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

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

No place for Benni in final Bafana squad and other South African Sports News – 2 June

Benni McCarthy

No place for Benni in final Bafana squad
All-time lead­ing Bafana Bafana goalscorer Benni McCarthy (pic­tured) has pre­dict­ably been left out of the final 23-man Bafana World Cup squad by coach Carlos Alberto Parreira. The 67-year-old Parreira, who named the final squad yes­ter­day, decided not to gamble on West Ham striker McCarthy whose fit­ness has been ques­tion­able since recov­er­ing from a recent knee injury.

The 32-year-old McCarthy, who has rep­res­en­ted South Africa on 79 occa­sions with 32 goals to his credit, was one of five play­ers who failed to sur­vive Parreira’s final cut. McCarthy was recalled to national duty des­pite linger­ing con­cerns over his fit­ness and Parreira had hoped the player would improve given his inter­na­tional exper­i­ence and goal-scoring abil­it­ies. 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

Determined Bafana continue to impress and other South African Sports News – 26 May

Siyabonga Sangweni

Determined Bafana con­tinue to impress
Bafana Bafana pro­duced a determ­ined and sprited per­form­ance to draw 1–1 against highly rated Bulgaria in an excit­ing friendly inter­na­tional played at a near capa­city Orlando Stadium on Monday even­ing. It was an excel­lent effort from the South Africans against their 39^th world-ranked oppon­ents and bodes well for their ambi­tions at next month’s Fifa World Cup, which kicks off on June 11.

Bafana are now unbeaten in nine matches since head coach Carlos Alberto Parreira took over the helm in November last year and if the South African’s can con­tinue to play with the same level of pride, pas­sion and com­mit­ment they demon­strated against Bulgaria, they stand an excel­lent chance of mak­ing it through to the second round of next month’s global showpiece. Continued

Bafana go on a goal spree — and other SA Sports News – 19 May

Katlego Mphela

Bafana go on a goal spree
Bafana Bafana gave their fans and the coun­try plenty to shout about on Sunday when they thumped Thailand 4–0 to cel­eb­rate the offi­cial open­ing of the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit. Bafana, on the whole, weren’t shy to pull the trig­ger as they mowed down their oppon­ents in an impress­ive dis­play which saw Katlego Mphela (pic­tured) bang in two goals to go with one apiece from Siphiwe Tshabalala and Bernard Parker.

The Bafana team man­age­ment and their fans must have been delighted with their teams’ effort, which equalled their best win at home – a 4–0 wal­lop­ing of Chad three years ago in Durban. Bafana wrapped up the match inside the open­ing 45 minutes with three superb goals, which brought cheers of delight from the 30 000 strong crowd not to men­tion the deaf­en­ing roar of what could have pos­sibly been an equal num­ber of vuvuzelas ... Continued

Cape Town FIFA Fan Fest for the most fun you can have without a ticket

Soccer Fan

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!

Every match day the Cape Town FIFA Fan Fest will broad­cast all the FIFA Soccer World Cup matches live on a 70m² screen — to ensure you don’t miss one goal. There is also a daily enter­tain­ment lineup between matches that will blow your mind. This lineup will include a vari­ety of top local per­formers and bands, local DJ’s and new and emer­ging tal­ent. Continued

South African Sports News – 12 May

Teko Modise

Thailand up next for Bafana
Bafana Bafana will be play­ing for their places in head coach Carlos Alberto Parreira’s final World Cup squad when the national team host Thailand in a friendly at the new Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit on Sunday after­noon. That was the mes­sage from Bafana cap­tain Teko Modise (pic­tured) yes­ter­day as the team begin the final stages of their pre­par­a­tions for the inter­na­tional showpiece, which starts in Johannesburg next month.

“We know little about Thailand and will be watch­ing DVD’s of their recent games, but the fact is we are fight­ing for our places in the squad. We all know what is at stake,” said Modise. “The coach has to cut the squad from 30 to 23 on June 1. That is sad but a fact. So with time run­ning out we have to per­form against Thailand,” he added. Continued

South African Sports News — 5 May

Morgan Gould

Parreira names 29-man squad as 2010 count­down looms
Bafana Bafana head coach Carlos Alberto Parreira named a 29-man pro­vi­sional squad on Friday as the national team began to final­ise their pre­par­a­tions for the 2010 World Cup, which starts on June 11 when Bafana face Mexico at Soccer City in Johannesburg.

There were hardly any sur­prises at the announce­ment of the squad with the 67-year-old coach retain­ing most of his tried and tested play­ers – includ­ing European-based play­ers such as Everton mid­fielder Steven Pienaar, cap­tain Aaron Mokoena of Portsmouth, Benni McCarthy, who plays for West Ham United, and mid­field anchor­man Kagisho Dikgacoi of Fulham. The only real eye­brow raiser was the omis­sion of Spanish-based defender Nasief Morris ... Continued

South African Sports News – 28 April

Carlos Parreira

Bafana to face ‘Reggae Boyz’ after China pull-out
World Cup hosts South Africa will play a warm-up match against Jamaica in Germany today after China, their ini­tial oppon­ents, sud­denly with­drew. The hast­ily arranged game will take place at the Offenbach Kickers Stadium in Frankfurt (18.30 GMT) and comes as a wel­come boost to a Bafana squad bat­tling to find suit­able oppos­i­tion ahead of the 2010 spectacle.

Despite secur­ing a fix­ture against the Jamaicans, South African offi­cials say they will protest to global foot­ball gov­ern­ing body Fifa at China’s fail­ure to hon­our their agree­ment to play against Bafana. Chinese offi­cials have blamed the pul­lout on travel dif­fi­culties caused by the vol­canic ash that severely dis­rup­ted European air traffic over the past few weeks. Continued

South African Sports News – 21 April

Teko Modise

Bafana shrug off the cold in Germany
Bafana Bafana spent the lat­ter half of last week adjust­ing to cold weather in Germany and build­ing on their Brazil train­ing camp in pre­par­a­tion for the 2010 World Cup.  After train­ing for nearly a month in sum­mer tem­per­at­ures in South America, the South African squad trained in rainy and chilly con­di­tions in the town of Herzogenaurach.

“We can­not com­plain much. You have to under­stand that when the World Cup starts, it will be winter as well. So we can get used to it this way as well,” said South African mid­fielder Teko Modise (pic­tured) fol­low­ing Thursday morning’s train­ing ses­sion. Coach Carlos Albert Parreira has so far con­cen­trated on build­ing up his team’s fit­ness after their camp in Brazil. 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

South African Sports News – 7 April

Katlego Mphela

Bafana return home in good shape
Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira is con­fid­ent that his team’s pre­par­a­tions for the upcom­ing World Cup in June are going well des­pite Bafana going down 2–1 to Brazilian league side Santos on Saturday in the final match of their Brazilian train­ing camp. The camp star­ted on Sunday, March 7 and ended with the loss to Santos over the week­end, but on the whole Bafana got the bet­ter of their oppos­i­tion win­ning four games, draw­ing three and los­ing just one dur­ing their four week stay in the South American coun­try. Continued

South African Sports News – 31 March

Gert Schalkwyk

Bafana camp a suc­cess – Parreira
Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira believes the first two weeks of his team’s train­ing camp in Brazil have been suc­cess­ful. The South Africans are in the South American coun­try on a month-long pre­par­a­tion for the 2010 Fifa World Cup, which starts in June.

They have played seven matches on their Brazilian tour so far, win­ning five and draw­ing two. Bafana defeated a stub­born Ponte Preta out­fit 2–1 in their most recent out­ing, which took place at the Estadio Moises Lucarelli in Campinas, Sao Paolo last Wednesday. Goals from mid­fielder Surprise Moriri and sub­sti­tute Gert Schalkwyk (pic­tured) set up the vic­tory for the vis­it­ors ... Continued