Fabulous Forlan floors Bafana

Diego Forlan

Atletico Madrid striker Diego Forlan (pic­tured) was in scin­til­lat­ing form for Uruguay at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria last night when he scored twice to help his coun­try to a com­fort­able 3–0 win over hosts South Africa. Bafana Bafana simply had no answer to the attack­ing prowess of the blonde haired, blue eyed Forlan who had a per­fect match with vir­tu­ally everything he touched turn­ing to gold.

The defeat means South Africa have to win their remain­ing Group A match against France on Tuesday to have any chance of mak­ing it through to the second round of the com­pet­i­tion. A 24^th minute strike and then a con­tro­ver­sial 80^th minute pen­alty from Forlan, which saw Bafana goal­keeper Itumeleng Khune sent off after he was adjudged to have brought down Luis Suarez, sealed the win for the two time World Cup cham­pi­ons. Continued

Maicon saves the day for Brazil and other World Cup News

Maicon

Maicon saves the day for Brazil
Brazil full­back Maicon (pic­tured) scored a superb goal from a seem­ingly impossible angle to guide the World Cup favour­ites to a 2–1 win over a gritty North Korea in their Group G encounter at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on Tuesday evening.

Maicon some­how man­aged to fire a shot into the net from the most acute of angles in the 55^th minute, before Elano added a second goal 17 minutes later to put the South American giants in com­mand. Ji Yun-nam pulled one back for North Korea on 89 minutes, speed­ing past two play­ers and smash­ing home a left-foot drive, but it was a case of too little, too late as the ‘Golden Squad’ held on for the win. Continued

Superb Siphiwe earns Bafana a draw

Siphiwe Tshabalala

Superb Siphiwe earns Bafana a draw
Bafana Bafana pro­duced a dis­cip­lined and com­mit­ted per­form­ance to earn a 1–1 draw with Mexico in the open­ing match of the 2010 Fifa World Cup at a packed Soccer City Stadium in Soweto, Johannesburg, on Friday after­noon. A late goal from Rafael Marques deprived the hosts of vic­tory in front of more than 84 000 vuvuzela blow­ing fans after a bril­liant 55^th minute strike from Siphiwe Tshabalala (pic­tured) had put Bafana 1–0 ahead.

Despite not being able to secure a win how­ever, Bafana can be well pleased with their efforts against the 17^th ranked Mexicans who went into the match as favour­ites. The hosts played with a lot of pas­sion and determ­in­a­tion for the dur­a­tion of the 90 minutes and all the hard work they have put into their pre­par­a­tion for the global spec­tacle has cleary paid off ... Continued

uShaka Marine World offers a cultural experience during the World Cup

uSh­aka World Cup

uSh­aka Marine World is offer­ing a real cul­tural exper­i­ence for both inter­na­tional vis­it­ors and loc­als dur­ing the World Cup. Come and be intro­duced to the Zulu Kingdom with this singing and dan­cing spec­tacle brought to you in this magical set­ting, “Under African Skies” will be a night to remember.

What is this show all about? I have told you it will be a singing and dan­cing extra­vag­anza but what I haven’t told you is that there are very spe­cial per­formers in the pro­duc­tion. Dancing and diving diva’s and show­men will be enter­tain­ing you as the dolphin’s of Seaworld Affrika, Tombi, Khanya, Zulu, Kelpie, Jula, Khwezi and Ingelosi light up the stage. The star of the show the largest bot­tlen­ose dol­phin in any ocean­arium in the world, named Gambit, will make his grand entrance on stage ... Continued

What to expect at the Cape Town FIFA Fan Fest

Everyone wants to know exactly what will be going down at the Cape Town Fifa Fan Fest this Friday — Come share in the vibe of the day and exper­i­ence the spirit of Cape Town as the FIFA World Cup begins! The Cape Town FIFA Fan Fest is a must as part of your Cape Town 2010 World Cup exper­i­ence. With the ulti­mate soc­cer atmo­sphere it is def­in­itely the most fun you can have without a ticket!

View the video for an intro­duc­tion to the Cape Town FIFA Fan Fest run­ning at the Grand Parade from Continued

The World Cup Fan Walk in Cape Town

See our latest pho­to­graphs taken on the Cape Town Fan Walk here: Cape Town Fan Walk pho­to­graphs.

With the FIFA World Cup upon us, it’s no won­der Cape Town is bust­ling with excite­ment. I can’t drive down the road without see­ing at least ten cars with the South African flag on their side mir­rors, and the city centre is alive with the feel­ing of hope and possibility.

Yes, South Africa is ready. But I have some­thing to admit. I heard about one of Cape Town’s best World Cup attrac­tions from a tour­ist.  I know, I know; I’m a bad Capetonian.  During one of my lunch­time walks through the CBD, I star­ted a con­ver­sa­tion with a Chinese tour­ist who was excited about hav­ing seen squir­rels in the Company Gardens.  Go figure.

Anyway, said tour­ist informed me that he was due to embark with a group on the World Cup Fan Walk to Cape Town Stadium.  Which I had never heard of.  He pulled out a map and in broken English described what it was all about. Suitably chas­tised I made up my mind to do the walk the very next day, to see just what fans would be in store for when an estim­ated 18 000 of them use the Fan Walk on match days ... Continued

Bafana players praise Parreira ahead of 2010 kick-off and other South African Sports News – 9 June

Matthew Booth

Bafana play­ers praise Parreira ahead of 2010 kick-off
Two days before they take on Mexico in the open­ing game of the World Cup at Soccer City, and eight months after return­ing for his second stint with the national side, the Bafana Bafana play­ers have praised coach Carlos Alberto Parreira. The 67-year-old Brazilian cut short his first con­tract with Bafana in April 2008 for per­sonal reas­ons, but after a rather unsuc­cess­ful 18-month stint by his replace­ment, fel­low coun­try­men Joel Santana, he returned to the post in October last year.

Santana steered South Africa to the semi-finals of last year’s Confederations Cup, but was sacked by the South African Football Association (SAFA) after Bafana lost eight out of their last nine games under his care. On his return, Parreira has trans­formed the team, with Bafana enter­ing the World Cup off a 12-match unbeaten run, includ­ing a 1–0 vic­tory over Denmark in their final warm-up game in Atteridgeville on Saturday. Continued

Soccer Cinema screens soccer stories

Soccer Cinema

You’ve bought the Bafana Bafana sup­port­ers shirt, you’ve got your South African flag fly­ing proudly from your car, you’ve put up with the seem­ingly never end­ing road works and finally the FIFA World Cup is only four short days away.

As a way to build up the atmo­sphere of this great tour­na­ment even fur­ther, Soccer Cinema will be screen­ing soc­cer stor­ies across the coun­try.  This is doc­u­ment­ary cinema and will give the pub­lic an insight into teams and well-known play­ers as well as high­light­ing events from foot­ball his­tory.  I must admit, as a staunch rugby fan I don’t know much about foot­ball apart from the fact that Diego Maradona is a legend in his coun­try and Wayne Rooney gets paid a for­tune! Continued

Events in June – it's not just about the World Cup

Events in June 2010

June 2010, for many people this means that finally the Soccer World Cup will be here and that means some­thing for every South African. Either you will be excited by this event and will be plan­ning your life around the matches or you will be look­ing for other things to do. We’re once again bring­ing you a brief update on the upcom­ing events and fest­ivals around South Africa but with a bit of a twist. We thought we’d also let you know about some of the events spe­cific­ally about the World Cup (see World Cup Events below) and a few shows you can catch at your local theatre.

June is also sig­ni­fic­ant in South Africa’s his­tory and we cel­eb­rate Youth Day (pre­vi­ously known as Soweto Day) on 16 June. This day com­mem­or­ates the events sur­round­ing Continued

Bafunny Bafunny: SA's Comedy Team for 2010

Barry Hilton

What if Comedy was a sport? Who will rep­res­ent South Africa at the World Cup of Funny?

Enter left wing Bafunny Bafunny – SA’s star-studded Comedy Team fea­tur­ing 8 of the fun­ni­est stand-up comedi­ans from the Host Country, who will tour South Africa with their spe­cial brand of com­edy in the lead-up to the World Cup, to unite the nation through laughter.

Despite their zero sport­ing abil­ity, the stand-up show will keep the sport par­ody alive through­out the tour “fix­tures” with each show, or rather “match”, star­ring the Best in SA Stand-up comedi­ans as “play­ers”, com­plete with a “coach”, a “cap­tain” and big screens with com­ment­at­ors that will keep the “fans” enter­tained dur­ing “half time”. Continued

Rugby Festival at Green Point Stadium (photos)

A few pho­to­graphs of the Green Point Stadium (now offi­cially called the Cape Town Stadium) taken on Saturday 6^th February at the Rugby Festival. The Stormers won 47–13 after lead­ing 18–13 at half­time ... Continued