Half Time

By the end of today, the first stage of the World Cup will be over and so far the tournament has not failed to excited and surprise! South Africa has proved all critics wrong and organised a spectacular, safe, stunning and smooth World Cup.

Most of the great football nations had a slow start – some didn’t even start at all! Les Bleus left South Africa without a win, scoring only one goal and attracting mockery for their widely publicised internal disputes; the Azzurro – current holders of the World Cup – did also not manage to win a single game against football über-nations like New Zealand, Slovakia and Paraguay and the top tipped footballers from the Copacabana needed fifty-four minutes to score against North Korea, the lowest ranked team in the tournament!

But while the favourites made the headlines for losses, scandals and arguments, new countries have excited us with some fantastic football! The Eastern European connection of Serbia, Slovenia and Slovakia has showed some impressive performances; the South American teams played beautiful Samba football and countries like Switzerland have shown that passion and Teamgeist can be enough to beat the over-paid Spanish armada.

Bafana Bafana won over the entire country with their great performances against Mexico in the opening game and left a nation heartbroken after the boys went out only on goal difference after a passionate fight and deserved victory over France!


Despite much criticism by international spectators, visitors have fallen in love with South Africa’s new national instrument and the Vuvuzela industry is booming! Fans from all countries proudly blow the old Kudu horns and everyone who complains about a lack of atmosphere in the stadiums can only be jealous about not being there and experiencing it for themselves!




The stadiums are all state of the art and absolutely beautiful – especially Soccer City is incredibly stunning and quite possibly one of the most impressive architectural structures I have ever seen! The concerns about getting to the stadiums have also proved to be groundless and the system of Park & Ride, Walk and Rail is functioning super-smooth getting thousands of merry and peaceful supporters to and from the stadiums without any problems at all.

Despite some spineless security staff using the World Cup as an opportunity to strike and demand higher wages, there have been no major incidents of mugging, no murders and as far as I know, no tourists have been eaten by lions (so far).

The other day, one of my colleagues came back from watching Bafana in a fan park and told me how he had sat between an old toothless woman in traditional clothes and a Boer (a white, Afrikaans speaking farmer) and how for the first time ever he felt that South Africa was truly united. Being proudly South African, I have learnt the National Anthem – four languages, two melodies – and singing it with a big crowd of rainbow nation supporters before the game against France was quite possibly one of the most beautiful and emotional moments in my life.

South Africa has every reason to be proud of its achievements – both in organising and playing in the World Cup! The country is hosting a magnificent event, inviting all visitors to join their celebrations, fly their flags and let the colours of the rainbow shine!