Zapiro on The World Cup
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 |
Archive for the ‘soccer’ Category
Confed Cup – Egypt’s Robbery Claims
Monday, June 22nd, 2009 |
Up until the latest allegations of theft from the Eqyptian and Brazillian soccer teams, the only controversy was caused by those damn vuvuzelas.
So we go from one national scourge to potentially another. Crime!
The story of course is not all that cut and dried.
Egypt soccer team management claims they were robbed of around R19 000 from their hotel rooms and Saturday night.
We might want to keep in mind that Egypt surprisingly lost to the USA on Sunday after beating World Champions Italy last week.
Sources however told the weekend media a different story.
They claimed the Egyptians entertained prostitutes in their hotel rooms and paid them with the missing money.
Which the Egyptians are denying.
With crime being quite rambant around these parts and boys being boys, neither story seems unlikely.
Police apparently are investigating.
Can we expect the Protea Hotel, Wanderers to have security cameras on the floor to that particular hotel?
Whatever the truth of that story, the Brazilians are claiming to have been robbed of a jacket and some money.
If you were going to claim robbery in any country, South Africa would probably be a first choice candidate.
Since South Africa is such an easy target to make claims of criminal activity, maybe hotels should be thinking of putting up security cameras in their lobbies.
It’s easy to blame crime to hide indiscretions – no one here bats an eyelash for common theft when we have more serious crimes every day.
Bafana Bafana In Semis of Confed Cup
Sunday, June 21st, 2009 |
Bafana Bafana did us proud Saturday night.
They lost 2-0 to current European Champions and the world’s best team Spain and that’s no shame.
More importantly, they played constructive football.
Fans don’t have unrealistic expectations from Bafana Bafana, but when they play crap football like they sometimes do and show off when they’re a goal or two up, it is frustrating.
When they play their hearts out like they did on Saturday night, we can respect it if a better team beats them.
So now Bafana Bafana are through to the semi-finals of the Confederations Cup.
It makes us believe that the 2010 World Cup won’t exactly be the total disaster from a Bafana Bafana point of view.
Well done to them!
I might Loathe the Vuvuzela, But Love Our National Anthem!
Saturday, June 20th, 2009 |
It’s the start of the Confederations Cup match between Spain and South Africa and I sneakily turned the sound down lower to lessen the horrendous horror called the vuvuzela.
Well, I had to turn it up a bit for the national anthem.
I absolutely love our anthem, Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrika – it must be one of the best out there.
Very emotional especially taking into account our country’s history.
A few years ago I remember standing at a nearly full Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Boxing Day and hearing our national anthem being sung in a foreign country.
Seeing the emotion on people’s faces during the Confed Cup soccer match brings back that memory.
I’ve had occassion to sing the anthem with a crowd of people at other events, but somehow sporting events bring out the emotion even more.
Funny how that is.
Makes up a bit for that darn racquet the vuvuzela creates.
FIFA To Give Away Free Tickets to Confed Cup Matches
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 |
Looks like FIFA are eventually being reasonable by giving away free tickets to the remaining Confed Cup matches – except for the game between Brazil and Spain on Sunday which is already almost fully booked.
The organising committee of the Confederation’s Cup have a lot to answer for with the shoddy handling of ticketing.
Many listeners have called into Capetalk /702 to complain about the unavailability of affordable tickets online.
They were apparently keeping cheap tickets aside – instead offering R700 tickets.
(Who would actually pay anything, much less R700 to watch New Zealand play Iraq???)
Instead Fifa have at this late stage contacted NGOs and municipalities to decide how to hand out the free tickets.
According to IOL.co.za an average of 33170 attended matches so far, compared with 37000 in Germany in 2006.
Fuller stadiums will contribute to a more festive occassion – but will probably also mean more vuvuzelas!
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