say that my good mate Miroslav didn’t seem to have much trouble with getting shots on target.
Probably a different ball thing, right?

Also – no protests from Mexico, who faced a 90,000-strong plastic trumpet army on Friday.
But then, they’re not French, are they?

I find them very uninspiring and I have to get up leave the room.

Patrice? Is that you again?
No – it’s some England fan from England commenting on the Sky News site. And he’s proving himself wrong. How can he call them uninspiring when he is inspired to get up and leave the room? That’s inspiration right there.
I was also inspired to get up and leave the room by Robert Green’s horror show and England’s lacklustre performance on Saturday evening, but as long as we’re talking about vuvuzelas, we’re not talking about that, are we? It’s Julius Malema style diversion tactics (as copied by Patrice Evra).
And anyway, could it have been a surprise blast from a plastic trumpet that made the England keeper spill that weak effort into the goal? Or perhaps the fear that he was being attacked by some bees?

Ha! What a pathetic shot, Mr Dempsey. I won’t even need to get my body behind that one, even though it’s the first thing they teach you at goalie school. I’ll just – ARGH! BEES! I’M BEING ATTACKED BY SOME BEES! – oops!

Look. The vuvuzela is part of the African football experience. I’m sorry you don’t like it. But what you like is not of interest to me right now – you want a World Cup in Africa, then have an African World Cup. Otherwise, let’s just go back in sterile Germany every four years with their wonderful trains, half-decent Weissbier and concerning habit of occasionally annexing other nearby nations.
Actually, it’s my concern that the traditional samba drums will prevent players hearing each other on the pitch in Brazil in 2014. But although we’re all aware of that potential issue right now, several years in advance, let’s rather wait until the first few days of the tournament and then have all the players and fans of teams that turn in below-par performances complain bitterly about it.

Ban the vuvuzela? Good luck to you.
As the (South African influenced) Kaiser Chiefs once sang: “I predict a riot”.

EDIT: Sepp’s on my side…

EDIT 2: Pierre de Vos hits the real nail on the head.