Keep Flying Campaign In Guinness World Attempt

Keep Flying!!

The Keep Flying ini­ti­at­ive – together with ini­ti­ator Draftfcb South Africa, Vodacom, the International Marketing Council of South Africa, Lead SA & SuperSport – will attempt to set a new world record at the Springbok-All Blacks Trinations clash on Saturday August 21 at FNB Stadium in Soweto.

The record attempt – 90 000 South African flags in one venue at one time — has been lodged with Guinness World Records, the ulti­mate author­ity on record-breaking achieve­ment ... Continued

A-Z of the 2010 World Cup!

Cape Town Fan Walk

A is for Ayoba! Thanks South Africa for mak­ing it Ayoba! (Uniquely South African, Ayoba is a slang term used to express delight, excite­ment, agree­ment and approval)

B is for Brazil. We’ll see you there for the World Cup in 2014 – with our Vuvuzelas!.

C is for the Cape Town Fan Walk, a 2.6 km ped­es­trian link from the sta­tion through to Somerset Road and the Stadium Forecourt within the Green Point Urban Park. Fans and Capetonians alike took to doing the “Fan Walk” in their thou­sands … and a mem­or­able time was had by all ... Continued

Iniesta’s late strike wins World Cup for Spain

Andres Iniesta

Iniesta’s late strike wins World Cup for Spain
Spain cap­tured their first ever World Cup trophy when they defeated the Netherlands 1–0 last night cour­tesy of a 115^th minute goal from mid­fielder Andres Iniesta (pic­tured). Iniesta slot­ted the win­ner in extra time when he was put clear by Cesc Fabregas and drove the ball past a diving Maarten Stekelenburg in the Dutch goal. It was a bit­terly dis­ap­point­ing defeat for the Netherlands who suffered their third World Cup final loss after defeats in 1974 and 1978. Continued

Draftfcb Calls On Nation To Unite Behind Flag Post World Cup

Keep Flying!

Draftfcb South Africa, has respon­ded pos­it­ively to the nation’s post World Cup fears and launched a national cam­paign to retain the energy and pas­sion unleashed by the 2010 spec­tac­u­lar. Speaking in Johannesburg on Friday July 2, Draftfcb South Africa Group CEO, John Dixon, said the agency will act­ively enlist the sup­port of the country’s most loved brands to extend the sense of achieve­ment and self-belief we’ve achieved as a nation over the past few weeks.

Dixon explained: “As South Africans, we have exper­i­enced an unpre­ced­en­ted high dur­ing the World Cup month. Which means, given the proven fact that all host nations have suffered from post-event depres­sion, we’re due for an even lower low when the final teams and soc­cer tour­ists return home ... Continued

World Cup News — the Final 2

Carles Puyol

Puyol powers Spain into final
Spain qual­i­fied for their first World Cup final when they defeated Germany 1–0 in a tense encounter at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban yes­ter­day even­ing. A 73^rd minute header from defender Carles Puyol (pic­tured) was enough to pro­pel ‘La Roja’ into Sunday’s final against Holland at Soccer City in Johannesburg.

Vicente del Bosque’s second ranked side dom­in­ated the match but battled to fin­ish off a German team lack­ing their usual pace until Puyol struck the decis­ive blow 17 minutes from the end. “Players from defence to attack were extraordin­ary and played a great game,” said Spain coach del Bosque. Continued

World Cup News — The final four

David Villa

Villa puts shaky Spain into last four
Second ranked Spain over­came a determ­ined chal­lenge from 31^st ranked Paraguay to pro­gress to the semi-finals of the 2010 Fifa World Cup with a nar­row 1–0 vic­tory over the South Americans at Ellis Park on Saturday. It was the first time that Spain have reached the last four of the World Cup since 1950.

In a match of high drama in which both sides squandered pen­alty kicks, Spain once agained relied on the goal-scoring prowess of striker David Villa (pic­tured) to secure vic­tory. The 28-year-old Villa scored his fifth goal of the tour­na­ment in the 83^rd minute to book his side a place in the semi-finals and give them a chance of win­ning the World Cup for the first time ever. Continued

Latest World Cup News — the last eight

David Villa

Lethal Villa puts Spain into last eight
A 63^rd minute strike by striker David Villa (pic­tured) was suf­fi­cient to earn Spain a 1–0 vic­tory over neigh­bours Portugal and a World Cup quarter-final berth after an intriguing match at the Green Point Stadium in Cape Town yes­ter­day. Villa scored the win­ner when he stabbed the ball into the net after his first shot was blocked by Portugal ‘keeper Eduardo.

“We felt com­fort­able but you have to be care­ful because things can change quickly,” said Spanish coach Vicente del Bosque. “We know we’re work­ing well, we want to cre­ate a bit of his­tory,” he added. Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz remarked: “Spain were much more effect­ive mov­ing the ball around. We were look­ing for chances on the counter-attack. We had our chances – we just didn’t score. We’ll have to come back stronger.” Continued

Latest Results from the World Cup

Carlos Tevez

Argentina cruise into quarter-finals
Carlos Tevez (pic­tured) scored two goals for Diego Maradonna’s Argentina as the South Americans defeated Mexico 3–1 in their World Cup second round match at Soccer City yes­ter­day. Argentina’s win set up a rematch of their 1986 and 1990 World Cup finals with Germany who out­classed England earlier in the day.

However, although Argentina argu­ably deserved their vic­tory, the match was not without con­tro­versy. Tevez’s 26^th minute opener should not have coun­ted as tele­vi­sion replays showed he was well off­side. Continued

My World Cup experience ...

My World Cup ...

Now I’m not sure about you, but soc­cer fever has cer­tainly hit me in a big way. I have never been a big soc­cer fan and tend to favour the rugby, how­ever, from the first moments of the 2010 World Cup open­ing cere­mony I knew I was hooked.

South Africa is united and although we haven’t gone through to the next round the vibe every­where is tan­gible, elec­tric and abso­lutely addict­ive. I had luck­ily man­aged to pur­chase tick­ets for one game in Cape Town and am extremely dis­ap­poin­ted I didn’t get my act together quicker and buy more tick­ets ... Continued

Latest World Cup news and results

Shinji Okazaki

Japan too good for sub par Denmark
Japan booked their place in the knock­out stages of the World Cup when they defeated an out of sorts Denmark 3–1 in their final Group E fix­ture at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg last night. Two well-struck goals from free kicks by Keisuke Honda, after 17 minutes, and Yasuhito Endo on 30 minutes, gave the Asians a 2–0 half­time lead.

The Danes pulled a goal back nine minutes from time when Japanese ‘keeper Eiji Kawashima blocked a Jon Dahl Tomasson pen­alty only for the Danish for­ward to score from the rebound. Shinji Okazaki (pic­tured) net­ted a third goal three minutes from time to give Japan their hand­some vic­tory. They are now the second Asian team after South Korea to qual­ify for the last 16 and will meet Paraguay in Pretoria on Tuesday. Continued

Bafana win the battle but lose the war

Bongani Khumalo

Bafana Bafana took advant­age of a depleted and dis­pir­ited France team to run out deserved 2–1 win­ners in their final World Cup Group A match at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein yes­ter­day after­noon. It was a much-improved per­form­ance from the South Africans, who were soundly beaten by Uruguay in their pre­vi­ous fix­ture in Pretoria last Wednesday.

Carlos Alberto Parreira’s men, under pres­sure to record a win to restore national pride, pro­duced the goods against their highly-ranked oppon­ents with defender Bongani Khumalo (pic­tured) and striker Katlego Mphela banging in goals in the 20^th and 37^th minutes respect­ively. In reply, Raymond Domenech’s out­fit could only muster a 70^th minute effort from Florent Malouda. Continued

Lastest World Cup Results and News ...

Javier Hernandez

France face early exit after loss to Mexico
France suffered an embarasss­ing 2–0 World Cup defeat to Mexico at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane last night and now face an early exit from the tour­na­ment after draw­ing with Uruguay in their open­ing Group A match last Friday.

Substitute for­ward Javier Hernandez (pic­tured) put Mexico ahead after 64 minutes when he made his way into the box unchal­lenged and out­foxed France goal­keeper Hugo Lloris to put Mexico ahead on 64 minutes. Worse was to fol­low for the Europeans 15 minutes later, when vet­eran for­ward Cuauhtemoc Blanco made no mis­take with a pen­alty after Pablo Barrera was brought down by Eric Abidal ... Continued

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

Soccer City — 23 days to kick-off (photographs)

23 days to kick-off — The 2010 FIFA World Cup starts in exactly 23 days today with the open­ing match between South Africa and Mexico at Soccer City in Johannesburg. One of the most artistic and awe-inspiring foot­ball ven­ues on the African con­tin­ent, the newly-reconstructed Soccer City Stadium will host the first and final matches of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa ... Continued

South African Sports News – 14 April

Siyabonga Nomvethe

Parreira con­cerned about fit­ness levels ahead of 2010
With the 2010 World Cup less than 60 days away Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira is gen­er­ally happy with the pro­gress of his team although he admits their gen­eral fit­ness levels are not where they should be at this stage of pro­ceed­ings. The 67-year-old coach has recently returned from Brazil, where he held a train­ing camp for the national side, which saw them win most of their games against local league sides.

“The one thing that we achieved at the train­ing camp in Brazil was to identify a style of play­ing for the national team,” said Parreira. “The side now have a shape and the play­ers know what is required from them. However, the phys­ical fit­ness should be much higher than where it is now,” he added ... Continued